Bill to raise state user fees, licenses moving quickly

By James Salzer

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

House leaders trying desperately to fill massive holes in the state budget put a bill to raise more than $90 million worth of state user fees and licenses on the fast track to passage Thursday.

It was introduced Thursday morning, and by midday, it had passed the House Ways and Means Committee. It could hit the House floor for a vote by Monday.

The proposal would launch an additional fee on civil court filings and raise the cost of specialty license plates as well as a host of other fees. It includes a few new fees, including an annual registration fee for lobbyists, but some of the fees that would be hiked haven't been changed in decades.

Georgians with specialty license plates, like those promoting a university or a cause, would be charged a $35 annual fee. Most of those plates come with a $25 annual fee now.

House Motor Vehicles Chairman Tom Rice (R-Norcross) said there are more than 600,000 specialty tags on Georgia vehicles.

Backers say all the fee increases will help cover the cost of providing various state services, from day care and airport safety inspections to fighting forest fires.

"I know you get push back about fees," House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) told the committee. "But to not enact some of these fees is to condone government subsidies."

More than half of the new money -- $53 million -- would be raised by assessing a $100 fee on civil court filings. Lobbyists for counties complained that local governments would see none of that money, despite the fact that county governments help fund the court system. The extra money would all go into state coffers.

“This is a hidden tax increase,” said Clint Mueller, a lobbyist for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

Rep. Richard Smith (R-Columbus), who is handling the bill in the House, told the committee, “This is not a backdoor tax increase. These are fees and licenses for services the state provides.”

The committee approved the proposal with limited debate after Ralston stopped by the meeting to voice his backing.

Lawmakers have been looking in earnest at raising old fees because of the state’s continuing budget crisis. The state has been cutting spending for two years and needs several hundred million dollars in either revenue increases or spending cuts to balance next year’s budget.

Among the new fees would be a $50 to $250 licensing fee on day care centers.

Lobbyists would have to pay an annual $250 registration fee, and fees for failing to file campaign disclosures and lobbyist expenditure reports on time also would go up. There are about 1,700 lobbyists registered now. However, people registered to lobby for public entities, such as colleges or the city of Atlanta, would be exempt.

The last time there were wide-ranging increases in fees was in the early 1990s, when then-Gov. Zell Miller faced a budget shortfall. Miller caught grief at the time because his package included hiking driver’s licenses and hunting and fishing licenses. None of those would be raised in the latest bill.

The oldest of the fees to be updated is a 1950s fee in which counties are assessed 4 cents per forested acre for fire protection. Under the bill, that would be bumped up to 10 cents.

The airport fee for safety inspections, set in 1978, is $10. The inspections cost the state about $400. The new proposal calls for the fee to go up to $100 per runway, up to $400.

Gov. Sonny Perdue has worked with House and Senate leaders on the proposal, which was whittled down from about $120 million initially. His revised revenue estimate for the upcoming fiscal year includes $96 million in new fees.

The Ways and Means Committee also Thursday quickly passed another bill Ralston is supporting that would set up a committee of economists, business leaders and politicians to rewrite the state's tax code.

In the past few years, Republican leaders have proposed redoing the code to begin assessing a sales tax on more services in exchange for slashing property taxes on homes and businesses. Additionally, Republicans have proposed cutting business and investment taxes.

The new panel would come up with recommendations for changes and present them to the General Assembly for a vote early next year.

"We want a tax system that works for Georgians," said Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), who has pushed legislation to cut state taxes on income earned from investments like stocks and bonds.

Proposed state fee increases

Here are some of the fee increases proposed, with the old fee first:

Mortgage loan fee: Currently $6.50, going to $10

Civil court filing fee: $100 added to current fees

Airport licensing fee: Now $10 per airport, going to $100 per runway

Specialty license plate fee: Now $25 annually for most plates, going to $35 for all plates

Penalty fee for illegally operating coin-operated amusement games: Now $50 per machine, going to $10,000

Annual permit fee for coin-operated amusement machines: Now $25 per machine, going to $200