---
title: SB 430. Taxes; certain military museums qualify as destination marketing organizations and private sector nonprofit organizations; provide
collection: bills
id: 2025-2026/sb430
cite_as: SB 430, 2025-2026 Regular Session (Ga.)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb430
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb430.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb430/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/72487
date: 2026-05-11
status: passed
corpus_version: bills-2026-09-13
license: Public record of the Georgia General Assembly, via LegiScan; see about.md
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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omitted: votes and history
omitted_chars: 1422
omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb430.md?full=1
bill_number: SB 430
session: 2025-2026 Regular Session
session_slug: 2025-2026
chamber: Senate
bill_type: bill
status_date: 2026-05-11
last_action: Effective Date 2026-07-01
sponsors:
  - Randy Robertson
  - Jason Anavitarte
  - Larry Walker
  - John Albers
  - Carden Summers
  - Max Burns
  - Ron Stephens
text_version: Enrolled
has_text: true
legiscan_url: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/SB430/2025
upstream_id: 2100647
summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5
topic_tags:
  - hotel-motel tax
  - military museums
  - tourism funding
  - local government oversight
  - tax compliance
---

# SB 430. Taxes; certain military museums qualify as destination marketing organizations and private sector nonprofit organizations; provide

## Text

Senate Bill 430
By: Senators Robertson of the 29th, Anavitarte of the 31st, Walker III of the 20th, Albers of
the 56th, Summers of the 13th and others
AS PASSED
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
To amend Article 3 of Chapter 13 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated,
relating to excise tax on rooms, lodgings, and accommodations, so as to revise the definition
of tourism product development so as to specifically include military museums and related
institutions; to remove the local government tax revenue threshold as it relates to the
applicability of procedures for changing the designation of a private sector nonprofit
organization engaged to promote tourism, conventions, and trade shows for such jurisdiction;
to provide for criteria the Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review Board shall consider in
approving or rejecting alterations or changes to such private sector nonprofit organization;
to require the Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review Board to meet quarterly to address
eligibility determinations and notifications of noncompliance; to provide for publication of
such notifications; to provide for hearings and notice of such hearings; to provide for related
matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION 1.
Article 3 of Chapter 13 of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to
excise tax on rooms, lodgings, and accommodations, is amended by revising paragraph (6)
of Code Section 48-13-50.2, relating to definitions, as follows:
"(6) 'Tourism product development' means the expenditure of funds for the creation or
expansion of physical attractions which are available and open to the public and which
improve destination appeal to visitors, support visitors' experience, and are used by
visitors. Such expenditures may include capital costs and operating expenses. Tourism
product development may include:
(A) Lodging for the public for no longer than 30 consecutive days to the same
customer;
(B) Overnight or short-term sites for recreational vehicles, trailers, campers, or tents;
(C) Meeting, convention, exhibit, and public assembly facilities;
(D) Sports stadiums, arenas, and complexes;
(E) Golf courses associated with a resort development that are open to the general
public on a contract or fee basis;
(F) Racing facilities, including dragstrips, motorcycle racetracks, and auto or stock car
racetracks or speedways;
(G) Amusement centers, amusement parks, theme parks, or amusement piers;
(H) Hunting preserves, trapping preserves, or fishing preserves or lakes;
(I) Visitor information and welcome centers;
(J) Wayfinding signage;
(K) Permanent, nonmigrating carnivals or fairs;
(L) Airplanes, helicopters, buses, vans, or boats for excursions or sightseeing;
(M) Boat rentals, boat party fishing services, rowboat or canoe rentals, horse shows,
natural wonder attractions, picnic grounds, river-rafting services, scenic railroads for
amusement, aerial tramways, rodeos, water slides, or wave pools;
(N) <ins>Planetariums</ins> <del>Museums, planetariums,</del> art galleries, botanical gardens, aquariums,
or zoological gardens;
(O) Parks, trails, and other recreational facilities;
(P) Performing arts facilities; <del>and
</del> (Q) Air service product expansion at air carrier airports; <ins>and
(R) Museums, including, but not limited to, military museums or any other institutions
dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting the history of conflicts and military
actions of the United States armed forces and its service members through artifacts,
documents, and other memorabilia organized for similar purposes."
</ins> SECTION 2.
Said article is further amended by revising subsection (k) of Code Section 48-13-51, relating
to county and municipal levies on public accommodations charges for promotion of tourism,
conventions, and trade shows, as follows:
"(k)(1) Any local governing authority levying the tax authorized under this article <del>which
has collected more than $500,000.00 in taxes per year in any of the three preceding fiscal
years</del> shall not alter or change the designated private sector nonprofit organization
engaged to promote tourism, conventions, and trade shows for such local government
unless and until the governing authority and the destination marketing organization for
such local government agree to such alteration or change or such alteration or change is
approved as provided for in paragraph (2) of this subsection.
(2) If the governing authority and the destination marketing organization are unable to
reach an agreement as to altering or changing the designated private sector nonprofit
organization engaged to promote tourism, conventions, and trade shows, such proposed
alterations or changes shall then be moved to the Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review
Board, as established pursuant to Code Section 48-13-56.1, which shall meet <del>as needed
</del> <ins>quarterly</ins> for approval or rejection based on the eligibility of the new proposed private
sector nonprofit organization, as defined by Code Section 48-13-50.2, <ins>along with the
following factors:
(A) Whether the existing private sector nonprofit organization is meeting visitation
goals set forth by its governing body;
(B) Dedicated purpose of the proposed and existing private sector nonprofit
organization as it relates to driving future visitation to the destination;
(C) Demonstrated local expertise by the existing private sector nonprofit organization
and any other private sector nonprofit organization under consideration;
(D) Ongoing investments and contractual obligations by the existing private sector
nonprofit organization and the risk of disruption by the proposed change; and
(E) Potential conflicts of interest for the existing and proposed private sector nonprofit
organizations."
</ins> SECTION 3.
Said article is further amended by revising subsections (c) and (d) of Code
Section 48-13-56.1, relating to Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review Board, composition,
appointments, investigations of complaints, and expenses of members, as follows:
"(c) It shall be the duty of the performance review board to make a thorough and complete
investigation of any complaint with respect to all actions of a county, municipality, or any
other entity regarding its expenditure of funds received from a tax under this article and
such county's, municipality's, or other entity's compliance with state law and regulations.
Complaints may be received from taxpayers, local governments, innkeepers, or private
sector nonprofit organizations. <del>All complaints shall be received by the department by
June 1 in order to be heard the following year.</del> The performance review board shall meet
<del>annually from September 1 through December 1</del> <ins>quarterly and shall have 90 days to hold
a hearing for any complaint received by the department.</ins> The department shall send a
notice to all interested parties of <del>the</del> <ins>any</ins> meeting place and time. The performance review
board shall issue a written report of its findings which shall include such evaluations,
judgments, and recommendations as it deems appropriate.
(d) The findings of the report of the review board under subsection (c) of this Code section
shall be transmitted to the commissioner of community affairs within <del>60</del> <ins>30</ins> calendar days
of hearing the complaint. The commissioner of community affairs shall have 30 calendar
days to review the findings of the performance review board. If the commissioner of
community affairs determines that remedial action is necessary, the subject of the
complaint shall be issued a <del>notice</del> <ins>notification of noncompliance</ins> by certified mail, return
receipt requested, or statutory overnight delivery and shall be given a period of <del>90 calendar
days to take the necessary remedial action with respect to such findings. In the event that
such remedial action does not occur within the specified period,</del> <ins>60 calendar days from
receipt of such notice to submit to the commissioner a new report specifying the rate of
taxation and amounts collected and remitted as required under Code Section 48-13-56.
Failure to submit such report within the specified period shall result in an automatic
notification to the performance review board for consideration at its next meeting. All
notifications of noncompliance shall be provided to the legal organ of the county in which
the subject is located and made public on the department's website until a remedy is
provided. The subject of the complaint shall publish such notification of noncompliance
in the legal organ of the county in which the subject is located within 30 days of its receipt.
Further,</ins> the commissioner of community affairs shall immediately notify the state revenue
commissioner <ins>of any failure to take remedial action,</ins> and the state revenue commissioner
shall be authorized to take appropriate action to enforce compliance with such remedial
action, up to and including termination of the tax."
SECTION 4.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.

## Summaries written by Georgia Commons

The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the text above and is not part of the bill. Quote the text, not the summary.

A Georgia Senate bill would let military museums and similar institutions count as tourism attractions eligible for hotel-motel tax funding, and would change how local governments can switch the nonprofit organization that promotes tourism in their area.

### Plain-language summary

Georgia counties and cities collect a hotel-motel tax to fund tourism promotion, often through a designated private sector nonprofit organization. This bill changes the definition of 'tourism product development' in Georgia's hotel-motel tax law (O.C.G.A. § 48-13-50.2) to specifically add museums, including military museums and other institutions preserving the history of U.S. armed forces conflicts, as qualifying attractions. It also removes museums generally from an older catch-all category and separates planetariums out on their own.
The bill removes the $500,000 annual tax collection threshold that used to limit which local governments needed approval to change their designated tourism nonprofit, so the approval process now applies to all of them. It adds specific factors the Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review Board must weigh when deciding whether to approve such a change, requires the board to meet quarterly instead of as needed, shortens several deadlines for reporting and remedial action, and requires public notice of noncompliance findings.

### What it does

- Adds museums, including military museums and institutions on U.S. armed forces history, as a category of 'tourism product development' eligible for hotel-motel tax funded projects.
- Removes the $500,000 per year tax collection threshold that determined which local governments had to follow special procedures before changing their designated tourism-promoting nonprofit.
- Requires the Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review Board to weigh specific factors, such as visitation goals and conflicts of interest, before approving a change to a local tourism nonprofit.
- Changes the board's meeting schedule from an annual September-to-December window to quarterly meetings, with 90 days to hold a hearing on any complaint received.
- Shortens the deadline for transmitting hearing findings to the commissioner of community affairs from 60 to 30 days, and creates a new 60 day window for a noncompliant organization to submit a corrected report.
- Requires notifications of noncompliance to be published in the local legal organ (the county's official newspaper) and posted on the department's website until the issue is resolved.

### Who it affects

Military museums and other history-focused museums seeking hotel-motel tax funded tourism projects, local governing authorities that levy the hotel-motel tax, private sector nonprofit organizations designated to promote tourism, the Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review Board, and the state commissioner of community affairs and revenue commissioner.

### Why it matters

Military museums could newly qualify for hotel-motel tax revenue used for tourism development, potentially opening new funding for these institutions. Local governments of any size, not just larger tax-collecting ones, would face a more structured, faster-moving review process before swapping their tourism promotion nonprofit, with public disclosure of compliance problems.

### Key provisions

- Section 1 revises the definition of 'tourism product development' in O.C.G.A. § 48-13-50.2, moving museums out of a general category and adding a new category (R) specifically covering military museums and similar history institutions.
- Section 2 removes the $500,000 annual tax collection threshold in O.C.G.A. § 48-13-51(k) so the special approval process for changing a tourism nonprofit applies to all local governments levying the tax.
- Section 2 also directs the Hotel Motel Tax Performance Review Board to consider five specific factors, including visitation goals and conflicts of interest, when approving or rejecting a change in the designated nonprofit.
- Section 3 changes the board's meeting frequency in O.C.G.A. § 48-13-56.1 from an annual window (September 1 through December 1) to quarterly meetings, and sets a 90 day deadline to hold a hearing on a complaint.
- Section 3 shortens the deadline for the board to send hearing findings to the commissioner of community affairs from 60 to 30 calendar days.
- Section 3 creates a 60 day period for a noncompliant subject to submit a corrected tax report, and requires publication of noncompliance notifications in the local legal organ and on the department's website.

## Status

- Status: Passed (2026-05-11)
- Last action: Effective Date 2026-07-01 (2026-05-11)
- Sponsors: Randy Robertson, Jason Anavitarte, Larry Walker, John Albers, Carden Summers, Max Burns, Ron Stephens
- Official page: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/72487

> The history, votes, and amendments (1,422 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb430.md?full=1