§ 14.   [Exhibitions; license taxes.]
   The town is empowered[:]
   (a)   to regulate the holding of shows, carnivals, fairs and other similar public exhibitions, or to prohibit the holding of same, or any of them, within its corporate limits or within one mile thereof; [and]
   (b)   except as prohibited by general law, to impose and collect a license tax for the privilege of doing within the town anything upon which the State imposes a license tax[,] provided that the town may, unless expressly prohibited by general law, impose a higher license tax on any such thing, than that imposed by the State on the same thing, the amount of the license tax imposed by the town to be, in each instance, in the discretion of the council.