By Philip Haldiman | Your Valley
The now months-long battle over the amusement tax in Peoria continues to leave the city and some business owners at odds.
On one side, the city says there have been significant concessions in some audits they have conducted, and on the other side, the local business community says the city is misinterpreting the tax code.
At issue is a number of businesses that say they owe several years worth of back taxes under section 12-410 of Peoria’s city code, referred to as an amusement tax.
The commonality among these merchants is that they had no clue what the amusement tax was until a bill arrived at their door claiming they had never paid it.
Local businesses affected by this tax spoke out at the Oct. 10 city council meeting, and the city called a study session to discuss the issue Oct. 17.
