The Dawsonville City Council is considering a possible excise tax on energy for manufacturing businesses.

Council members voted unanimously Monday night to have the city attorney begin drafting an ordinance that could send the matter to public hearings.

Earlier this year, state legislators voted to abolish Georgia’s energy tax in an effort to be more competitive in attracting manufacturers to the state. Phasing out the 4 percent tax begins next year and ends in 2016.

With the vote, however, they also granted city and county governments the option of adopting a local excise tax on energy to recoup the lost revenue.

“Although it is written in as an excise energy tax, it’s not a tax increase. It is a partial abatement of the state tax exemption that the state has given,” said City Attorney Kevin Tallant.

If implemented, the tax would be made up of 1 percent from local option sales tax funds and 1 percent from the special purpose local option sales tax.

Tallant said developing the ordinance is the city’s only means to determine how much would be raised by the measure, which would also be rolled in over a four-year period in balance with the state’s rollback.

The county government opted against pursuing the tax last month. The council is expected to revisit the issue during its Nov. 13 meeting.