Deal warns lawmakers over transportation talks

Track legislation

It’s crunch time in Georgia’s General Assembly, with only three working days left in the legislative session. To see where particular bills and resolutions stand, check out The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Legislative Navigator at http://legislativenavigator.myajc.com/.

Gov. Nathan Deal has warned lawmakers that he will order them into special session if they fail to pass what he considers to be an adequate transportation funding bill by the time the regular session ends next Thursday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

Three individuals with knowledge of the negotiations, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said Deal has made it clear he will use his power to order lawmakers back to Atlanta if they fail to pass House Bill 170 or if he determines it does not raise enough money for transportation.

“He has told staff to avoid scheduling vacations the last week of June,” Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said. “And he has told legislators that’s a possibility.”

A governor using the threat of a special session is not new. But engaging in the negotiations between the House and the Senate with just days left before the session’s scheduled end April 2 leaves Deal with few tools to direct those talks. The threat of a special session is a big tool.

The General Assembly has not returned to Atlanta for a special session since 2011, when it met over the summer to redraw district maps following the 2010 census.

Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, hopes it’s not necessary this year.

“The House is on record with a meaningful bill, and I think it’s the kind of bill that will help us avoid a special session,” Ralston said. “I hope the conferees will be able to sit down and push some of the noise to the background and do the work that needs to be done.”

HB 170 is currently before a conference committee of three House members and three senators who are searching for a compromise. The two chambers have passed greatly different versions of the bill, although both would eliminate state sales taxes on motor fuel and create one per-gallon excise tax, halt tax breaks for Delta Air Lines and the purchase of electric cars, and add a new user fee for electric car owners.

The House, however, set its motor fuel tax at 29.2 cents per gallon for gasoline and 33 cents per gallon for diesel while the Senate adopted a flat 24 cents-per-gallon rate for both gas and diesel, along with a $5-a-day fee on rental cars.

Much of the discussion about a potential compromise has centered on getting the Senate to agree to a higher excise tax and eliminate the rental car fee, which would cost state government — a regular renter of cars — an estimated $2.5 million a year.

But Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, said that's unlikely to happen.

"I see no way we can get to 29 cents," Williams said, noting that HB 170 passed the Senate with no room to spare after Democrats unanimously opposed the bill.

But Williams has also acknowledged he doesn’t want to tie negotiators’ hands over the bill, which seeks to raise at least $1 billion to help the state’s ailing transportation network.

While discussion may center on how much a new gas tax should cost, other ideas could influence the fate of any agreement.

Williams, for example, wants to allow each of Georgia’s 159 counties to decide for themselves on a county-by-county basis whether to pursue a local sales tax to pay for their own transportation projects. The Senate approved a variation of that proposal Thursday as House Bill 106, but Williams thinks it belongs in the larger HB 170.

There’s also the issue of both chambers’ GOP leaders wooing Democrats with things like budget incentives, including scholarship money to recruit and train minority engineering students as well as credit help for any “disadvantaged small business contracting or attempting to contract” with the state Department of Transportation. Democrats in both chambers have complained that less than 3 percent of DOT contracts go to African-American firms.

As an olive branch, House leaders included a Democrat — state Rep. Calvin Smyre of Columbus — on their negotiating committee. Smyre, the longest-serving member of the General Assembly, acted as a liaison between House Democrats and Republican leadership when HB 170 first passed that chamber. As a result, only three of 60 Democrats voted against the bill — and their support will likely be needed to pass a final compromise.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, said he understands the governor’s concerns. He also wasn’t ready to push a panic button.

“He wants a meaningful plan that puts forward $1 billion that’s dedicated and sustainable for years to come,” Roberts said of Deal.