The Fannin County Board of Commissioners will soon move forward with the process to raise the county’s lodging tax from 5% to 6%.
The board met with members of the lodging community and Chamber of Commerce President Jan Hackett in a workshop meeting last year to discuss a raise in the tax. After discussing a 6% rate, they requested Georgia’s General Assembly to pass legislation to allow them to do so.
“The discussion as I remember it, and as Ms. Hackett remembers it, is 6%, but what was in the resolution, and what the state legislator approved, was not to exceed 7%,” County Attorney Lynn Doss said. “So you could go to 6% in this revision or you could go to 7%. If you went to 6%, the extra penny is still out there. Then, at a later point in time there could be a revision, and it could go up. We wouldn’t have to go back to the state legislator to do that.”
Chairman Stan Helton said that the original intention, following the workshop meeting, was to go up to 6%.
“We had the cabin rental folks in here, and they all felt that 1% was something they could sell and 2% was a stretch for now,” Helton said. “That would be a tremendous increase into the General Fund for both the county and the Chamber of Commerce.”
Following public meetings for input, if passed, the increase will begin at the start of 2021.
In other action, the board voted to accept the lowest bid, from Colditz Trucking, for the re-paving, re-striping and leveling projects on Sugar Creek Road, Curtis Switch Road and Galloway Road. In total, the work will cost $1,318,269.11.
Public Works Director Zack Ratcliff explained that there would be no extension of shoulder on Galloway Road, but that there would be an extension on the other two roads.
The board will also fund $320 feet of additional fencing at the Recreation Department as part of their current SPLOST renovation project. This request was made by Recreation Director Eddie O’Neal for $7,200.
They also voted to appoint Lisa Hood to the Fannin County Development Authority Board at the request of Executive Director Christie Gribble. Hood will replace Richard Wagner, who is coming off the board.