Gov. Deal pushed this massive tax increase very hard. You can see how your Representative voted at
the link below. Republicans that voted yes are the pro tax, big government,
Chamber of Commerce puppets. – Debby
Dooley
From today's AJC:
Transportation bill passes House intact
Last-minute add-ons narrowly defeated. Hard-fought victory could all be for naught
once bill goes to Senate. By Aaron
Gould Sheinin aaron.gouldsheinin@ajc.com
Jay Roberts slumped at his desk, arms crossed, staring into
the distance looking for all the world like the kid whose prom date left him at
the drive-in to smoke with the quarterback.
The Ocilla Republican, chairman of the House Transportation Committee
and author of one of this year’s key pieces of legislation, had just seen
several members of the Republican leadership in the House push through a series
of amendments that would gut his bill.
House Bill 170, which Roberts and supporters hope will raise
more than $1 billion a year for transportation improvements, was headed to the
House floor with the possibility of raising half that. But,
four hours later, it was Roberts who found himself in the end zone celebrating.
The amendments were narrowly defeated, and his bill sailed to the Senate on a
123-46 vote.
“I was pretty sure we had the votes,” an exuberant Roberts
told reporters after the vote. While it’s true that Roberts and Speaker David
Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, had claimed for weeks to have enough Republican support
to pass the bill, the sudden appearance of the amendments over the past two days
had thrown everything into doubt.
Roberts’ final version of HB 170 would eliminate the state
sales tax on gasoline and replace it with an excise tax of 29.2 cents per
gallon. That 29.2 cents has been the bill’s hallmark since it was introduced in
January. But beginning Tuesday morning, some House Republicans began to express
concern the tax rate was too high and advocated for something lower.
Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire, proposed an
amendment of 24 cents. For O’Neal, it had to be a difficult move. He and
Roberts are more than friends. They’re roommates during the legislative
session. But O’Neal’s job as majority leader is also to protect his members. O’Neal was greatly concerned that passing a
bill with the tax set at 29.2 cents per gallon would be labeled a tax increase
by
some and that perhaps as many as 10 Republican House members
could lose their seats to a primary challenge from the right, according to several
people with direct knowledge of the deliberations who were not authorized to
speak on the record.
The split within the caucus was evident. Rep. Calvin Smyre,
D-Columbus, who supported the bill and acted as the liaison between the
majority and minority caucuses, said only three Democrats voted against the
bill, leaving the other 43 no votes in the GOP column. And it wasn’t just rank-and-file Republican
members. Of the 13 deputy whips in the majority caucus — those members who are
tasked by leadership to keep their fellow Republicans in line — six voted
against the bill, as did Majority Whip Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City. Also Thursday, lawmakers from Cherokee, Cobb
and Gwinnett counties proposed their own amendment
lowering the excise rate in their counties in the bill to
21.5 cents per gallon. Those three counties do not levy as many local option sales
taxes as other counties in the state. Rep. Rich Golick, R-Smyrna, and several
other lawmakers from Cobb believed that meant they should not pay as high a
gasoline tax as other counties. “This will
establish parity between those jurisdictions with the others that do have” local
option sales taxes, he said. Golick tried twice to get the Rules Committee to
approve the amendment. First, in the Thursday morning meeting. But no vote was
taken and no reason given. Later, at a second Rules meeting, the amendment
failed by a show of hands. But the
O’Neal amendment still loomed, as did one from Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, that
would require a referendum in any county where a passenger rail expansion was
planned. When the bill came to the
floor, Roberts spoke first and he spoke last, as House rules allow.
He said he and several other lawmakers, business leaders and
community officials spent last summer and fall studying ways to fix the state’s
transportation “crisis.” The study
committee’s report found the state needs to raise $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year
just to keep pace with maintenance needs. It would take $2.5 billion to take
care of critical growth needs and billions more to get a full wish list
done. “And that’s per year,” Roberts said.
“That’s not one time, that’s a year.”
Lawmakers from Cumming, from Auburn, Midway, Columbus,
Eastman and Norcross spoke in favor of the bill. Only Rep. David Stover, R-Newnan,
raised concerns about the bill, although he said he was neither in favor nor opposed.
But Stover was once a cosponsor of HB 170 who pulled his name later and tabbed the
plan a $500 million tax increase. But
the drama was not to be over the bill itself but on O’Neal’s amendment. Ramsey,
the majority whip, urged his colleagues to support it. Lowering the excise tax
would keep the bill “revenue-neutral,” he said, meaning motorists would pay
roughly the same at the pump as they do now. “All this does is get us back to where we
started,” Ramsey said. “It’s our very best effort.” But Roberts ended the debate with the
admonition that adopting the amendment leaves the state hardly better off than
if it did nothing.
“I believe the need is there to try and get to a billion
(dollars),” Roberts said. “If we pass that amendment, we’ll be reaching about
half our goal.” Roberts said he
understood why O’Neal proposed the change.
“It’s tough for me,” he said. “I understand where he’s coming from, and
I understand the job he’s got and I respect that.”
Afterward, a relieved Ralston said he was proud of the
House. “It’s been a good day,” he said. “A lot of hard work went on.” It’s not over.
The bill goes to the Senate, which is expected — after all
this drama — to come up with a largely different plan of its own. “It’s a difficult — you know, when you start
off with a goal of raising $1 billion-plus, it’s not going to be easy,” Senate Transportation
Committee Chairman Tommie Williams, R-Lyons, told The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution this week. “But I think there are some ways we may can get
there. We’ve been formulating ideas.”
But, he added, “our guys know we have a problem we need to fix, and we
think we’ve got some ideas to get to a solution the House could agree with.” Staff writer Kristina Torres contributed
article.
House Vote #133 - 2015-2016 Regular Session
Comments
Voters need to know what projects and costs were included in
the $1 billion and $2.5 billion lists.
We are afraid there will be a high price for not much congestion relief,
just like the 2012 T-SPLOST list.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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