Bellevue, NE Business Licensing & Operations: Tobacco Retail License (2026)

Section 11-3 puts the Bellevue city clerk in charge of tobacco retail licensing: every January, and at other times upon request, the clerk accepts applications from anyone selling cigars, tobacco, cigarettes or cigarette materials within the city. The clerk collects the license fee set in the Master Fee Schedule, issues the license once that fee is paid, and forwards the money to the treasurer of whichever school district lies wholly or partly within Bellevue, a carryover from the license's original 1964 Code purpose of funding local schools.

An applicant who waits until after July 1 of the calendar year to apply pays only half of the normal fee, prorating the license for the remainder of the year. Beyond the base license, § 11-4 layers on a separate administrative fee, in the amount set by the Master Fee Schedule, for processing and issuing each tobacco license; that fee is imposed under Neb. RS § 28-1421 (1943), the state statute governing retail sale of tobacco to minors, and must be deposited with the city clerk at the same time as the license fee itself.

The administrative fee is credited to the city's general fund rather than to the school district, keeping it separate from the underlying license fee's earmarked destination. Because § 11-3 was originally codified from the 1964 Code and last amended by Ordinance 3500 in 2009, the license and administrative fee apply uniformly to every retailer of cigars, tobacco, cigarettes and cigarette materials, including convenience stores and vape or e-cigarette retailers selling tobacco products, within Bellevue city limits.