GA Transportation Funding Letter

Dear Legislators:

It was good to see all of you at the Cobb County GOP Precinct Meeting this morning.  Per our discussion, we have strong concerns about the "gas tax" legislation proposed here in Georgia, both HB60 and HB170.   

We have faith that you want to do the right thing. Therefore, I am submitting some suggestions that will work.

 

No tax should be proposed until you fix the holes in the current system.  We do not see efforts to improve *accountability and transparency*.  All efforts at "reform" must start there.

 

1.  Approximately *$1.5 BILLION *of our tax dollars have been given away in subsidies to special interests in the form of corporate welfare.  (See summary sheet attached.  If you write me back with any interest, I will share how we came up with those numbers and which companies are

involved.) Currently, there is no requirement for these companies to actually show a payback to Georgia taxpayers in the form of job creation or other benefits.  Please start there.   This is one of the sites with subsidy trackers.  (The subsidy list looks like a campaign donor "give away.")

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/

 

2.  Georgians are weary of hearing our "fiscally conservative" GOP legislature ask for more money instead of cutting the fat first. That is another place to start.

 

3.  It is insulting to constituents for legislators to say the

legislative body is proposing adding $1 BILLION a year in receipts by NOT raising taxes.  The city and county governments will lose approximately $500 million and will, thus, have to raise local taxes to compensate.

 

4.  Georgia is a donor state at the federal level, whereby, Georgia receives only pennies back on the dollar from the federal government of money we send them. The legislature can fix that.

 

5.  Begin by listing a very specific, limited list of projects that are NECESSITIES, not "nice to haves."  Paying for a project with tolls, with the tolls ending, once the project is completed and paid, is another possible fair way to cover costs.  The idea that the legislature obtains a total amount ($1 billion) that members want to collect, then finds ways to spend the money after the fact, is irresponsible. That is a blank check.

 

6.  The penny of the current gas tax intended for roads and bridges needs to come back out of the General Fund and be used in the way it was intended.

 

7.  The GDOT has a bad track record in terms of being unable to account for huge sums of money.  There should be regular audits and transparent accounting of how our tax dollars are spent.

 

8.  No matter what the question is, the answer to politicians always seems to be "TRANSIT."  Georgians overwhelmingly rejected the Transportation tax two years ago, the majority of the funds to go to economic development (transit-oriented-development) and to transit itself.  Transit is NEVER self-supporting.  It always requires more tax dollars to pay for it, and it is an antiquated solution.

 

I have attached an announcement from our neighbor state of South Carolina.  Taxpayers are also fighting a gas tax there.  I think this announcement sums it up nicely.  This is an excerpt:

 

AFP has pointed to economic models showing that just a

5-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike would destroy nearly 1,000 jobs and cost the average household $78 annually. The group also says that without reforms to the state’s Department of Transportation, the use of additional gas tax revenues is subject to the whim of unelected bureaucrats_. The fact that taxpayers cannot hold their elected officials directly accountable for such important decisions is wrong and should be fixed, the group said.

 

I will be happy to send you examples of how other states are reining in corporate welfare and requiring accountability.  Please email me if you are interested.

 

We know that you want to do the right thing. Most families will be hit hard by added sales taxes and excise taxes.  Think of our struggling military families and others who need and deserve our help to keep more of their scarce, hard-earned money. Start with accountability and transparency and a limited project list of requirements please.  By cost cutting first, you could actually save enough money to put into a fund that could be used to transition Georgia off the state income tax.  That would be a win-win for everyone!

 

Thank you for your hard work.  We look forward to a fiscally responsible solution for all.  I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Sincerely, Jan Barton 770-856-8552 (cell)

(Member of multiple conservative coalitions opposed to the gas tax)