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DeKalb visitors bureau outlines case for raising innkeeper tax to support grants and assets
Summary
The DeKalb County Visitors Bureau presented options to amend the county innkeeper tax, including a possible increase toward 8% to fund grants and preserve local cultural assets; council members asked for ordinance cleanup, clearer penalty and postmark language, and more data on short‑term rental compliance.
Ryan Jernigan of the DeKalb County Visitors Bureau told the County Council the innkeeper tax is a charge on overnight accommodations "including VRBOs or Airbnb," and said the bureau’s roughly $550,000 budget funds marketing, a county magazine and a grant process for museums and events.
Jernigan said the bureau is considering an increase toward 8% to provide steadier funding for grant awards and to support long‑standing county assets such as museums and recurring events. "Our feeling is that we would like to support our county assets being the 4 museums ... as a line item thing in our budget," he said, adding that more revenue would help stabilize grant cycles.
Council members raised several ordinance issues they want corrected before any rate change: consolidating multiple existing ordinances into a single clearer document, adding a postmark deadline to establish an unambiguous payment date, clarifying who receives penalties or interest when late payments are collected, and strengthening collection and enforcement language.
Officials also flagged a practical enforcement problem for short‑term rentals: the state receives many online remittances for platforms such as Airbnb and VRBO and the county cannot access a payer list from the state. One council member noted the county’s own software gives a per‑property report and recommended relying on the treasurer’s property‑level reporting for enforcement checks.
Members asked staff to prepare a single draft ordinance bringing the various provisions together, to propose clear penalty language, and to return with the amended language and any needed financial projections for the council’s next meeting.
