By: Lydia Crawley The Parsons Advocate
Following the passage of the County’s EMS fee on entertainment that went into effect January first, some businesses in the area, have still not complied with the ordinance, County Administrator Shelia DeVilder said during the May 14th Tucker County Commission meeting. This non compliance to the ordinance, DeVilder said, has led to Sheriff Jake Kopek making stops to some local establishments.
“We recently had a meeting with Jake or I did because we needed to get our EMS fee collections are not what we anticipated,” DeVilder said. “People are not paying. I’m not sure why.”
DeVilder speculated that perhaps because of ongoing litigation over the EMS fee local business owners do not feel obligated to pay the 1% fee to the County until the matter is resolved. The problem may also stem from an issue with Airbnb, DeVilder said.
A delinquency list has been compiled and turned over to the Sheriff for collection as the County’s official tax collector. DeVilder said she anticipated the Kopek would make in person visits due to delinquencies in Hotel/Motel tax collections, as well.
“He’s in the process of taking care of that and I think he has decided he is going to do in person visits because its not only just Airbnb, its just not for the EMS fees. I think he will be checking on the Hotel/Motel as well because we have some discrepancies and some people that have not been paying,” DeVilder said.
DeVilder did state, however, despite those that are not paying the EMS fee, many businesses are complying with the law.
