Two stories have emerged as to why a bill to increase Peachtree City’s hotel-motel tax rate failed to pass the Georgia Senate this year.
City Councilman Eric Imker contends the inaction cost the city approximately $130,000 this budget year. That’s the amount that the increase would have added to the city’s general fund.
Imker at the May 5 council meeting reported that Republican Sen. Ronnie Chance told him that Chance signed the bill, but fellow Sen. Valencia Seay, who represents a portion of north Fayette County, failed to do so.
However, Sen. Seay, a Democrat, told Imker a different story, saying that she didn’t need to sign the bill but a Senate committee chairman failed to move the bill for a
full vote on the Senate floor.
Mayor Don Haddix said he was told that Chance does not sit on the committee that forwards bills to the Senate floor for a vote, and that the committee’s chairman didn’t do so because Seay had not signed off with her support.
The person in charge of that committee is Sen. Butch Miller, a Republican from Gainesville.
“So we have two senators who are not representing our city, and Mr. Butch Miller, who are determining Peachtree City’s fate?”
“Yes,” replied Haddix.
The bill enacting the tax increase also would have slightly changed the percentages of funding for the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Peachtree City Airport Authority.
There is a possibility the matter may be taken up in a special session later this summer that is dedicated to the matter of redistricting the lines for state legislative seats and also Georgia’s Congressional districts at the federal level.
