ATLANTA – Gov. Nathan Deal hailed a transportation-funding bill Monday as having a broad effect as he signed it into law.
“It will have a positive impact on every portion of our state as it makes Georgians safer and more efficient,” he said.
The bill will boost the tax on gasoline 6 cents starting in July, an amount to be adjusted every time vehicle mileage improves. It will also add a $5 nightly tax on hotel rooms, levy a $200 annual tax on electric vehicles and remove the $5,000 tax credit for buying one. Additionally, it eliminates Delta Air Lines’ exemption from taxes on jet fuel.
Experts, including those at the Georgia Department of Transportation, said in 2014 that $1.5 billion more was needed annually just to keep up with needed road repairs. The legislation Deal signed was designed to address that, although it will only bring in from $750 million to $900 million, according to various estimates.
The bill also establishes a task force to recommend changes in the state’s tax structure that should be aimed to spur jobs while ensuring the state has funds to meet its needs.
Deal predicted the road-funding legislation would help attract employers as well.
“From the Port of Savannah and the Port of Brunswick to the hills of North Georgia and everywhere in between, businesses need good ways to transport their people and to transport their supplies and their finished product,” he said.
The legislation came out of a joint House-Senate committee put together just to study the issue and recommend funding. The Senate co-chairman, Sen. Steve Gooch said that despite the well-publicized congestion in Atlanta, the purpose was always statewide.
“This bill wasn’t about Atlanta. This bill was about Georgia,” said Gooch, R-Dahlonega. “It’s about an investment in transportation. It was about transit. It was about airports. It was about public transportation for all 10 million people and visitors alike.”
An earlier attempt to get transportation funds resulted in a statewide referendum in 2013 where voters in three of 12 regions approved a 1 percent sales tax, including the region centered on Augusta. But its rejection in most of the state – including Atlanta – prompted business leaders to push for a statewide solution.
The new law allows counties to partner with the neighbors of their choice on a new sales tax or to go it alone.
Senate Transportation Chairman Tommie Williams predicted many would jump at the chance.
“Part of the solution in this bill is not just raising money. It’s allowing the locals to tax themselves,” said Williams, R-Lyons.
Transportation Commissioner Randall McMurry pledged that the regions that passed the tax would not be penalized or see the new state funds going toward regions that rejected that tax.
“We’re committed that the three regions that passed it are the first in line,” he said. “That’s been the governor’s commitment. The legislation actually spoke that there could be no money diverted out of those regions. Now we just have more money coming, so it only gets better for those three regions.”
Still, regions like those around Athens, Brunswick and Savannah that didn’t pass the tax will see state roads in their area better maintained, he said.
He pointed to a project underway already to rehabilitate Interstate 16 between Macon and Savannah as well as the numerous bridges around Savannah.
Follow Walter Jones on Twitter @MorrisNews and Facebook or contact him at walter.jones@morris.com.
