Georgia House leaders unveil transportation funding bill (Atlanta, Marietta: neighborhood, to buy)

[cwkimbro]

Before everyone overreacts to this tax on cars that do not consume regular gasoline, we need to remember this is an inevitable in some way or another. $200/year is far from being out of line from what typical gas-tax collects.

Gasoline has always been a convenient proxy for a user-fee. It is a pretty direct way to tax people for much they drive and the weight of their car that proxies for the wear and tear they put on the roads.

Electric cars don't end up paying this tax at all, yet still use the roads. There is no type of direct or indirect user fee for these drivers. We have offered incentives for people to buy an electric car and some of those has been ignoring the issue of no-gas tax as a road user fee.

As more electric cars hit the road, the more inevitable something like this will be. We can't have too many drivers not paying in a share to the DOT in the long-run.

When electric cars become more common, it might be prudent of us to tax odometer mileage annually or put a tax on a meter placed on car chargers, but in short... electric cars use the roads too. At some point we have to tax them for the same purpose. I don't ever want to rely on just toll roads. A good portion of the GDOT's expenditures are not just on freeways, but on a much larger arterial/state-roadway network throughout the state and tolls on lots of types of driving are hard to do and it is an expensive way to collect taxes. This includes many of the roads that go through the center of our oldest cities, including Atlanta, and roads that cross county boundaries and have expensive bridges across rivers (ie. Chattahoochee).

Besides that, looking at the big picture. Some parts of this are big. This is not a silver bullet that will fund everything we need to fund to grow, but at a first glance it is what we need to maintain everything we have (that we haven't been maintaining properly).

The three big changes I see are good:
-They are taking away a huge portion that was going to the general fund. Previously the excise tax had 1% going to the general fund and 4% of the sales tax.
-They are making it completely an excise tax. This removes problems with price volatility. Just because gas gets more expensive or cheaper, does not change how much it costs to maintain roadways.
-They are directly tying in an automatic change to an index of average fuel efficiency. This is big, especially for Republicans to do. Without this, the tax would automatically dilute itself over time. It would be an automatic tax decrease with legislatures doing nothing to cause it as cars get more efficient... and they have been!

Now... we are still planning on growing by 2-3 million people in the next 25-30 years. This still won't include enough to fund major improvements. We will still need other revenue streams for expansions. They have created away to use this to make it easier for us to not lose federal funds when in competitive bidding situations, but this won't directly fund major upgrades.

[red92s]

There were something like 60,000 pure electric vehicles sold in the US last year. There were something like 16 million passenger vehicles sold overall. That's ~.3% market share for this year. In terms of cars on the road it's a smaller percentage than that. I get that they are trying to "level the playing field", but let's not pretend that missing out on gas taxes from vehicles comprising maybe .1% of all passenger vehicles is even a blip on the radar of the overall transportation budget. If all the gas taxes in GA actually went to the State Highway Trust, instead of pet projects via the general fund they'd have a lot stronger argument. You want to justify taxing EV's because they don't pay gas tax? Fine.

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

Before everyone overreacts to this tax on cars that do not consume regular gasoline, we need to remember this is an inevitable in some way or another. $200/year is far from being out of line from what typical gas-tax collects.

Is it?

Assume 250 miles per week (that's about the most you can do with the leases on EV's) in a car that gets 25 MPG. That's 10 gallons a week, 520 gallons per year. Figure $3.00 per gallon (being really generous here based on current prices). That's $1560 in gas per year.

GA fuel tax adds 7.5 centers per gallon. That's $39 in tax.
GA fuel sales tax adds 4%. That's another $62.

So GA fuel taxes on an average vehicle driving the same amount as an EV are roughly HALF the usage fee they want to stick to EV's.

[tikigod311]

Blows me away that people think EV drivers should get to use the roads for free. They (we) are already incentivised to the hilt.

Doesn't matter how many EV there are or how much wear and tear they put on the road, EVs should pay to use a very expensive system.


The plan sounds alright so far. Funding for transit is exciting, even if it just a gesture. Thanks Keith Parker!

[red92s]

"Republican leaders in the Georgia House of Representatives said Wednesday they've figured out a way to raise more than $1 billion a year in additional transportation funding without raising taxes."

They are "not raising taxes" . . . but they are increasing the excise tax 400%? How can they even say that with a straight face? They are eliminating a 4% tax that costs consumers 12 centers per gallon (@ $3/gal prices) and replacing it with a tax that costs consumers 22 cents additional per gallon, and it's not a tax increase? Gas would need to be over $5/gal before the consumer has "not seen a tax increase" in what they pay at the pump.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by red92s

"Republican leaders in the Georgia House of Representatives said Wednesday they've figured out a way to raise more than $1 billion a year in additional transportation funding without raising taxes."

They are "not raising taxes" . . . but they are increasing the excise tax 400%? How can they even say that with a straight face? They are eliminating a 4% tax that costs consumers 12 centers per gallon (@ $3/gal prices) and replacing it with a tax that costs consumers 22 cents additional per gallon, and it's not a tax increase? Gas would need to be over $5/gal before the consumer has "not seen a tax increase" in what they pay at the pump.

Let them say it. Then they might do what needs to be done.

[kferq]

Originally Posted by red92s

"Republican leaders in the Georgia House of Representatives said Wednesday they've figured out a way to raise more than $1 billion a year in additional transportation funding without raising taxes."

They are "not raising taxes" . . . but they are increasing the excise tax 400%? How can they even say that with a straight face? They are eliminating a 4% tax that costs consumers 12 centers per gallon (@ $3/gal prices) and replacing it with a tax that costs consumers 22 cents additional per gallon, and it's not a tax increase? Gas would need to be over $5/gal before the consumer has "not seen a tax increase" in what they pay at the pump.

They are including the 10 cents that went to local governments, which will now go to GDOT. The local governments will get some of the funds back from the general fund. Thus the general fund and local governments are paying for this, so there is no direct tax increase.

The general fund is running a surplus with current spending levels. Now if local governments need to make up funds, there could be local tax increases. The bill has a mechanism for local governments to tack another 3 cents for local projects (25 cents/gallon total). That would be a tax increase, but locally, not at the state level.

[red92s]

Originally Posted by kferq

They are including the 10 cents that went to local governments, which will now go to GDOT. The local governments will get some of the funds back from the general fund. Thus the general fund and local governments are paying for this, so there is no direct tax increase.

The general fund is running a surplus with current spending levels. Now if local governments need to make up funds, there could be local tax increases. The bill has a mechanism for local governments to tack another 3 cents for local projects (25 cents/gallon total). That would be a tax increase, but locally, not at the state level.

Removing tax revenue from localities to spend at a state level, then telling the localities they are free to pass their own tax increases isn't the same as "not raising taxes". It's forcing people to raise taxes at a local level so you can say you "never raised taxes".

This is the equivalent of Cobb County saying they are funding the Braves stadium "without raising taxes" . . . because commissioners took it upon themselves to extend a voter-approved parks and recreation tax that was due to sunset.

I am all for funding transportation initiatives. But lets do it without all the word games. I know you need more money. Come out and say it.

[Cameron H]

Originally Posted by red92s

I am all for funding transportation initiatives. But lets do it without all the word games. I know you need more money. Come out and say it.

That's politics.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

Before everyone overreacts to this tax on cars that do not consume regular gasoline, we need to remember this is an inevitable in some way or another.

...

When electric cars become more common, it might be prudent of us to tax odometer mileage annually or put a tax on a meter placed on car chargers, but in short... electric cars use the roads too. At some point we have to tax them for the same purpose. I don't ever want to rely on just toll roads.

Agreed that all vehicles should be paying for roads they are using. And I think this imperfect flat fee is tolerable for the time being.

But I think we should be working towards a permanent solution that will apply to all vehicles regardless of fuel type. I think charging based on annual odometer readings is one solution but I am curious why you "don't ever want to rely on just toll roads"? Do you not think electronic tolling will be possible to implement for all state roads?

[red92s]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Agreed that all vehicles should be paying for roads they are using. And I think this imperfect flat fee is tolerable for the time being.

I bet it is pretty tolerable if you are not the one paying it. For the EV owners being asked to cough up "usage fees" at double the rates of their gas driving counterparts, it's probably less so. Again, I'm not saying they should be exempt, but they are a rounding error in the overall numbers. Let's not pretend that collecting $10M in usage fees every year and saying "look we are funding transit!" is going to result in meaningful capital investment. I think it's a pretty palatable concept among Republican lawmakers to stick it to all those smug-mug "free" Nissan Leaf driving liberal hippies by charging them double to use the roads.