DALTON, Ga. — Seven years after the official end of the Great Recession, members of the Dalton City Council may be ready to reimpose the city’s occupational tax on new businesses.

Dalton employers pay a flat tax of $100 plus an amount for each worker that decreases as the number of employees rises. The tax is $20 for each worker up to 25, $18 for each additional worker for the next 25 and so on.

In 2010, in an effort to stimulate the formation of new businesses, the City Council exempted firms from having to pay that tax during their first year.

Current City Council members are scheduled to vote on an ordinance that would once again require new businesses to pay the tax when the council members meet on Monday.

“While we aren’t completely back to where we were, things have turned around quite a bit,” said Mayor Dennis Mock. “And it’s only fair that we tax all businesses the same.”

Council members said they did not know of any estimates on how much revenue the change will create.

“I really don’t think it will be that much,” said council member Gary Crews. “We aren’t looking at it as a revenue measure anyway. It’s more of a fairness issue.”

Both men said they have not received any complaints about the plan from local businesses.

Carl Campbell, executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority, said he doesn’t expect the change will have a large impact on the city’s economic climate.

“I’d probably go to the side of don’t add any costs to business that you don’t have to,” he said. “But it’s my understanding that this is a marginal cost, and it’s a cost that the vast majority of businesses are already paying. And that all new businesses have been paying from year two going forward.”