While we didn’t much like the idea of a new city of Bend business license when the idea first came up last year, now that it’s part of city law, those who need the thing should make the effort to get it.

Nearly everyone doing business in Bend, from your accountant to the grocery store to the shop where you have your hair cut, is required to obtain the $50 license each year. Even home businesses, Internet businesses based in the city and businesses from outside the city, such as repair or delivery services that work inside the city limits, must pony up. Realtors are exempt, thanks to state law, and individuals who contract for space in places like beauty shops need not get them, though the shop owner must. Nonprofit agencies also are exempt from the fee, though they must register with the city.

The city got into the licensing game in part as a safety measure. Knowing where businesses are located and whether they are complying with city code should make the city a safer place to be, the thinking goes, though that remains to be seen.

At the same time, the prospect of beefing up the city’s ailing general fund was clearly a part of the attraction of adding the license. City councilors believed they could add as much as $335,000 from as many as 6,500 businesses to the fund each year when they adopted the license, money that would go to fund public safety services.

So far, that hasn’t happened. In fact, the city had collected only $137,200 by midweek, far short of what it expected, and businesses face a Dec. 31 deadline – today, actually, because city offices will be closed over the weekend – to obtain the license. While the city won’t begin imposing fines until August, those applying for the first time after Feb. 17 will have to pay for two years at once.

It’s unclear how the city expects to or can enforce the licensing requirement in the months ahead. It will be easy in some cases – a clearly visible shop downtown, for example, can be checked against a list of those who have obtained licenses. But home businesses and those from out of town likely will be far more difficult to track down.

Enforcement won’t be a serious problem if those subject to the licensing ordinance take it upon themselves to obey the law without being pressured to do so. They should. The requirement is, after all, the law.