{"id":82467,"date":"2026-02-13T19:23:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/82467\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T19:23:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:23:28","slug":"new-increased-alcohol-licensing-fees-in-cairo-threaten-local-business-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/82467\/","title":{"rendered":"New increased alcohol licensing fees in Cairo threaten local business owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">CAIRO, Ga. (WCTV) &#8211; Cairo businesses are facing an increase in their alcohol license fees, which could affect their ability to sell alcohol, according to a letter from the city of Cairo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tracy Bauldree, owner of Berk\u2019s Billiards, said that she paid around $1,500 last year and it has now jumped to $2,700.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A letter from the city of Cairo states that local Cairo businesses are required to submit an Alcohol Renewal and Occupational Tax Renewal application in order to sell alcohol. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Cairo alcohol tax letter\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4VYVWT5EU5CELAWKOBC7ESRVXE.JPG\" width=\"980\" height=\"1306\" \/>Cairo alcohol tax letter(WCTV)<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Cairo alcohol tax letter\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/VV2O52OCW5CX3PW5MUNDEKQ2YA.JPG\" width=\"980\" height=\"1306\" \/>Cairo alcohol tax letter(WCTV)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The city said it must be taken care of by April 1st and presented in a council meeting on March 23rd, as it\u2019s the last council meeting before then.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bauldree has owned her business for about 9 months and she said that she and her husband can\u2019t afford the increase. They wish the city had given more notice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cA ridiculous amount you know to jump to and expect us to have to pay that in a month now had you done that a year ago \u2026and sent us the paperwork and said \u2018hey this is what the city\u2019s gonna do\u2019 to give all these businesses a chance to actually be there would have been more beneficial,&#8221; Bauldree said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Cairo City Manager Booker Gainor said the city discussed raising certain fees, including the alcohol fees, in a public meeting last July. Before this change, alcohol license fees would typically go out in January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-center article-text\">More news out of South Georgia:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIn July, the city \u2014 in a public meeting of course \u2014 voted to adopt a master fee schedule, that fee schedule was a comprehensive overview of all of the fees throughout the city,\u201d Gainor said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Although he shared that the city can take accountability for not communicating more with business owners about the rate change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cNotice was not given until January so we do take accountability there could have been an increased level of communication in between July and January,\u201d the city manager said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Bauldree said she\u2019s still hoping they\u2019ll reconsider and give an extension so they can make the payment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tune in to Eyewitness News at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. for the full story. This article will also be updated this evening with all the details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/02\/06\/new-increased-alcohol-licensing-fees-cairo-threaten-local-business-owners\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAIRO, Ga. (WCTV) &#8211; Cairo businesses are facing an increase in their alcohol license fees, which could affect&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21],"tags":[47781,47779,47778,47785,385,47780,47784,47783,47776,1982,47782,6712,96,42637,47777],"class_list":["post-82467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-egypt","tag-alcohol-license-fees-in-cairo","tag-alcohol-renewal-and-occupational-tax-renewal","tag-berks-billiards","tag-booker-gainor","tag-cairo","tag-cairo-business-owners","tag-cairo-city-manager","tag-cairo-city-manager-booker-gainor","tag-city-of-cairo","tag-egypt","tag-increased-alcohol-license-fees-in-cairo","tag-local","tag-news","tag-south-georgia","tag-tracy-bauldree"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116064957474621458","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}