Georgians and the many others who drive through the state already feel the pinch of higher gas prices. The bite on the pocketbook will become even deeper on Sunday. The price of gasoline across the state will increase by at least 3 cents and as much as 6 cents a gallon when the state gas tax automatically increases. There’s little likelihood of a reprieve.
Gov. Nathan Deal says he understands the pain the tax increase will cause, but says the remedy is not an executive order to freeze the tax rate, but legislative action to change the law that triggers the increase. He is correct.
Still, the automatic increase in the state gas tax coupled with the rapidly rising price of fuel is a double whammy for Georgians. If they want to stay on the road, they have to dig deeper to pay the price. The only alternative is to park their cars and trucks, which most can’t do, or to seek other means of transportation. The later is a viable option for only a certain segment of Georgians. Public transportation – primarily city or county trains and buses – operate in only a few communities in the state on the scale necessary to significantly reduce dependence on personal transportation. The governor and legislators should turn their attention to that shortage.
Georgia, like many states, has spent the last few decades building more and more roads to connect more and more suburbs to urban centers. That policy produced growth but at a significant cost. According to national reports, some Georgians, particularly around Atlanta, spend far more time in their cars commuting than the average American. Those who do so will pay a considerable premium in coming months to stay on the road.
Georgia’s gas tax is 7.5 cents per gallon, plus an additional amount that is based on price. The formula to determine when and how much the tax increases is based on a complicated matrix that requires an upward adjustment when the price of gas rises more than 25 percent. As anyone who fills up a car or truck knows, fuel prices have met that criterion in recent months. That rise in retail prices at the pump prompted the automatic increase in the state tax.