Transportation – moving people and goods from place to place – is important to the economy of our state. It’s also important to our quality of life. Who among us have not found themselves sitting in traffic, unable to get to their child, work or home because traffic is backed up? It’s frustrating and stressful and not the way we want to live.
Local government leaders get that. They have not only talked about the need and challenges of funding transportation for years, they have put their money where their mouth is. In the last 10 years, local government funding of transportation projects has consistently outspent state funding of transportation.
The transportation funding plan introduced last week, though, will strip local governments of the ability and flexibility to continue making needed improvements and repairs to our transportation infrastructure.
The plan proposes taking the local share of revenue generated from local option sales taxes collected on motor fuels and redirecting it to state coffers. In 2013, local governments – cities, schools and counties – collected $516 million in revenue from sales taxes on motor fuel sales. This bill would redirect that $516 million to the state, leaving local government to find other ways to make up the difference.
Also in 2013, cities and counties spent approximately $1.3 billion on transportation projects. Clearly, city and county leaders have made good use of the tax dollars entrusted to them.
In my lifetime, there has been one great social change – the civil rights movement – and three economic milestones. The first economic milestone predates me, but its impact continues to make economic waves in our state: the establishment of the Atlanta airport. This was a fork in the road for Atlanta and all of Georgia, as it moved our state into the next century for travel and business.
Second was the creation of the HOPE Scholarship, which not only improved education at the pre-K level, but provided educational opportunities and incentives for our youth to stay in Georgia. Third and most recently is the deepening of the Savannah port. When completed, that project will impact trade, commerce and jobs well into the future.
Today, we have another opportunity to create an economic milestone. If we solve our transportation funding problem, we can create a state no other state in the Union can compete with for jobs or economic opportunities. We have the leadership in place – our governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house, chairs of the Joint Study Committee on Critical Transportation Infrastructure Funding – and research institutes to help define where new revenue will come from to solve this problem.
The transportation study committee made 12 recommendations in its final report. House Bill 170 primarily focuses only on one of those, and relies on what everyone agrees is a shrinking revenue source. Let’s look more broadly. Let’s dream big, but be practical. Today, the issue is transportation. But it’s also education. And the loss of rural hospitals and trauma hospitals.
Why not develop a statewide revenue plan that addresses these issues? Georgia deserves a plan that looks at the big picture and puts funding to needs to create the same economic impact as Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson International Airport, the Savannah Port and the HOPE scholarships. City leaders look forward to working with our state leaders to make this happen.
Lamar Norton is executive director of the Georgia Municipal Association.
