State senators continued Wednesday to dip into the conversation about how to raise at least $1 billion for Georgia’s transportation needs, as a former Florida transportation official testified about what some members think may be a model for the state.
Surcharges on rental cars and real estate transactions were among the ideas that seemed to interest the Senate Transportation Committee, which also heard a presentation on one of Chairman Tommie Williams' favorite proposals: allowing two or more counties to band together to pass a 1 percent sales tax to pay for local transportation projects.
The discussion came a day ahead of an expected House committee vote Thursday on House Bill 170, which is the official solution by the House on how to solve the state's transportation funding woes.
HB 170 would consolidate state and local sales taxes on motor fuel into one state excise tax of 29.2 cents per gallon. The bill would phase out almost all local sales taxes on gas, add a new annual user fee for drivers of electric vehicles and end a $5,000 tax credit for buying those zero-emission cars.
It does not suggest some of the extra fees used by Florida, nor does it allow the range of local revenues used to pay for projects. It also does not touch on some of the ways Georgia already tries to pay for infrastructure, such as tolls.
Former Florida Department of Transportation CFO Lowell Clary said tolls are the second-largest revenue source for Florida, fueled by both growth and a booming tourist industry. But the state’s $2-a-day fee on rental cars also raises $100 million to $150 million for the state annually, a key contribution.
The state additionally uses a “pay as you grow” funding program for transportation, schools and water, begun in 2005 and fueled in large part by a tax on real estate and other related activity usually associated with development and growth. It raises about $750 million a year for local and regional projects.
One idea Williams has already made his support clear for are multijurisdictional sales taxes — another idea not in HB 170.
The Lyons Republican lives in one of the three districts in the state that passed a special local option sales tax for transportation in 2012 and said it’s worked well. Voters in metro Atlanta rejected a similar tax that year, in large part because voters in DeKalb County, for example, had different needs and wants than voters in Cobb County.
Williams said the plan would allow small but like-minded areas — think DeKalb and Fulton counties, or Cherokee and Forsyth counties — to band together on a smaller, more feasible scale to pay for things local residents want, including roads and transit.
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