Transportation plan draws scrutiny from Senate
State senators heard testimony Monday about how Georgia collects its gas tax, despite being nowhere close to debating a proposed $1 billion fix to the state’s transportation funding woes.
The proposal — House Bill 170 — was only filed last week and has not even been vetted by that chamber’s Transportation Committee.
“We do feel like, as a Senate, we’re going to need some skin in the game,” said Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Tommie Williams, R-Lyons.
Williams has voiced support for one of the plan’s major changes toward a flat excise tax on gas of 29.2 cents per gallon, but he warned Monday that it would have varying effects on municipalities.
Local-level leaders say the plan would take more than $500 million a year away from local governments that use it to pay for schools, transportation, sewers and more, and gives it to the state.
Under the plan, cities and counties could levy their own excise taxes on gas — up to 6 cents per gallon each — although analysis shows most counties would lose money if they did nothing.
— Kristina Torres
Deal names new head of prison system
Gov. Nathan Deal has tapped a new head of Georgia’s Department of Corrections.
The governor on Monday nominated Homer Bryson, a deputy commissioner of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, to the post. Bryson must be confirmed by the department’s board before he takes office.
Brian Owens, who has led the Corrections Department since 2009, was appointed to the five-member state Board of Pardons and Paroles. He fills the seat vacated by James Donald.
Bryson was the deputy commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources for four years, and he was previously a conservation ranger and a colonel in the agency’s law enforcement section.
— Greg Bluestein
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