Georgia County Government-August 2008

Summary of SR 845 and HB 1035 Issues leaders are vowing to resurrect the bill in some form in 2009. In its final version, SR 845 required a statewide referendum to approve a constitutional amendment that would establish regions (based on the new regional commission boundaries), and enable the regions to create transportation plans in cooperation with GDOT and ask their voters to enact a transportation sales tax of 1 percent. The regions would have been able to call a regional referendum to enact the tax beginning in July 2009. (See the sidebar for further details.) The regional approach found in SR 845 was a compromise reached between Senate leadership that preferred a countyby-county sales tax approach and House leadership that desired a statewide sales tax. Many states are turning to regional strategies to solve transportation problems, including Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia just to name a few. The failure of SR 845 was linked primarily to the failure of tax reform, which died on the final night of session, too. Many Senators said that without tax reform and a tax decrease, they would not vote for a bill that could be perceived to be a tax increase regardless of its benefits. In addition, the governor actively opposed the legislation and lobbied legislators to defeat it. Encouragingly, both House and Senate leadership are vowing to return in 2009 to successfully pass a comprehensive transportation funding bill. On the other hand, one major legislative success this year that involved cooperation between the governor and General Assembly was the creation of the State Infrastructure Bank, a revolving loan fund for local governments to use in financing transportation projects. The bank will be housed at the State Road and Tollway Authority. More than $34 million was included in the Fiscal Year 2009 budget to capitalize the bank. • Failed in 2008 Session • Broad constitutional amendment providing for a 1 percent regional transportation sales tax for transportation projects. • Regions were pre-defined based on the new regional commission boundaries. • 100 percent of funds stayed within the regional commission area in which they were collected. • All transportation purposes were eligible for funding, including roads, transit, airports, sidewalks and other infrastructure. • Required statewide referendum in November to allow formation of regions and creation of tax. • Required second regional referendum to approve the actual levy of the tax. No tax would be levied except at the discretion of the region. • The regional vote was triggered by a majority vote of the elected members of the regional commission board. • Prior to calling for the election, the regional commission must have adopted a resolution describing: 1) the amount of the tax to be levied, 2) the specific transportation purposes to be funded, 3) the maximum cost of such projects, and 4) the maximum period of time for which the tax is to be levied. • Development of a list of purposes would occur in cooperation with GDOT. • Counties had 45 days after the regional commission approved the regional transportation plan and list of projects to opt out of the plan. Two-thirds of the county commission must approve opting out. • After the opt-out period ends, the regional commission may have revised the plan accordingly and issued a call for the vote. If a majority of voters within the region approved the referendum, the tax would have been levied in all counties. • If approved, the tax could have been enacted beginning July 1, 2009, even without further action by the General Assembly. • The following exemptions to the tax were provided: gasoline and all other fuels for off road heavy-duty equipment; off road farm or agricultural equipment; locomotives, aircraft or watercraft; tangible personal property used in the production or generation of energy; and energy used in the manufacturing or processing of tangible goods primarily for resale. • The tax would have been levied only on the first $5,000 of any transaction subject to the tax. The Governor In recognition of the rapid growth in Georgia and the need for substantial investments in transportation infrastructure, Governor Sonny Perdue announced a major initiative on June 12 to develop a comprehensive statewide transportation plan before the end of 2008. The program is called “Investing in Tomorrow’s Transportation Today,” or “IT3” (pronounced I-T-cubed) for short. IT3 will be developed by the state with assistance from the internationally renowned McKinsey and Company consulting firm. The first stage will be to develop an investment strategy between June and October. During this stage, goals and strategies for transportation investments will be developed, other states will be studied for benchmarks and best practices, costs will be estimated and new policies proposed. The second stage scheduled between September and November is to report the strategy along with the resources needed. This will include prioritizing projects and developing options to pay for them, including leveraging existing resources and examining new, equitable and sustainable funding sources. The third and final stage begins in January 2009 with TRANSPORTATION ISSUES continued on page 14 AUGUST 2008 www.accg.org 13 http://www.accg.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Georgia County Government-August 2008

Georgia County Government- August 2008 Contents President’s Message County Matters Georgia’s Transportation Issues More Critical to Counties than Ever Expanding Rural Airports: Partnering for Economic Development in Upson County Meet DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham Bridge Infrastructure and Risk Counties and the Law: Georgia’s Fair Employment Practices Act Georgia’s Grand Old Courthouses: Coffee County Extension News: Infrastructure Investments Save County Funds Research Corner: Getting the Most Out of Your Research Discover the New Georgia Encyclopedia NACo News Staff News County Parade Index of Advertisers

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