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House · Passed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 1317: Fort Oglethorpe, City of; levy an excise tax

Last action May 12, 2026 · Effective Date

House Bill 1317 lets the City of Fort Oglethorpe raise its hotel/motel excise tax to as much as 8 percent, with the extra money earmarked for tourism promotion and tourism-related development.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Enrolled version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Georgia law (O.C.G.A. Section 48-13-51) lets certain cities levy an excise tax on hotel, motel, and similar lodging charges, with special rules for rates above 5 percent. This bill authorizes the City of Fort Oglethorpe specifically to levy that tax at a rate of up to 8 percent, rather than being capped at the lower rate that would otherwise apply. The bill follows a city resolution (Resolution No. 2025-03, adopted December 8, 2025) that set the actual rate and spelled out how the money would be used. Under the bill, in any year the tax is collected, at least half of the revenue collected above what a 5 percent rate would generate must go to tourism, convention, and trade show promotion through the city's designated marketing organization or an already-authorized entity. The rest of that above-5-percent revenue must go toward tourism product development.

What the bill does

  • Authorizes the City of Fort Oglethorpe to levy an excise tax of up to 8 percent on hotel, motel, and similar lodging charges within the city.
  • Ties the authorization to a city resolution (Resolution No. 2025-03) that sets the specific rate and spending plan for the tax revenue.
  • Requires at least 50 percent of tax revenue collected above the 5 percent rate to fund tourism, convention, and trade show promotion.
  • Directs any remaining revenue above the 5 percent rate that is not spent on promotion to be used for tourism product development.
  • Repeals any existing state laws that conflict with this authorization.

Who it affects

Hotels, motels, inns, lodges, tourist camps, campgrounds, and similar lodging businesses in Fort Oglethorpe that must collect and remit the tax; travelers and guests who pay the tax when renting rooms; the city government and its designated tourism marketing organization, which receive and spend the extra revenue.

Why it matters

Fort Oglethorpe could collect more money from visitors staying in local lodging and dedicate that extra revenue specifically to tourism marketing and development projects, potentially affecting hotel costs for travelers and funding for local tourism initiatives.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 authorizes the city to levy the excise tax at a rate not exceeding 8 percent of lodging charges, under the authority of O.C.G.A. Section 48-13-51(b).
  • Section 2 references the city's Resolution No. 2025-03 (adopted December 8, 2025) as the source for the actual rate and spending allocations.
  • Section 3(1) requires at least 50 percent of revenue collected above the 5 percent baseline rate to go toward tourism, convention, and trade show promotion.
  • Section 3(2) requires any remaining above-baseline revenue not spent on promotion to be used for tourism product development.
  • Section 4 repeals conflicting laws.

From the bill

“the governing authority of the City of Fort Oglethorpe is authorized to levy an excise tax at a rate not to exceed 8 percent of the charge for the furnishing for value to the public of any room or rooms, lodgings, or accommodations”

This is the core authorization letting the city raise its hotel tax rate up to 8 percent.

“an amount equal to not less than 50 percent of the total amount of taxes collected that exceeds the amount of taxes that would be collected at the rate of 5 percent shall be expended for promoting tourism, conventions, and trade shows”

This sets the minimum share of extra tax revenue that must fund tourism and convention promotion.

Discussed in meetings (8)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House floor session, March 4, 2026 (legislative day 27, AM)

    From 1:00:43 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1778

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The clerk read a favorable committee report on HB 1317, then listed it on the uncontested local calendar as a bill concerning Fort Oglethorpe. There was no substantive discussion. The House passed all five bills on that calendar together, 166 to 1.

  2. Senate State and Local Governmental Operations Committee, March 26, 2026

    From 0:51:13 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: A committee member moved to approve HB 1317. In response to a question about its purpose, a presenter described it as a locally requested hotel-motel tax that had received unanimous city approval. The chair said the local measures were being heard because Senate vacancies prevented their usual handling as local legislation. Members voiced approval, but the chair did not explicitly announce the result.

  3. Senate Rules Committee, March 30, 2026

    From 0:29:22 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair designated HB 1317 for the floor calendar as part of a group of local measures that, according to the chair, had gone through the general-bill process because a Senate seat was vacant. No substantive presentation followed. The committee unanimously approved the final calendar containing it.

  4. Senate floor session, March 31, 2026 (legislative day 39, part 1)

    From 5:46:55 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Third Read)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The presenter said HB 1317 concerned levying an excise tax in Fort Oglethorpe and requested support. The clerk's caption described authority for the city to impose the tax subject to procedures, conditions and limits. No substantive questions about the tax were asked. The Senate passed the bill 41-3.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-05-12Effective Date
  2. 2026-05-12Act 649
  3. 2026-05-12House Date Signed by Governor (House)
  4. 2026-04-07House Sent to Governor (House)
  5. 2026-03-31Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
  6. 2026-03-31Senate Third Read (Senate)
  7. 2026-03-27Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
  8. 2026-03-27Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
Show full history (15 actions)
  1. 2026-03-06Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  2. 2026-03-04House Passed/Adopted (House)
  3. 2026-03-04House Third Readers (House)
  4. 2026-03-04House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
  5. 2026-02-19House Second Readers (House)
  6. 2026-02-18House First Readers (House)
  7. 2026-02-17House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Mitchell Horner (R, HD-3)Primary sponsor
  • Mike Cameron (R, HD-1)
  • Steve Tarvin (R, HD-2)
  • Clint Dixon (R, SD-45)

Votes

  1. PassedHouse voteMarch 4, 2026

    166 yea, 1 nay (9 not voting, 1 excused)

    Local Calendar: House Vote #600

  2. PassedSenate voteMarch 31, 2026

    41 yea, 3 nay (3 not voting, 7 excused)

    PASSAGE: Senate Vote #885

Topics

  • hotel motel tax
  • local taxes
  • tourism funding
  • Fort Oglethorpe
  • municipal government

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Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1317.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp