Business taxes are hereby imposed upon all businesses, professions, trades, vocations, enterprises, establishments, occupations, or callings conducting business in the city to which a business tax may lawfully apply, in the amount of fifty cents per thousand dollars of gross receipts. It shall be unlawful for any person to transact and carry on any business, trade, vocation, enterprise, establishment, occupation, or calling in the city not otherwise exempt without first having procured a business tax certificate from the city or complying with all of the applicable provisions of this chapter.

The business tax certificate shall be evidence only of the fact that such business tax has been paid. Neither the payment of the business tax nor the possession of the business tax certificate shall authorize, permit, or allow the doing of any act which the person paying or holding such business tax certificate would not otherwise be entitled to do; nor shall it be construed as permission to conduct or carry on a business at any place within the city where the conducting or carrying on of such business is prohibited or fails to comply with the city’s zoning, planning, or building regulations, nor shall it be construed as permission to conduct or carry on a business in such a manner as to create or maintain a nuisance. (Ord. 1202 § 2, 1991)