Porterville, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Porterville Municipal Code § 15-24, the chapter's "other than gross receipts" fee schedule, lists item 27, Pawnbrokers, at a flat one hundred dollar ($100.00) fee paid every six months, regardless of the pawnshop's revenue. That places pawnbrokers among the roughly forty flat-rate categories in § 15-24 rather than the percentage-of-gross-receipts classifications A through D set out in the adjoining § 15-23, which instead apply to trades like junk dealers, secondhand dealers and hotels. The fee is collected under the same general license administration rules that govern the rest of Chapter 15: § 15-22 requires semiannual license taxes to be paid in advance on January 1 and July 1 of each year, and § 15-24(B) states that any business not specifically designated in the chapter defaults to licensing under § 15-23 instead, underscoring that the pawnbroker fee is a defined exception on the flat-rate schedule rather than a catch-all rate.

Chapter 15's finance department, through the city's license collector, administers billing and can pursue Chapter 15's general violation clause against a pawnshop operator who fails to obtain or renew the license before conducting business. The Porterville Police Department is the enforcing agency in practice for unlicensed pawn operations, since pawnshops handling secondhand or pledged property intersect with the code enforcement work that supports the department's oversight of dealers in used goods. Because § 15-24 lists the fee without a separate application or bonding procedure specific to pawnbrokers, an operator seeking a pawnbroker's license follows the chapter's general license application and payment process used for every fixed-fee category on the schedule.