LEWISTON – For many local businesses, it’s tough enough to turn a profit. But with the city’s recently enacted stormwater fee, some of those precious revenues are literally going down the drain.

Faced with mounting costs for maintenance and upgrades to the city’s stormwater utility system, city leaders adopted a new fee – dubbed a “rain tax” by opponents – that assesses each property for its impact on the city’s drainage system. Homeowners get charged a flat $30. But businesses and nonprofits must pay 4.4 cents per square foot of paved surface.

For the sprawling Wal-Mart Distribution Center, that’s a $97,000 annual bill. For smaller businesses like Federal Distributors, it’s over $8,000. At Country Lane trailer park, it’s $29,000.

Promotional products manufacturer Geiger expects to pay in the range of $20,000 – a new tax that Vice President Peter Geiger said doesn’t make it any easier to succeed in a global market.

“It makes us less competitive to do business here in Maine, and even less competitive to be in Lewiston,” said Geiger. “I understand the reason behind it, but it’s another tax plopped on you.”

City officials first backed out the stormwater utility costs from the municipal budget, lowering the total funds that needed to be raised through property taxes. Then the storm-water fees were assessed separately to homeowners, businesses and nonprofits.

Nonprofit organizations were intentionally included in the storm-water fee catch basin as a way to get the tax-free entities to contribute in repairing a system that they help strain. Nonprofits are expected to pay about 9 percent of the storm-water costs. Bates College is charged $62,500; St. Mary’s Hospital, $28,200. The city’s user fee of $145,800 tops the list.

Paul Spellman, chief operating officer at Federal Distributors, empathizes with the city’s effort to spread responsibility for upgrading the system. For many businesses, the lower property tax bill coupled with the separate stormwater bill were supposed to be a wash.

“In our case, our real estate taxes went down, but not nearly enough to offset the new fee,” said Spellman, whose storm-water bill tops $8,500. “I’m not thrilled by the idea, but I understand the big picture behind it.”

A challenge by some residents to the stormwater fee was dropped in January, clearing the way for the first wave of quarterly bills to go out. Dave Jones, director of public services, said the reaction from the business community has been mixed.

“Even the ones who are getting higher total bills seem to understand it and how it works,” he said. “But I know it’s more out of pocket for them and they’re not happy. That’s understandable.”

Next year’s budget proposal includes a hike in the storm-water fees for homeowners ($30 to $40), but no corresponding increase for businesses because of the initial impact on commercial taxpayers. There have been just a few businesses, including the Hill and Continental mills owners, who have applied for credits to the fee, said Jones. Wal-Mart Distribution Center, which built a state-of-the-art storm-water treatment system on site, has not applied for a credit as yet.

“They may be eligible because of all the work they did,” said Jones. “I have talked to them about it.”

Alan Hanley, general manager at the distribution center, said the matter is with the corporate tax division of Wal-Mart.

Chip Morrison, president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, said many of his members complained privately about the new fee when it was rolled out last fall. He lodged a formal complaint on behalf of his membership during council discussions, but it wasn’t enough to get the city to back off the idea.

Morrison said he wasn’t aware of any other formal action by the chamber, although some members are discussing it among themselves.

“I encourage them to speak up,” he said. “They represent a lot of employees and a lot of the tax base. In private conversations I’ve had with some, they’re pretty upset.”

Geiger knows how they feel. Although the famed publisher of the Farmers’ Almanac loves being in Lewiston and plans to continue growing its 400-employee operation here, it would be nice if there were a break once in a while. The storm-water fee comes on the heels of a $30,000-$50,000 increase in the company’s Dirigo health care fees.

At the time the rain tax was introduced, Geiger asked his ward councilor questions and proposed that the new fee have a sunset provision so that once the stormwater system upgrades were made, the tax could be modified or eliminated.

But that didn’t happen.

“Maybe the city has no other option, but it’s unfortunate that’s how the system works,” he said. “It’s yet another tax.”