Today the Patch reported that Mayor Foster will be proposing later this month to raise 60 existing fees and add 29 new fees, most of them aimed at St. Petersburg businesses. It seems that Foster has gone "fee-crazy" while he is also pushing for a massive new "fire readiness fee", and less than a year after raising dozens of permitting related fees as well as adding new ones. Add on to this the hundreds of new parking meters he added, as well as his doubling of the parking meter rates and the raised parking fines he pushed for to punish the "spoiled" residents of St. Petersburg.
This latest fee assault is mostly aimed at businesses, but it also targets the city's dog-friendly restaurants. Yes, you read that correctly, one of the new fees is going to be a "Dog Dining Permit" that any restaurant which allows outside dining will have to pay for to allow patrons to eat with their dogs while outside. This will affect hundreds of businesses around the city with outside seating, and if a restaurant doesn't pay for the new permit, they are subject to up to a $1000 fine if a dog is seen in their outside dining area.
For a full list of the proposed new and raised fees, here is a link to the city website.
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