Jackson County Approves Five-Percent Occupancy Tax

The Jackson County Commission approved a five-percent occupancy tax Monday evening.

County Mayor Randy Heady said the new tax will take some of the burden off property owners.

“We depend on the property owner too much. You hit them with property taxes and then you turn around and we do a wheel tax in Jackson County,” Heady said. “This occupancy tax is a privilege tax. It’s people coming in here and we’re offering them an opportunity to stay in our wonderful county. We’re just trying to get a little revenue off of it.”

Heady said the county will start collecting the tax from campgrounds, cabins, and Airbnb operators beginning January 1.

“We’ll be sending out our request letters for that revenue to be brought back back into the county clerks office,” Heady said. “We don’t have any hotels, and we know that. That’s why a lot of people wondered why we were doing this. Well, there’s other opportunities for revenue. You’ve got cabin rentals and campground rentals. This covers all of it.”

Revenue from the tax will go to the county’s fund balance for the time being. Heady said the county commission chose to hold off on using the money for economic development and tourism purposes.

“We determined that we were going to stick it in fund balance, which is perfectly. We can always come back as a commission and decide that we want this to go to economic development,” Heady said. “Right now, we hate to do that because we don’t know how much it’s going to be.”

Governor Bill Lee signed House Bill 1540 into law in May, allowing Jackson County to implement the tax.