ATLANTA — Lawmakers came a step closer Wednesday to passing a transportation funding tool as a House committee passed its own version of a local optional sales tax for roads.
In the changes House members made to the transportation special purpose local option sales tax (TSPLOST) measure passed last month by the Senate, regions, instead of individual counties, could levy sales tax increase.
And 100 percent of the tax revenue would return to the region for projects listed on a local ballot referendum, instead of the 80 percent in the Senate’s version of the proposed constitutional amendment.
“There are two plans out there,” House Transportation Chairman Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, said. “I hope we can come together for the state of Georgia.”
The TSPLOST proposal, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, came out of a joint study committee headed up by Sen. Mullis and Rep. Smith last summer that discussed how to address the projected $7.7 billion shortfall in transportation funding in the next six years.
Rep. Smith had tried to pass a statewide sales tax increase of 1 percent earlier in the session, but it was shot down in committee as “the biggest tax increase in Georgia history.”
Now, the TSPLOST is all legislators have left to fulfill their pledge of finding a new way to fund transportation needs. House Majority Leader Jerry Keen said he expects the House’s version to be on the floor for a vote next week.
Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, said he voted for Rep. Smith’s version of the TSPLOST in the Transportation Committee on Wednesday because he thinks the full House should vote on the funding mechanism.
But he expressed doubts about leaving it up to regional commissions instead of individual counties to design projects and propose the TSPLOST.
“We want to make sure everyone is protected and everyone has a voice,” Rep. Graves said, adding he was unsure how he’d vote on the proposed constitutional amendment when it reaches the House floor.
To pass the House, the local sales tax would need two-thirds majority vote. Then it would go back to the Senate and probably end up in conference committee to work out differences.
If the measure passes the Legislature, Georgia voters would have to approve the constitutional amendment in November.
Rep. Smith said it is not a tax increase, “It’s just an opportunity for the people to vote.”
