The Georgia Legislature’s Transportation Committee has approved a new version of its transportation bill, which now heads to the Rules Committee.

Here are some highlights from various articles as to what’s changed and what’s stayed the same in this version of the bill.

• Local SPLOST and HOST funding won’t come from gas tax, but rate increases – From the Atlanta Business Chronicle. “…in a tradeoff aimed at addressing complaints from local governments, the bill would increase some of the hodgepodge of sales taxes charged at the local level – including Atlanta’s sales tax financing the city’s ongoing sewer system overhaul – from the current 1 percent to 1.25 percent. The increase would help offset the financial impact of a provision in the bill prohibiting local governments from collecting sales taxes on gasoline.”
• Specifics on the “hodgepodge” referenced above from the AJC ” HB 170 would leave alone SPLOSTs and similar taxes levied by school districts but require any revenue raised from motor fuel go to a wide variety of transportation uses. Any municipal option sales tax or local option sales tax used to roll back property taxes, however, would no longer apply to motor fuel and the rate would increase from 1 percent to 1.25 percent. The bill would still abolish existing state sales taxes on motor fuel and implement a new excise tax of 29.2 cents per gallon of gasoline and 33 cents per gallon of diesel fuel.”
• $5000 Electric car state income tax credit axed –  From the AJC – The bill would “also would end the state’s $5,000 income tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles and create a new annual registration fee for electric cars. The fee would be $200 for personal vehicles and $300 for commercial cars, trucks, vans and buses.”
• Airline tax break on gas eliminated – The bill “strips Delta and other airlines of a tax break on the purchase of jet fuel.”  The airline industry has benefited from the tax break for over a decade according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.
• Gas tax to increase 20 cents a gallon – A WABE article adds that the original and revised bill increase the state tax on gas by 20 cents a gallon.

Back in late January, we spoke with City Manager Peggy Merriss about the potential impact of lower revenue from HOST.  Here’s her thoughts on what it would mean for Decatur…

If the HOST sales tax is reduced by redirection to a state excise tax, we would either have to do fewer HOST projects, use more property tax revenues or repave fewer local streets.  And the local projects that are funded by sales tax revenue will not be funded by the state excise tax, as that will go to state projects.  There is no win for local governments in this equation.

We’ve followed up with the City Manager for her thoughts on the recently revised bill, which increases the tax rate from 1% to 1.25% to offset the loss of gas taxes.  We will update this post when we receive a reply.

UPDATE: Decatur City Manager Peggy Merriss says that based on their rough estimates, the new proposal to exempt motor vehicle fuel, but up the % levied from 1% to 1.25% should be a “revenue neutral proposition”.

Photo courtesy of Chad

UPDATE:  Another update from Rails to Trails indicates that the amendment, which would have restored funding to Safe Routes, Rails to Trails, etc, failed to pass by a vote of 27 to 29.

Julie sent in this alert that she received from Rails to Trails yesterday…

We aren’t exaggerating when we say this ask has never been more urgent.

Please read more and take action now.We have until 4 p.m. EST today to have our thoughts heard.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 2, the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on our nation’s next multiyear surface transportation bill.

There’s no way to spin this: From the perspective of trails, walking and bicycling, the bill is a total disaster.

Among its worst features are:

• It eliminates dedicated funding for the Transportation Enhancements (TE) program—the nation’s largest funding source for trails, walking and bicycling. (Terrible news, but we expected it.)
• It removes the rail-trail category from TE eligibility.
• It completely eliminates funding for the Safe Routes to School program.
• It eliminates funding for bicycle and pedestrian coordinators at state DOTs.

But there’s still a chance…

Representatives Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Tim Johnson (R-Ill.) are considering the introduction of an amendment in the committee that would right many of the bill’s wrongs.

But they need to hear from other committee members that their amendment has a fighting chance.

Please: Take two minutes and ask your representatives to defend trails, walking and bicycling. We only have until 4 p.m. EST today, so any additional support you’re able to gather will make an enormous difference!’

A follow-up email breathed a cautious sigh of relief noting that an amendment saving the programs mentioned above had already been drafted.  According to Rails-to-Trails “Due to its last minute filing and its becoming the major focus of attention for tomorrow’s debate and vote on the bill, congressional discussion on the amendment will go late into the night.”

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see at this point.

Sonny just signed the great-victory/too-little-too-late transportation bill.  So says the Atlanta Business Chronicle…

Gov. Sonny Perdue Wednesday signed a long-awaited transportation funding bill that will let voters in metro Atlanta and other Georgia communities decide whether to tax themselves to pay for needed highway and transit improvements.

Go forth and do good taxing.

Last year, transit trolls breathed a sigh of relief when the Atlanta Regional Commission stepped in and saved MARTA.  But at the same time, many worried that the “bailout” wasted a LOT of momentum.  Here’s how I summed it up last May…

Pissed lawmakers were giving the inside scoop on committee meetings, MARTA was calling for special sessions, we had the House Majority Leader on record saying he went to Disney World more often than he rode MARTA (and therefore couldn’t see the benefits to his Isle of Retirement (St. Simons.)

Yesterday, a piece by CL’s Thomas Wheatley brought out worries that not enough is being done to revive that sort of fervor prior to the end of Georgia’s legislative session next week.  As if she was reading our calls for action, the AJC’s April Hunt comes through this morning with a recap of what’s still being done to get some form of “transportation bill” through the Georgia legislature.

A slew of action alerts from transportation advocates of different stripes have landed in e-mail accounts, exhorting people to call their legislators in favor of passing a bill. Lobbyists for the Metro Atlanta Chamber have headed to the state Capitol, concerned CEOs of big Georgia companies in tow, warning of the consequences of inaction. The Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce bused in 300 business people last week to hobnob with legislators and talk about the jobs to be created by expanding transportation — or to be forgone if legislation sputters out like last year and the year before. They wore buttons that said “New Transportation Funding: Finish the Job.” Now they’ve created a “Finish the Job” logo and launched a Facebook page.

You can join the “Finish the Job” Facebook page HERE.

Hunt also quotes Rep. Jay Roberts – the chair of the House transportation committee – as saying that his office “hasn’t been inundated” with responses to get a bill passed.

Well, here’s Mr. Roberts email address:  [email protected] Inundate away!