Residents can voice their opinions about Pedal Pub’s inability to produce enough tax revenue to cover potential gross negligence claims against the city by contacting their city council members.
Columbus officials appear to be ignoring the financial insolvency of allowing Pedal Pub to operate its alcohol-laden tours within the Fountain City, as a single gross negligence lawsuit would likely wipe out all tax revenue the business could possibly produce.
Pedal Pub, a company that provides tours for patrons as they consume alcoholic beverages on functional city streets, has sought to have Columbus change its laws to allow its operation. The company has a questionable track record throughout the country due to accidents and lawsuits.
While different opinions clash over the legal and political issues surrounding the company’s operation here in Columbus, one mathematical fact seems to elude all sides of the argument: the company cannot produce enough tax revenue to cover even a single gross negligence lawsuit against the city.
We broke down the finances to find out just how much tax revenue Pedal Pub is even capable of producing at its absolute maximum capacity of operation, being as generous as possible to the business. We (very generously) assumed all fifteen of its seats would be full, at the highest ticket price available, providing eight tours per day, during all 365 days of the year.
The results are revealing.
Pedal Pub sells its most expensive tour seats for $39.95 each. With a total of fifteen seats available, the company can yield a maximum of $599.25 per tour.
Assuming the company chauffeurs 8 tours per day, the company can produce a maximum of $4,794 in daily gross revenue.
Muscogee County’s 5% portion of the 9% total sales tax allows a collection of $239.70 from Pedal Pub’s maximum daily gross revenue.
Being as generous as possible and assuming the company would be operating 365 days per year, Pedal Pub is capable of producing a maximum of only $87,490 per annum in tax revenue for the city of Columbus.
While the range varies widely depending on where you look, we have been able to estimate that the average settlement amount resulting from a municipal gross negligence lawsuit is roughly $100,000 per plaintiff, per occurrence.
With 15 passengers on board, a single gross negligence lawsuit filed against the city of Columbus for its allowance of Pedal Pub’s operation has the potential to result in a $1,500,000 total settlement for the hypothetical 15 plaintiffs on board.
Given that Pedal Pub is only capable of producing $87,490 per year in tax revenue for the city, it would take 18 years worth of operational tax revenue to cover just one single gross negligence lawsuit won or settled against the city.
We’ll say that again for clarity: It would take 18 years worth of tax revenue to cover a single gross negligence lawsuit.
Residents can voice their opinions about Pedal Pub’s inability to produce enough tax revenue to cover potential gross negligence claims against the city by contacting their city council members.
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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