Georgia
Gasoline Tax
US gasoline
tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. Georgia
gasoline tax is 28.5 cents a gallon. That’s a total of 46.9 cents a gallon. If Georgians still buy 3 billion gallons of
gasoline per year, total revenue from these sources would be $1.41
billion. The ad Valorum taxes for
automobiles had generated $300 million a year. Not all of this $1.71 billion
went to roads. In addition cities and
counties spend money on roads.
Gasoline
consumption increases with economic activity.
More people with jobs and more goods shipped result in more demand for
gasoline. Our high (25%) unemployment is
contributing to our lower transportation project funding.
The increase
in “transportation” projects is too often tied to some “economic development”
scheme to benefit CIDs and crony developers. These boondoggles are soon boarded
up and sold off after they go bankrupt. If transportation dollars were dedicated to
mitigating gridlock, we would have enough tax revenue to handle it. Remember, half the ARC T-SPLOST was a MARTA
bail-out and none of the road projects tied together to solve anything.
The biggest
rip off has been the doubling of road costs since 2009, when “stimulus” dollars
doubled the amount of revenue available to states and municipalities. This created a pile-on of unnecessary
“engineering” studies and projects that were never “necessary” before. Coordination between ICLEI and the American
Planning Association provided cookie-cutter plans for municipalities and
“Regional Commissions” dole out the dollars.
Ensuring
that all taxes generated by automobile use taxes go to roads may be the only
thing the Georgia Legislature needs to do.
Norb Leahy,
Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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