MARTA Shorted in Sales Tax Bill

MARTA to Lose Millions Due To 'Birthday Tax' Change by Jonathan Shapiro

MARTA has been on a roll lately. More riders. Higher revenues. Expansion to Clayton County. But Friday MARTA laid out some bad news. The transit agency just discovered it stands to lose $46 million over the next five years due to a recent change in state law.

Most Georgia drivers are familiar with the so-called birthday tax. That’s the money you pay the county each year to renew your car registration. State lawmakers recently changed that system. For anyone buying a car after early 2013, rather than an annual tax, there's now only a one-time, upfront fee. 

MARTA spokeswoman Rhonda Briggins Ridley says that change is costing MARTA millions.   "With this new process, the dollars are going straight to the state and so as an unintended consequence MARTA’s not seeing the dollars we once saw and so we’re asking for those dollars to be returned to MARTA," said Ridley. She delivered that message to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Overview Committee, MARTA’s legislative oversight committee.

The committee tried to figure how no one raised the issue before the change went into effect.  "I don’t remember anybody talking about, from MARTA, the consequences and for that I apologize," said Sen. Fran Miller, R-Dunwoody. "We at Fulton and DeKalb should have thought of it but I don't think we ever did to be honest with you."

MARTOC chair Mike Jacobs, R-Brookhaven, said responsibility lied with MARTA and committee members. "I certainly wouldn’t lay that at MARTA’s feet but I would say I think it’s an oversight by everybody," said Jacobs.

MARTA collects more than $350 million a year in sales tax revenue, so service won’t be affected in the short-term. But it could affect MARTA’s ability to borrow money in the long-term. As a result, Jacobs agreed to work with MARTA this upcoming legislative session to try and recoup the lost revenue.

"How we peel those layers back is going to be quite a process unfortunately and I'm certainly open to being a willing partner in that process but it is going to have to be a partnership and it is going to involve a high level of investment on MARTA's end to get it done," said Jacobs. 

Source:http://wabe.org/post/marta-lose-millions-due-birthday-tax-change

Comments

Every year some glitch is discovered in a recently passed bill coming from the ‘gold dome’, so this unpopular bill is the latest casualty in the “war on cars”.

Sales taxes paid for car and truck purchases should go 100% to road maintenance and expansion along with gasoline taxes.  We saw the cost of road work double in this era of the federal stimulus and now we would like to see some “deflation” in these costs. None of these sales tax revenues should go to the general fund or to MARTA. 

Continued cost reduction and fare increases should be used to get MARTA to get its revenue and costs to balance. Losing routes and schedules should be cut.  It’s not governments’ job to subsidize insolvent services.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader