MOULTRIE —
The City of Moultrie is setting the stage for a possible return of internet cafes and for an excise tax on some local industries.
Both proposals passed first and second readings at the Nov. 6 city council meeting and are likely to be on the agenda for final consideration Nov. 20.
Thirteen people had been arrested in 2011 on gambling charges in connection with an internet cafe on First Avenue Southeast. A moratorium on new coin-operated amusement game permits was put in place about that time because the Georgia Legislature was considering a state law to govern them. The House of Representatives passed a bill that included limits on cities’ ability to police the machines, but the Senate referred it to committee and never revisited it, according to information on the legislature’s website. The moratorium was allowed to expire this year.
The ordinance under consideration would amend the existing ordinance to prohibit gambling over the internet, City Manager Mike Scott said.
A second ordinance change proposed last week creates the framework for an excise tax on energy used for manufacturing, but not the tax itself. Scott said no decision has been made on the tax because so much is up in the air about the implementation of the law that provides for it. However, that law requires any city or county that wants to enact such a tax to build the framework with an ordinance like the city is considering.
The state law is actually a tax cut, which was passed in the most recent legislative session, Scott said. It provides an exemption on sales taxes that certain manufacturing businesses and some agricultural businesses pay on the energy they use. Those taxes would otherwise have gone to the state, to counties and to cities.
The exemption will be phased in over a four-year period, he said.
“That law, what it does is take away the sales tax the cities and counties would have received,” Scott said. “It does not affect education. [The law] allows the cities and counties to enable an excise tax so they are made whole.”
But Scott said that as recently as the end of October, the state Department of Revenue and Department of Agriculture were still hashing out exactly what businesses were to qualify for the exemption. Beyond that, any business that wants the exemption would have to apply for it and could be turned down. So, at this point, the city doesn’t even know how many businesses might be affected here.
On top of that, the city levies only one kind of tax that is applicable to this case: the 1-percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
With so many aspects of the exemption still up in the air, Scott said the city hasn’t decided whether to enact the excise tax to recoup any losses, but the law requires a city or county to approve an ordinance making such a tax possible — or else it won’t be able to come back later and create one.
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Moultrie leaders consider internet cafes, energy tax
The City of Moultrie is setting the stage for a possible return of internet cafes and for an excise tax on some local industries.
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