News | Peachtree City

PTC to consider hike in hotel-motel tax from 6% to 8%

Tue, 01/19/2010 - 5:07pm
By: John Munford

Peachtree City’s hotel-motel tax may be on the verge of an increase.

The City Council will consider Thursday night whether the city should hike the rate from the current 6 percent to 8 percent.

Based on the current 2009-2010 budget, the action would raise an additional $256,000 over the entire budget year, according to city estimates. Of that $256,000, the city’s would realize an increase in its general fund of $128,027, which is 50 percent above the $256,054 currently being collected under the 6 percent rate.

The 8 percent rate, the highest allowed under Georgia law, allows for up to 3 percentage points to be diverted to the general fund. Under the city’s current 6 percent rate, only 2 of those percentage points can be directed to the general fund.

If approved by council, the increase must be approved by the Georgia legislature before it could take effect.

Council will also consider reconfiguring the distribution of the revenue according to a 2008 law that allows it to set aside hotel-motel tax funds for “tourism product and development.”

As currently budgeted for this year, the city would then be able to set aside $192,000 for such tourism product development. The funds can be used on parks, trails and other recreation facilities in addition to a host of tourism functions performed by private businesses, including golf courses, sports stadiums, meeting and convention facilities, according to a memo city staff provided to council members.

The tourism product funds can also be used for visitor information and welcome centers such as the one operated by the Peachtree City Tourism Association.

Currently a part of the hotel-motel tax is distributed to the tourism association and another part goes to the city’s Airport Authority for the operation of Falcon Field. Those figures would decrease slightly under the proposed increase to 8 percent.

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Hotel Motel Tax Increase
Submitted by Hope Hopeless on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 3:17pm.

It is always easy to believe that increasing the Hotel Motel Tax is a great way to increase revenues. It is not paid by the citizens of the community, but rather those people who come to our city either as visitors or companies doing business in our community, so we are not increasing taxes on our citizens. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If the City Council increases the Hotel Motel Tax, they will more than likely get less revenue Year over Year, as people will pick other cities to host events, such as tennis tournaments, baseball, soccer tournament. They will not be able to sell to large conferences that have been the backbone of the Wyhdham Hotel & Conference Center and Dolce-Atlanta Peachtree Conference Center. Other Conference Centers such as the one at Stone Mountain, Cobb County, and surrounding cities in the state will be gaining what we are sending away. Those large government conference that have been the main stay in recent years, will elect to go somewhere else. The sporting events that are already going to Henry and Clayton County will continue to host their events there instead of coming back to Fayette County.

Then you have the companies who have reduced travel in the past year, who are just starting to have travel back into our community. They will be sending people out and not bringing them into Peachtree City. It would be cheaper to send the travellers of World Airways, NCR, Pitney Bowes, Avery Dennison, Wilden Plastics, Rinnai, Hella, & Hoshizaki to other locations besides Peachtree City. This is not even taking into consideration the smaller companies that make up the Peachtree City Business Community.

The decision to increase hotel/motel taxes will not only hurt the local hotels in Peachtree City, it will hurt local restaurants and retail business as well. If we have less visitor staying in our hotels then there will be less guests using restuarants and shopping in Peachtree City. This is the begining of the rock that falls down the hill, taking out everything in its path.

Less visitors, means less revenue...so would you rather have 13% of the increasing volume of business coming into Peachtree City or would you enjoy the decrease revenue and the 14 to 15% tax. It has been shown in other cities that by increasing the hotel motel tax, you generated less revenue from the hotels and the Incidental revenues that come from visitors to our city.

The City Council is trying to make decisions that will hurt our city for many years. Once you make a decision like this, it will impact the hospitality business and our local restaurants and retail. Which can in turn cause an increase in unemployment for our citizens.

It is bad enough that we lost Panasonic to Mexico, and our City Government did nothing to try and keep it in Peachtree City. This caused many to lose their jobs, can we really afford to lose more by the action of this newly elected City Council and Mayor? They table pay increase, but what to put more people out of work, by increasing a tax to the hotel motel guests/visitor/companies.

Your voice needs to be heard by the City Council & Mayor...let them know that we cannot afford the increase in taxes to our visitors...Help defeat the Hotel Motel Tax Increase.

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Haddix: Hope Hopeless
Don Haddix's picture
Submitted by Don Haddix on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 7:32pm.

Reality is PTC, County, State and the Feds all made efforts to keep the Panasonic jobs here. All those parities were present in one meeting alone, of which I was a participant. They rejected all the efforts because it was cheaper to manufacturer in Mexico. So it is completely erroneous to say no effort has been made to change their minds.

On the Hotel/Motel the research of an increase and/or just a change to the new H/M system at the present level is only one part of efforts to increase stays and shopping in PTC where the occupancy rate has been in decline for awhile now, running in the 50 to 55% rate, which is barely the break even rate. The upcoming opening of another hotel is not going to improve those statistics.

There are more numbers and information in this mix than just the Hotel/Motel rate. Staff is gathering those as part of the research as well. Even further we will be meeting with the hotels and motels to discuss the various components of the total package being worked on.

What isn't working is the status quo or saying this is just a tax increase.

Just an FYI.

Don Haddix
Mayor Peachtree City


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Hope Hopeless
Mike King's picture
Submitted by Mike King on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 3:38pm.

An increase in hotel/motel taxes over the long haul will actually reduce revenue. Placing it as high as eight percent will put it right up there with areas that actually have 'captive' audiences. We in Peachtree City do not have that luxury, except for the training center at NCR.

Surely, our Council will see this as detrimental to our long term financial health. One never knows however.

Hopefully, you will attend Mr Imker's little wing-ding at city hall tomorrow at 2:00 as I intend to be there.


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many municipalties areound us are charging what ?
Submitted by jackyldo on Sat, 01/30/2010 - 8:39am.

http://www.dca.state.ga.us/development/research/programs/hotelmoteltax.asp

7 and 8 per cent are not uncommon ..

As a traveler and a person booked many places by Corporate travel professionals.. You stay where it is convenient for conducting businesses.
If your doing business with a Peachtree City company you stay within a short drive. If your in town for training at NCR you don't stay in John's Creek or Sandy Springs because their motel tax is 1 % less.

For personal travel (tennis and soccer tournaments) if your room is $100 a night the difference between paying $6.00 in tax or $8.00 in tax pales to the cost of gas when your car is getting 20 mpg.. and you can save $2.00 a night staying over in Douglasville.

Bottom line is the tax is an add on and most business people , and corporate accounting people don't even blink at it.

Saving Panasonic's jobs by the way was the fact of life that drove most businesses to low cost countries. That they could make the same product and sell it to their customer for the same price while keeping or improving their margin in the manufacturing process.

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