Newport Beach is waiving the business license fees for those that were forced by the state to close at least once during the COVID-19 pandemic. The waiver applies to about 1,850 businesses within city limits and for business license tax renewals processed between April 1 and March 31, 2022. City council unanimously approved the one-year reprieve during its March 23 meeting. “Thank you to the mayor for bringing this forward and making sure that our businesses see some relief as we move forward into this coming year and hopefully continue to see our businesses survive in the coming year [and] thrive as well,” Councilmember Will O’Neill said during the meeting. “We’ve obviously seen substantial business interruption over the last year due to both the pandemic and the state’s response to the pandemic.” Waiving the license fees is set to cost the city about $667,000, with revenue loses to be backfilled by budget surplus funds. Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Muldoon said would like to …