A House subcommittee Monday afternoon approved a substitute House transportation bill that allows county govenrments to set a 6-cent per gallon fuel excise tax to be shared with municipalities.
Now the bill moves to the full House Transportation Committee, chaired by author Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, with more changes possible. The full committee will begin considering the legislation Thursday afternoon.
Under the rewritten legislation, county governments can impose a 6-cent-per-gallon fuel excise tax to be used for transportation purposes only. The proceeds will be shared with municipalities based on the state formula for the Department of Transportation’s Local Maintenance and Improvement Grants sent to local governments.
Unlike the original version of the bill, county commissions could impose the 6-cent excise tax without voter approval. The bill originally allowed cities and counties to put in a 3-cent excise tax each, with an additional 3 cents subject to voter approval.
Clint Mueller, legislative director for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, said the formula is two-thirds lane miles of roads maintained and 1/3 population. “This can be used only for transportation,” Mueller said. “It provides for those who have transportation delivery responsibilities.” The more roads a city maintains, the more money it would receive.
Mueller said that to receive their share of fuel excise tax revenues, municipal governing bodies would be required to approve resolutions outlining their transportation programs.
Roberts, in presenting the substitute bill changes to the subcommittee, said Local Option Sales Tax programs in which property taxes are rolled back would be allowed to continue until 2020. Local special option sales tax programs would continue until their voter-approved terms run out.
While the counties indicated satisfaction with the bill changes, the Georgia Municipal Association and Georgia School Boards Association continued to express unhappiness.
Angela Palm, director of policy and legislative services for the school boards group, implored the panel “please, let’s find a way to fix this so that the school districts are not losing something out of their tax base.”
She said that educational special option local sales taxes have “been a very popular way” for school boards to pay for needs. “One of the oddities in our law, is that our education SPLOSTS are in the Constitution and the use of them is in the Constitution. It’s not as easy to change things as cities and counties.”
The Constitution requires that E-SPLOST funds be used for capital outlays or bonded indebtedness. “One of the concerns is how they would make the transition if this is ultimately what you decide to do.” The school boards don’t have transportation authority outside of buying school buses and paying drivers’ salaries, so they would suffer a big hit when the fuel excise taxes replace sales taxes on gasoline and are dedicated to transportation use.
Roberts said he’s working with the school boards to develop language to solve the constitutional problem. Palm said that might mean broadening the meaning of transportation in the legisation.
Tom Gehl, the Georgia Municipal Association’s director of governmental relations, said the impact of removing the gasoline sales tax would have a deep impact on cities. “In some cases, it’s very drastic, it’s very severe.” He said the GMA wants to adjust sales tax rates to make up for revenue lost, and has not yet come up with a suggested number. He mentioned 1.15 percent instead of the current 1 percent as a possbility.
Solar Energy Bill Approved: The House on Monday passed on a vote of165-0 Rep. Mike Dudgeon’s House Bill 57, which allows financing of solar power systems for homes and small businesses. The bill is the product of negotiations between the state’s solar power industry and electric utilities. The bill now heads to the Senate.
Session’s end?: The Senate and House reached a preliminary agreement to end the legislative session on Thursday, April 2, with the “crossover day” Friday, March 13. The crossover day is the last one for a chamber to pass a bill to have it approved by the other chamber.
The agreement is dependent upon a plan for the House to send the Senate the FY 2016 budget by Feb 26, and the Senate to return the budget to the House by March 20, House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Warner Robins, said.
