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Plans to ease Georgia’s transportation crisis were on the minds of lawmakers and state leaders during the Legislature’s first week back in session, but there was little movement toward an actual proposal.
Gov. Nathan Deal, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, all repeated their public support for finding new sources of funding for transportation, but all three remained silent on where that money might be found. Instead, rumors of patchwork solutions made the rounds, including a possible cigarette tax increase or elimination of certain tax credits or exemptions.
There’s also concern over possibly increasing Georgia’s gas tax to help boost revenue. The state needs to raise an extra $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year on top of what it already earmarks just to maintain the state’s ailing transportation system, according to a legislative study committee’s recent recommendation.
“My perspective now is not so much what the loudest people are saying but rather how it affects the blue-collar worker out there who’s got to fill up his truck every day or the small business owner who has to fill trucks with diesel fuel — what’s that doing to his bottom line?” said state Sen. Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, his chamber’s newly appointed Transportation Committee chairman.
“Now, all those people benefit from improving the roads, but I’m not sure how aggressive we can be without hurting people,” Williams said. “It’s a complicated subject, and I think we’ll get to some solutions. It may be incremental so that we can stomach it.”
In the meantime, another Republican lawmaker moved to fill the void.
Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, filed House Bill 60 on Thursday. The bill would eliminate the so-called "fourth penny" of the state's tax on gas that currently goes into the state general fund. Instead, Setzler would shift that penny to the motor fuel tax, currently at 3 percent. Motorists' taxes would be the same, but all the money would go directly to the Department of Transportation.
Setzler’s bill also would flatten and decrease the state income tax and gradually increase the excise tax on fuel from 7.5 cents per gallon to 22.5 cents per gallon by 2022.
The net result would be an estimated $180 million hit to the general fund, with that money instead going directly to the Department of Transportation.
“What it really does is take a steady walk in the same direction,” Setzler said, adding that overall the bill is revenue-neutral or a slight tax cut.
Setzler believes lawmakers should also tap growth in state revenue for new transportation dollars, which would allow Georgia to address its transportation needs without an overall tax increase.
Setzler's bill is not considered part of whatever package House leaders will put forward. House Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, who is expected to sponsor the bill or bills that leadership supports, said the first proposal could be introduced the week of Jan. 26, when lawmakers next return to session.
“We’re in the process of having it drafted,” Roberts said Thursday. “Now we’re just making sure our numbers are correct.”
Instead, Setzler’s bill is the first counterproposal to whatever does come in the next few weeks. Setzler, like many Republicans in the General Assembly, has already said he could only support an increase in one tax if other taxes are lowered.
But the mere existence of Setzler’s bill exposes the problem Ralston and Roberts have in finding the 91 votes needed to pass their plan in the House. If it is not revenue-neutral — meaning the tax cuts are at least equal to the tax increases — a number of GOP lawmakers who have signed no-tax pledges will likely vote against the bill.
Another consideration is the effect on other agencies and programs crucial to Georgia.
Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Renee Unterman, R-Buford, said she agrees “110 percent” that lawmakers must find cash for the state’s roads and, possibly, transit, but she worries that other high-priority issues such the state’s Medicaid funding gap will get lost in the shuffle.
“We cannot borrow from Peter to pay Paul,” she said. “As an elected official, you must consider the overall picture, not just address or focus on one issue.”
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