The Senate Friday narrowly passed its transportation spending bill, after removing highway impact fees but retaining the 24-cent-per-gallon fuel excise tax.
After impassioned debate and the consideration of nine amendments, the Senate by a 29-25 vote approved the measure, which now goes to a conference committee to resolve differences with the House legislation.
The Senate’s Republican majority defeated several proposed Democratic amendments that sought to increase minority participation in state Department of Transportation contracts. One would have required the appointment of a minority compliance officer.
An effort by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, to reduce the excise tax to 20 cents per gallon and remove a $5 rental car fee also failed. An approved amendment creates a state committee to study the state’s tax structure.
The Senate Transportation Committee’s bill had imposed an annual $25 fee for cars, $50 for commercial trucks and $10 for motorcycles, but it was quickly removed from the bill with an amendment sponsored by Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Tommie Williams, R-Lyons. The legislation also switches $250 million from increased state revenues to the DOT for debt relief.
Earlier, the Senate approved its version of the $21.8 million budget for Fiscal Year 2016 on a 52-1 vote. Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, cast the sole negative vote after calling for the state to broaden Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Rep. Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the budget is “targeted to solve problems in our state and ensure success.” The spending plan increases education spending by more than $432 million, he said, including $280 million for the Quality Basic Education program.
The Senate bill also includes 1 percent pay raises for state employees, 4 percent salary increases for Court of Appeals judges and Supreme Court justices and 2 percent for Superior Court judges, district attorneys and public defenders.
Also included in the Senate bill, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is $3 million for scholarships to train minority students at Mercer University and Morehouse College. The Senate also added $5 million in credit help for disadvantaged small businesses, the newspaper reported, and language telling the DOT to provide assistance to “emerging minority contractors.”
The items were believed included to boost support for black Democratic senators for the transportation bill.
