Santa Maria, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

395 sets the annual license tax for anyone carrying on the business of lending money secured by a pledge of personal property, or operating a pawnshop, at $300. The section defines "pawnbroker" broadly to include anyone managing, conducting, or carrying on the business of loaning money, for himself or for another, who takes goods, wares, or merchandise as pledge or pawn security, and also anyone who buys personal property and resells or agrees to resell it to vendors or their assigns at a price agreed on at or before the purchase, covering both pawn lending and buy-resell secondhand operations under the same license category.

The section exempts persons already exempt from municipal license taxes under state or federal law. Every pawnbroker must keep a book, written legibly in English, recording at the time of each purchase, pledge, or receipt: a true and accurate description of the article; the name, residence, and description of the person from whom it was received; the amount paid; and the date and hour of the transaction. That book must be preserved intact for one year from the date of the last entry and shown to any City police officer on request, giving police a running, inspectable record of pawned and secondhand goods moving through the shop.

The City Council holds the power to revoke a pawnbroker's license without notice, and if a license is revoked, the unused portion of the license fee already paid is forfeited to the City rather than refunded.