MINNEAPOLIS — With concerns over inflation affecting business owners nationwide, food truck owners in Hennepin County are sounding the alarm.
According to online documents from the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners meeting Monday afternoon, for most vendors, there's a proposed fee increase of 2% for food, beverage and retail tobacco sales in 2023.
For food trucks, it's nearly 44%.
"That's a huge increase," said Jessica Jenkins-Fast, with the Minnesota Food Truck Association.
Online county documents show the 2022 current fee is $156 and the proposed fee for next year would increase to $225 dollars.
"Basically, any food truck that was licensed in Hennepin County this season received a postcard in the mail one to two weeks ago, basically explaining a fee increase," she said. "We just want to know why."
According to a spokesperson for Hennepin County, the Mobile Food Unit high-risk category is a special category used for food trucks that have a license with another agency. The county provides the same services for these food trucks as a "brick-and-mortar" restaurant and the county says the current $156 fee comes "nowhere close to recovering the cost of the services we provide."
They went on to say:
"The MN Department of Health (MDH) recently completed a fee comparison across the state for Mobile Food Unit (with plan review services) and the median cost was $510 – with a range as high as $1,220.00 in Minneapolis.
This special category we created (about 4-5 years ago), is an attempt to reduce costs to food truck owners by removing the plan review cost. Even at the proposed $225 fee, it's less than 50% of the median cost of the MDH fee survey, and helps recover some of the costs of the services the county provides."
Jenkins-Fast says for food trucks operating in any one of the cities in Hennepin County once or multiple times, could yield license/permit fees as high as $2,100 amid several applications. She says some areas of the metro could see operational costs of up to $4,000.
Kevin Anderson, commissioner of the 7th District, raised a question about the fee-increase proposal for food trucks during Monday's meeting.
"I was curious about the rationale for the larger jump for the food trucks?" he said.
Duane Hudson, program manager at Hennepin County, replied saying, the hike "aids to recovering the costs of services provided by the county," which he says includes "inspection services, complaint services, food and waterborne illness services, 24/7 emergency response services."
Hudson went on to say, "In essence, it's a kitchen on wheels so we have to drive around and provide those same services we would to brick-and-mortar."
"Food truck owners out there: What are they saying to this news? What are they thinking right now?" asked KARE 11's Charmaine Nero.
"It's more of the straw that broke the camel's back," said Jenkins-Fast. "They're upset because this is happening everywhere and so, inside of Hennepin County, you have cities that also charge food trucks to operate there," she said. "Food trucks are small businesses — their margins are really small. Again, they have a shorter season than everyone else."
As for what's next?
"Seeing if there's anything that we can do or get some sort of legislative change, 'cause I think that's what it's going to take," said Jenkins-Fast.
Jenkins-Fast showed KARE 11 a letter sent out to food truck owners saying Monday's meeting was "closed" to the public.
KARE 11 asked Hennepin County officials about this. They issued a statement saying, according to Hennepin County Environmental Health staff, "Food truck operators were notified of the change and the opportunity to give input."
During Monday's meeting, commissioners said public comments received via phone would be addressed at Wednesday's meeting on Nov 2.
A spokesperson with Hennepin County says the proposals are part of the budget process, meaning they will be adopted in some form during the final meeting on Dec. 15.
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