Perry shuts down hotel over tax issues

PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The city took away the Howard Johnson Inn’s business license because the owner of the hotel failed to pay his taxes on time for more than a year.

City Manager Lee Gilmour said the owner of the Howard Johnson Inn was given more than enough chances to pay his taxes on time, but failed to do so.

“We have a number of motels in the city. They all are obligated to meet their obligations,” Gilmour said. “They all do a very good job with that and it’s not right to have one business that is either unwillingly or unable to make the payments and thus not be competitive.”

The Howard Johnson Inn has had issues paying its lodging tax, accommodation excise tax, property tax, and the owner even had issues paying the hotel’s utility bill before.

Gilmour said this has been going on for more than a year.

“If you have a business that’s not able to maintain its public service obligations, there could very well be some other type of problems that could affect the public health and welfare of clients coming to stay at their facility,” he said.

41NBC News spoke to an employee at the hotel.She said the owner had trouble paying his taxes on time because of business being slow for the past few months. She said the hotel only had 10 rooms booked yesterday.

She also said the owner is doing everything in his power to get his license back.

Gilmour said this is the first time the city has taken away a business license.

“We try to work with our businesses, understand what their issues are, but along those lines we cannot give up what our obligation is to the taxpayers for this city and also for the traveling public,” he said.

The hotel does not owe any money to the city, but Gilmour said he is not sure about the county.