East Cobb's Gas Tax is Going Up

Sign up for the East Cobb Patch newsletter!

---

Georgia’s drivers will have to pay a little more at the pump in order to keep the state’s highways and bridges in top condition.

State House and Senate committees adopted HB 170, or the “Transportation Funding Act of 2015,” on Tuesday, according to the Georgia General Assembly’s website. The measure includes a 26 cent per gallon excise tax on gasoline, a tax that is anticipated to generate around $700 million a year in revenue for “maintenance, expansion, and improvement of highway infrastructure in the areas of this state most impacted by traffic congestion and to areas of this state in need of highway infrastructure to aid in attracting economic development to the area.”

Starting in 2016, the taxes will be adjusted by multiplying the base tax rate by the percentage change in fuel efficiency in new cars registered in the state from year to year, and then multiplied again by the Consumer Price Index. The Consumer Price Index adjustment will cease after 2018.

HB 170 also creates a 14-member Special Joint Committee on Georgia Revenue Structure, which will introduce bills or resolutions concerning tax reform to the House of Representatives during the 2016 legislative session.

Additionally, the bill introduces a $200 registration fee for electric vehicles, and eliminates tax credits for “any new low-emission vehicle or new zero emission vehicle purchased or leased on or after July 1, 2015.

Starting on July 1, the bill will allow any county which is not already in a special district levying a special use or sales tax and is a party of a mass transit regional system to call for referendums on the imposition of transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Taxes (SPLOST). After 2017, counties not party to mass transit regional systems can seek to collect transportation SPLOSTs at the local level.

WSB-TV reports that Gov. Nathan Deal wanted $1 billion annually to improve the state’s infrastructure.

HB 170 can be read in full below: