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Teens trying to earn spending money by cutting grass now have to buy a $110 business license in Gardendale, Ala.
“I have never heard of a child cutting grass who had to have a business license,” resident Elton Campbell told ABC 33. Campbell’s granddaughter cuts grass around the neighborhood as a summer job.
Incredibly, teenage entrepreneurs have been threatened with prosecution by city officials and professional lawn-mowing services the news station reported.
“One of the men that cuts several yards made a remark to one of our neighbors, ‘that if he saw her cutting grass again that he was going to call Gardendale because she didn’t have a business license,’” Campbell said.
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The granddaughter, Alainna Parris, said the city law is counterintuitive.
“He’s coming after a kid when a kid is at least trying to do work,” Parris said. “There’s kids at home on iPads and electronics and not wanting to go outside.”
Campbell is concerned because many teens cannot afford the $110 business license.
“She charges one lady $20, and another lady $30, and another girl $40 besides what we pay her,” Campbell said of Alainna.
The mayor confirmed the laws existence.
“I would love to have something on our books that gave a more favorable response to that student out there cutting grass,” Gardendale Mayor Stan Hogeland told ABC 33. “And see if there’s maybe a temporary license during the summer months that targets teenagers.”
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