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Bay County amends Chapter 14 of county code, removes outdated local business rules and defers to state law on tobacco
Summary
The board approved updates to Chapter 14 (licensing, taxation and business regulations) removing obsolete provisions including a local sales tax tied to an incinerator, special rules for custom-made apparel, and local tile‑loan and tobacco retail regulations that state law now governs.
Bay County commissioners adopted revisions to Chapter 14 of the Bay County Code of Ordinances during the Aug. 19 meeting, changes county staff said are intended to remove outdated or superseded provisions.
County Attorney Brian Lieberg told commissioners staff reviewed Chapter 14 — the county’s licensing, taxation and business regulation chapter — and identified provisions that either no longer apply or had been supplanted by state law. He noted a former local sales tax provision that supported an incinerator is no longer applicable and special rules for custom-made wearing apparel were deemed unnecessary.
Lieberg said two county ordinances that regulated small loan ("tile loan") transactions and tobacco retail establishments had been important locally but were now effectively supplanted by state law. For tobacco, he said recent state legislation added a preemption that prevents local regulation of the sale or delivery of tobacco products; as a result, the county’s local tobacco retail provisions were removed.
The board conducted a public hearing, received no public comment on the revisions, and approved the changes. Staff and the county attorney said they would publish the ordinance language and update the code to reflect the deletions and clarifications.
