ATLANTA -- Georgia Department of Revenue agents seized five Augusta hotels at 8 a.m. Monday for their failure to pay sales taxes and withholding taxes for their employees’ income taxes.

Two of the five have repaid the more than $400,000 owed, according to Revenue Department spokesman Reg Lansberry. The remaining three haven’t as of 11:30.

“Those facilities won’t be able to reopen until they have paid their liabilities in full,” Lansberry said.

The department could bring in a hotel-management company to operate the units until the government gets its due, he said.

The hotels are Ramada Inn & Suites and Stay Bridge Suites, which paid up after the raid. Those still in arrears at midmorning include Country Inn & Suites, Best Western and Days Inn & Suites.

Democratic candidates for governor have argued that the department has failed to collect about $1 billion in sales taxes from businesses across the state. Republican leaders this year made changes in the law that gives the department more power to coordinate with local governments in seeking out businesses that aren't forwarding sales taxes to the state as required, but most of those businesses were expected to be so small that they escaped the notice of the Revenue Department.