Gilmer County’s hotel/motel excise tax moved one step closer to rising from 5 percent to 8 percent.
Gilmer County commissioners passed the first of two votes on the issue following a public hearing on the matter May 12.
Following conversations over the work session, public hearing and regular meeting with two cabin owners, commissioners moved up the implementation date from Aug. 1 to July 1.
Doug and Sandra Rink who own Sandy’s North Georgia Cabins and Kathy Crisp of Sliding Rock Properties, appeared at the meetings against the 3 percent increase.
“I think we are making a shortsighted move,” Doug Rink said.
He went on to tell commissioners there was a problem breaking a contract with people who had already reserved the cabin before the tax was implemented.
“Many of us already have a bunch of bookings in place,” he said. “To expect us to go back to the guest and go contrary to our contract, which is at risk to offending the guest and having them just cancel outright and say, ‘Well, I’ll go to Blue Ridge for 6 percent or Fannin County for 6 percent instead of feeding the greed down in Gilmer at 8 percent.’”
Kathy Crisp said rental companies were already seeing cancellations. She said the high occupancy achieved during COVID-19 was not going to be repeated.
Initially, at the work session, County Commission Chair Charlie Paris proposed allowing all reservations made before May 16 to remain at the 5 percent.
At the public hearing the next night, Doug Rink lamented more cabin owners had not shown up.
“We expected more people to show up tonight,” he said.
He revisited the tax being collected on current reservations saying the 3 percent additional tax had not been passed, thus he didn’t feel comfortable asking people for a proposed tax on their reservations.
His wife, Sandra Rink, said she had been in touch with an Airbnb representative, and they were voicing concerns about the tax and its implementation.
Crisp again said the market was declining and asked for a phased implementation of the tax, if at all.
Post Commissioner Hubert Parker proposed amending June 10 as a start date to begin collecting the increased tax for reservations made for Aug. 1 or beyond. Any reservations made before the date would remain at the 5 percent tax.
The group dissented again, saying they would still be asking for a task which wasn’t in effect.
“OK, you know, y’all are going to have little bit with us here, so far we have come all the way to your side twice and it hasn’t been enough,” Paris said.
Sandra Rink said there was just so much confusion, she would prefer a hard, fast date.
“I would be fine with that,” she said.
Parker proposed implementing the 8 percent tax on July 1 and any reservations made then or after were subject to 8 percent tax.
The first reading of the hotel/motel excise tax passed with an implementation date of July 1. Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson was calling in to the meeting and voted by phone.
As far as most guests are concerned, it should be an extra $8 to $9 on their bill, Paris said previously. A 3 percent increase on a $300 expenditure is $9.
Estimating the county’s revenue, using the 8 percent lodging tax and with the chamber percentage dropping to 45 percent, Gilmer County would receive an estimated $1.6 million, Gilmer County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jennifer Grimmer said at a January meeting. Roughly $500,000 would go toward tourism product development.
“The chamber will not benefit in any way from this increase and in fact will have less tax income and more restrictions, which the chamber feels is fair and timely given the increase of short-term rentals in Gilmer County,” said Grimmer at the January meeting. “To be clear, the chamber is not asking for increased funding. The chamber supports getting a far less percentage of the lodging tax and is happy to work with the county on those details going forward.”