Georgia’s new transportation bill: 5 takeaways

Near midnight Tuesday, the Georgia Legislature passed one of the most sweeping transportation funding bills ever. Gov. Nathan Deal has said he’ll sign it. With a combination of new taxes and fees, the bill will raise nearly $1 billion a year. Here are some highlights:

• Under Georgia's current tax structure for gasoline – a 7.5 cents per-gallon excise tax, and a 4 percent sales tax – about 19.3 cents on every gallon goes to the state. Under the new bill, the same gallon of gas would be taxed at 26 cents per gallon, or 29 cents for diesel. So drivers of most vehicles will pay about six cents more per gallon at the pump.
• Heavy trucks and big-rig owners would pay a "highway impact fee" of $50 to $100 depending on the weight of the vehicle.
• The measure does not set aside any money for mass transit. Technically, money raised from sources other than the gasoline tax could be spent on transit projects in the future. (State law mandates that gasoline tax proceeds may only be spent on roads and bridges).
• The hotel/motel tax increase in the final bill — $5 on every room in the state – was a bit of a surprise. It had appeared in neither the House- or Senate-passed bills. A conference committee added it in, and the tax increase is expected to fetch $150 million a year from about 168,000 rooms in the state.
• HB 170 slams the brakes on Georgia's embrace of plug-in electric vehicles. The bill repeals the popular $5,000 state tax credit that made electric cars so attractive, and it slaps a $200 per year fee on noncommercial electric vehicles and $300 per year on commercial EVs. Five other states charge an annual registration fee on electric vehicles that ranges from $50 to $100.