Georgia’s Legislature returns this week, with the main business introduction of bills and committee organizational meetings.
The House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Terry England, R-Auburn, will meet after the House adjourns Monday to adopt the committee’s rules for the session. The committee and its Senate counterpart last week held hearings on Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposed $21.8 billion budget for FY 2016, and his amended FY 2015 budget. The various House appropriations subcommittees will meet briefly Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday afternoon, the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, under new Chairman Jay Powell (R-Camilla) will hold its organizational meeting. The committee will consider expected tax legislation to increase transportation funding. Powell, an attorney, will replace the retired Rep. Mickey Channell, R-Greensboro.
The House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee on Wednesday afternoon will consider Rep. Mike Dudgeon’s HB 57, which allows the financing of solar power systems installed at homes and small businesses. The legislation is the result of negotiations among the state’s solar power companies and Georgia Power, electric membership corporations and municipal electric authorities. Harry Geisinger, R-Roswell, the chairman of the subcommittee that led the negotiations, is a co-sponsor of the bill, along with Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates; Ed Setzler, R-Acworth; Buzz Brockway, R-Lawrenceville; and Mark Hamilton, R-Cumming.
Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, told InsiderAdvantage Georgia that he plans to introduce a proposed constitutional amendment this week to make the state superintendent of schools appointive rather than elective. Richard Woods, the new state school superintendent, opposes the change.
Plans to raise transportation funding are expected to dominate the session, with options ranging from a state sales tax dedicated to roads and bridges, to giving the Department of Transportation all proceeds from the 4-cent sales tax on gasoline, transferring about $180 million a year from the state’s general fund. Another proposal being informally discussed would raise the state’s cigarette tax to pay for roads and bridges
At present, the DOT receives three cents of the gasoline tax, with the “fourth penny” going into the general fund. Giving the department all of the sales tax proceeds could be accomplished by folding the sales tax, levied on the entire amount of a gasoline purchase, into the 7.5-cent per-gallon fuel excise tax. That would increase the excise tax to an estimated 22 to 25 cents per gallon.
The gasoline sales tax would be converted to the excise tax under Setzler’s HB 60, the only transportation funding proposal offered so far. Tax legislation can be introduced through the legislative session’s 20th day.
Setzler’s bill is designed to be “revenue neutral” by lowering the state income tax. It would keep the 7.5-cent excise tax rate through 2017, after which it would gradually rise to 22.5 cents in 2022. After 2023, the tax would be adjusted according to the inflation rate set by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Gov. Nathan Deal, House Speaker David Ralston and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle have expressed support for increased transportation funding, without backing a particular option. An increase is supported by business groups such as the Metro Atlanta Chamber Commerce.
Bills filed so far cover a range of subjects, from legalizing horse race betting in Georgia to the regulation of drone use to requiring law enforcement officers to wear body cameras. And then there’s HB 70, by Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, which would designate the gray fox as the official state mammal. Georgia already has an official marine mammal – the right whale.
