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The House author of a plan supporters hope will raise more than $1 billion a year for transportation improvements officially made his first pitch Thursday to his Senate counterparts, although it was mostly show and tell with the Senate Transportation Committee expected next week to unveil its own proposal.
The presentation by House Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, hit on notes now familiar to Capitol watchers: House Bill 170 would, among other things, eliminate the state sales tax on gasoline and replace it with an excise tax of 29.2 cents per gallon; charge a user fee for electric vehicles of $200 per year for private cars and $300 per year for commercial vehicles; and end the $5,000 state tax credit for the purchase of an electric car.
But Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Tommie Williams has an independent streak and an aversion to causing sticker shock that could drive motorists across state lines. Working with what he has said is a more conservative caucus than in the House, the Republican from Lyons is just as likely to propose a lower excise tax per gallon and pumped-up collections from any number of user fees.
Surcharges on rental cars and real estate transactions have been among the ideas that have interested Williams and other committee members, as has allowing two or more counties to band together to pass a 1 percent sales tax to pay for local transportation projects. Williams has also said he is willing to consider raising Georgia’s cigarette tax, which at 37 cents per pack is currently one of the nation’s lowest.
He and committee members said Thursday that they need to do a better job explaining what the money will get Georgians. While they agreed something needs to be done, “we Republicans are going to have a disagreement of how we get there,” said state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, adding he is worried about putting Georgia at a competitive disadvantage with the state’s neighbors. “I’m obviously not comfortable with our current framework,” Jones said, “but we’re going to work on it.”
Lawmakers, business leaders and community officials spent last summer and fall studying ways to fix the state’s transportation “crisis” and found the state needs to raise $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year just to keep pace with maintenance needs.
They also said it would take $2.5 billion to take care of critical growth needs and billions more to get what Roberts on Thursday called a fancy “new pool and gazebo in the backyard.” Raising about $1 billion, he added, “just fills in the cracks.”
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