Short-term vacation rentals will soon be taxed in Bibb County 

Editor’s note: In October 2018, the Macon-Bibb County Commission approved extending the county’s hotel and motel tax to short-term vacation rentals, with the change taking effect Jan. 1, 2019. The daily occupancy tax reported in this story is an additional charge on top of that existing tax.

Macon-Bibb County commissioners voted Tuesday to change the county code to tax short-term vacation rentals, a measure expected to rake in $2.5 million in revenue each year.

The tax on Airbnb and Vrbo rentals is $3 per night but only $1.50 per night for people who book reservations for a week or longer, assistant county attorney Michael McNeill said. The tax will not apply to long-term hotel residents, and revenue will be “paid generally by out-of-town folks,” he said.

Visit Macon President and CEO Gary Wheat told commissioners tourism has grown 29% in the four years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Obviously we want to see that investment continue in our community,” Wheat said, adding the money collected will be used to “enhance that infrastructure” and help grow tourism. 

Commissioner Valerie Wynn wanted to know how the county would go about ensuring people are paying taxes in accordance with the updated county code.  

Wheat said Georgia law requires all short-term rental platforms to collect the tax from the visitor upon booking. The payments are collected by the websites and remitted to each county in the state, he said.

McNeill added that noncompliance “is a misdemeanor under state law, which is unusual” because ordinance violations are typically prosecuted in municipal court instead of state court.

No one showed up to speak at the public hearing on the ordinance change.

In other business, Mayor Lester Miller announced the county is interviewing architects for the Bibb County jail expansion and upgrade work. The county requested proposals from architects in June. A contract manager is set to be announced at a meeting Sept. 23, he said.

Several recent deaths of people in custody and yearslong poor conditions in the county lock up prompted public outcry this summer. In July, Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi urging the Department of Justice to investigate and determine whether the rights of incarcerated individuals were violated. 

The DOJ told The Melody last month Bondi received the letter but declined to answer questions that included whether Bondi planned to respond to the senators’ request. 

Roads and runways

The county voted to approve two more contracts for road repaving at a cost of $5 million. Atlanta Paving & Concrete Construction was awarded a contract for $2.2 million, and McLeRoy was awarded a contract of $2.3 million.

The county also approved spending more than $4 million on work at its two airports. Part of that work is a $1.5 million contract with Apaxx Roofing to replace the roofs of WWII Hangar B and the Embraer Hangar at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport.

It also includes a $2.9 million contract with Sheridan Construction to relocate the airfield electrical vault at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport and a $200,000 contract with TBI Airport Management to operate and maintain both airports for five years. The vault controls the airfield lighting systems.

A gift to Bibb County: ‘The nicest thing I could do’

George Clay sat with his grandson, Cade Morris, on the front row at city hall Tuesday, waiting patiently for county commissioners to reach the last item on the agenda.

The 92-year-old had a story to tell and a gift to give the county.

“I ran over myself with an International 444 tractor,” Clay said from behind the podium.

It was April 21, 1980. Clay was hanging on to life by a thread when the fire department arrived at his property on Rogers Avenue.

The tractor “went up the side of a bed and pinned me down. Left me on the ground, laying with [the blade] spinning in my face,” he said. “It broke every bone, punctured my lung, broke my ribs, almost cut my leg off because I had a 16-blade harrow in the back with a tree trunk on top of that.

“The fire department got there before the ambulance did because they were a little closer,” Clay said. 

Recovery took years. He lost his eyesight and his collar bone is still broken. 

“I had 27 doctors when it was all over with, putting me back together,” Clay said. “I wondered what in the world I could do and if I wanted to live.”

Clay said he kept thinking about the fire department and what would have become of him had their personnel not responded so quickly.

“Without the fire department’s manpower and knowing what to do, I wouldn’t be here today,” Clay said. “When I found out they needed to put a fire station in the neighborhood of Thomaston Road and Estes Road, I thought, ‘Gosh, the nicest thing I could do is give them some land to build this fire station.’”

Clay donated four acres at 8221 Thomaston Road to the county. Commissioners voted unanimously to accept it. Commissioner Donice Bryant was absent. 

The donation stipulates the county must build a fire department on the land within the next decade. The resolution also requests the new station be named after Clay.

Clay asked commissioners to “please, please hurry up. I’m 92-and-a-half and I haven’t got many more days to live and I sure would like to see that fire station.” 

The mayor thanked Clay for the contribution.