Hotel/Motel Tax receives final approval with start date change
News June 14, 2022
ELLIJAY, Ga. – A topic that that began last December when the Board of Commissioners heard options of potentially raising the county’s Hotel/Motel Tax will see its final stages of adoption in the next 30 days before the start date.
June saw the final adoption of the change and implementation will move forward with a ratification of the contract, implementing the Chambers change in percentage, and the actual start date of the tax change. To that end, County Attorney David Clark noted that there may be a Special Called Meeting to formally ratify that before the start date.
In January 2022, the official motion and approval came to begin a change in the Hotel/Motel Tax from five percent to eight percent and included tourism product development (TPD) Projects. Then, in April 2022, when t he county began advertising the change, another change was introduced as Clark stated that stays up to 30 days can be considered “short term rentals.”
The Commissioners held discussion this month, June 2022, during their Regular Meeting as to the official start date. Since last month, that date has been set to July 1, 2022. However, discussion upon the wording in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA), and its reference to earliest implementation being the second month following adoption. the county questioned whether to postpone the start date to August to be sure.
Post Commissioner Hubert Parker questioned the postponement saying that he felt like the county might be confusing or causing issues with changing the dates again. The date was at one point discussed at August as was a segmented start date revolving around reservation times versus the actual date of stay but this changed to July last month after cabin owners pushed for a single hard start date and said they were agreeable to July.
Now, as commissioners discussed the OCGA wording, Commission Chairman Charlie Paris said that he would prefer August just to be absolutely sure the comply with the code. Advice from attorney Clark said that he felt July would be in compliance, but also agreed that August would be the safer option as he has seen litigation over minute wordings.
Parker said that since the July 1 start date hasn’t passed, he felt they wouldn’t cause major harm with the change and so he “could live with it.”
Official motion came from Chairman Paris to approve the final adoption of the Hotel/Motel Tax increase on August 1, 2022. The county is still likely to hold a special meeting for the ratification of the contract but official adoption has been approved and is in motion with a concrete date.
County adjusts Hotel/Motel tax dates as cabin owners speak
News May 17, 2022
GILMER COUNTY, Ga. – With the Hotel/Motel tax change well underway, May saw cabin owners requesting adjustments to the change with the public hearing and first reader in the BOC meetings.
Questions arose among speakers asking the board to not go fully to eight percent right away, but instead staging a smaller increase and potentially returning to the increase later if still needed. Another request saw different speakers telling the board about added stress from having to go back to people who have or will make reservations before the change takes place. The date of implementation became the main focus of discussions from the county’s work session to public hearing to the regular meeting in Citizen’s Wishing to Speak.
Originally, the board looked to have the change begin a soft implementation this week that would see rentals informing those making reservations for a stay after August 1 about the tax increase and the charge would be added to their stay as it occurs after the August 1 implementation date. This idea came out of the county’s work session on May 11, 2022. However, during the Public Hearing and Regular Session on May 12, 2022, rental owners returned to oppose the implementation and the county asking them to “collect a tax that isn’t implemented yet.”
Debates continued over the official implementation of the tax and a specific date rather than implementation in stages or the possibility of retroactive implementation. Speakers also debated the difficulty of including Airbnb and VRBO into the collection so quickly.
Post 1 Commissioner Hubert Parker noted that the tax has been discussed and information has been going out since December and implementation is not coming as a surprise to the county.
Board of Commissioners Chairman Charlie Paris said in the public hearing, “I would be sympathetic to the idea that this hasn’t been approved yet and it’s not a tax yet and perhaps we need to do that first.” Paris called for some give on both sides so that everyone could feel it was implemented properly and be able to walk away “not mad.”
Parker also said he would be agreeable to a set date. With the presumption of a final reader in the June meeting, the BOC looked at implementation on July 1, 2022.
Instead of stage implementation looking at reservation made date and the date of the stay, speakers looked for a single hard date to say any reservations made before this date follow the past rule and those made after that date follow the eight percent tax. The noted concerns of trying to follow two different rules at once depending on when the stay date is.
The official motion to approve the first reader came in the regular meeting supporting the implementation of a single date, July 1, 2022, to impose the tax increase on all reservations made on July 1, 2022, and after, regardless of the actual date of the stay.
Gilmer begins process to change hotel/motel tax
News April 17, 2022
GILMER COUNTY, Ga. – With the information made available in December 2021, and the decision to move forward made in January 2022, the Board of Commissioners officially approved a motion this month to authorize County Attorney David Clark to begin revisions to the Excise Tax on Rooms, Lodging’s and Accommodations Ordinance.
The motion comes with new information on the change as the final process begins for changing the tax. However, even that won’t be the final step as Clark said the Governor will need to sign this as well. With final county approval potentially occurring in June, Clark said that July 1, 2022, could likely be the actual change date of the tax depending on when the Governor signs. In January’s meeting, it was stated that the approval in the county’s meeting is for the resolution to be sent for approval in state legislation. This was included in the formal motion and approval of a change in the Hotel/Motel Tax came in January as the county was looking into the concept.
Going from five percent to eight percent and including tourism product development (TPD) Projects, this change is also bringing along a change in stay length. Clark reported to the board that Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sandi Holden noticed a change needed for the updated ordinance.
Currently, the ordinance applies to stays up to ten days, however, with changes in the state, Clark stated that stays up to 30 days can be considered “short term rentals.” The county will also be adding this change alongside the increase in percentage.
As for the application of these changes, Paris clarified in the county’s regular meeting after questioning the county attorney. Any rentals scheduled after July 1 will be subject to the new changes. This means that even reservations made before July will fall under the new changes if the stay occurs after the change date.
While the July 1 date is still currently an estimate due to potential delays either from the state or local governance or if the process delays with citizens input, the county only used that date as the assumption for the clarifications. The TPDs listed for the county to pursue in 2022 include Parks, Trails, Wayfinding Signage, and Recreation facilities. However, Clark estimated that with the collection beginning in July, it could be September before the county starts realizing that change in their financial reports. Meaning it could be fall before the county could begin working on those projects.
Hotel/Motel Tax raised in Gilmer BOC special meeting
News January 30, 2022
ELLIJAY, Ga. – A special called meeting of Gilmer’s Board of Commissioners saw the official motion and approval of a change in the Hotel/Motel Tax from five percent to eight percent and included tourism product development (TPD) Projects.
The meeting saw the continued discussion of the topic that was brought up last year after Gilmer Chamber President and CEO Jennifer Grimmer responded to Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson’s request for information. Grimmer had already provided information to the cities at their request and delivered similar to the BOC.
In December 2021, Grimmer said that going above five percent in the tax opens up tourism product development (TPD) options. Grimmer explained that this fund could be used to build or improve things like river access, signage, parking lots, public bathrooms, and other projects. Gilmer is currently 100 percent marketing and does not use any of the funds for tangible or “brick-and-mortar” improvements.
With this approval, certain areas have to be listed for general guidance on projects for the county to pursue. The board stated that the project list can change from year to year, but the county is to disclose the general ideas where they will use the TPD options to fund. They noted that approval in the county’s meeting is for the resolution to be sent for approval in state legislation. In fact, Post Commissioner Hubert Parker’s motion for approval included submitting the request to Speaker David Ralston.
These stated projects were labeled as Parks, Trails, and Recreation facilities. Though throughout the meeting, the board’s exploration of projects lead to additional funding for the pool and wayfinding signage. Additionally, 18% of the funds collected must be used for the TPD projects.
Recently, the county’s pool project has failed to see real progress as bids for the project have not received any submissions. The board discussed that some questions to those interested said the addition of a diving well had some affect on their decisions. The diving well would increase project costs and liability costs for the county. Brief discussions still saw interest from board members to pursue the diving well if possible.
Additionally, in the special meeting’s Citizens Wishing to Speak section, the board heard a presentation from Robert Ferguson about his recent attendance of the Gilmer Chamber’s “Leadership Gilmer” course. Robert said that part of the course was to find a project to work on to improve the county. He went on to add that his project that he worked on with a group of people in the course was wayfinding signage. Providing handouts and extra documentation, Robert noted the abundance of signage in Ellijay for different things including a large portion of real estate signage. He also noted a lack of signage for visitors to utilize in increasing tourism guidance.
The addition of more wayfinding signage would help visitors quickly navigate to sites like local businesses, vineyards, the downtown area, and even historic places like the Tabor House. Though not a part of this same project, it is something the Chamber has noted as helpful and important for those unfamiliar with our county. Having inspected signage on their own, the Chamber recently updated signage on the Highway 515 Welcome Center and main office in the last year.
These two projects were a current focus for the Board of Commissioners with TPD, but they also discussed future possible projects briefly. Ultimately, with the project list updated annually, they elected to focus on the 2022 projects and push discussion for 2023 to a later date. Additionally, sending the resolution to state legislation requires the current project list and County Attorney David Clark noted that this change would not be finalized and implemented until Georgia’s Governor signs the bill into law. This could occur in May or later.
After signing, Clark said there is a notification period as well. If the signing is delay, the change could occur as late as September of 2022.
Grimmer also returned to speak at the Special Meeting offering information. She noted that TPD funding could have doubled in 2021 according to projections. She reasserted to the BOC that the Gilmer Chamber was a point of information on the subject with no financial interest as the increase would lower the Chambers percentage received in order to balance out to the same collection.
It was noted that while the Parks, Trails, and Recreation facilities denoted as projects are considerations and the county is not bound to complete projects in all the areas. However, they cannot work on projects outside of those areas until added to the list during the annual discussions.
County hears option to raise Hotel/Motel Tax
News December 15, 2021
ELLIJAY, Ga. – Having prepared presentations for the two cities upon request, Gilmer Chamber President and CEO Jennifer Grimmer spoke to the Board of Commissioners in December on Hotel/Motel Tax after being questioned on the subject by Post 2 Commissioner Karleen Ferguson.
Grimmer had prepared a presentation for the City of Ellijay, she said that she examined both cities and the county along with the study she did. Grimmer also prepared the comparisons to provide the information to the Board of Commissioners according to Ferguson. The county has made no motions or even had an agenda item to discuss changing the Hotel/Motel Tax as this topic came after a report to the board during its monthly meeting.
Grimmer had reported on the Chamber’s year and on the budget looking into next year as they continue marketing plans for the county. Set as an update and discussion item, Ferguson asked Grimmer to explain the comparisons and what it would mean if Gilmer County raised its Hotel/Motel Tax.
Ferguson called the numbers “pretty dramatic” and said they could help the county’s general fund in accomplishing some projects that the county has been unable to do yet.
Grimmer told the board that the topic came up as the City of Ellijay asked for her expertise on the topic. While the Chamber did not initiate the conversation, they do have several tools and resources monitoring rentals, rooms, and similar lodging and their effects on the community. As part of her original report, before the question of the tax arose, Grimmer had just discussed with the county averages such as how much an average cabin owner can make and tracking for how much of the county’s lodging capacity is being used or estimated to be on certain weekends.
Gilmer Chamber President and CEO Jennifer Grimmer
But moving to the topic on the tax itself, Grimmer said that going above five percent in the tax opens up tourism product development (TPD) options. Grimmer explained that this fund could be used to build or improve things like river access, signage, parking lots, public bathrooms, and other projects. Gilmer is currently 100 percent marketing and does not use any of the funds for tangible or “brick-and-mortar” improvements.
The county could go up to eight percent tax in Georgia. Grimmer explained that at six percent tax, the funds are split between the DMO (Destination Marketing Organization, i.e. the Chamber), the county, and TPD. Grimmer explained that the state sets the Chambers portion doesn’t change from 5 percent to 8 percent so they are virtually unaffected, but increasing the total tax increases the portion of TPD up to 15 percent.
Grimmer reported that Blue Ridge is at 8 percent tax with Fannin at 6 percent. Currently Ellijay and Gilmer are at 5 percent. East Ellijay is at 3 percent.
As for whether the county is actually moving forward on the subject, Post 1 Commissioner Hubert Parker said he wanted to know more about what the county might run into if they move ahead with adjusting the tax. With plans to revisit the topic on future agendas, the county is set to look deeper into the topic before making its official decision.