Study group discusses funding for transportation | savannahnow.com

Georgia lawmakers looking for new ways to fund the state’s crumbling network of roads and bridges met Wednesday in Savannah.

In a four-hour meeting at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center, the 16-member Joint Study Committee on Critical Transportation Infrastructure Funding heard from coastal business owners and government officials, as well as representatives of the railroad and trucking industries.

“We’re trying to put together a funding plan for the Georgia Department of Transportation for the next 20 or 30 years that will be sustainable and move the state forward,” said co-chair Rep. Jay Roberts, a Republican from Ocilla.

Georgia’s excise tax is 7.5 cents a gallon. The state also collects a 3 percent tax on sales of motor fuel that is classified as a motor use fuel tax and a 1 percent tax that goes to the state’s general fund. An 18.4 cent per gallon federal excise tax also applies.

Georgia ranks right in the middle of states for its gas tax rate, coming in 23rd highest at 27.49 cents per gallon in a June analysis by the D.C.-based nonprofit Tax Foundation.

The fuel tax doesn’t go as far as it used to, a problem facing all the states, said Paula Hammond, a former secretary of transportation for the state of Washington. The federal government used to pay more than 90 percent of the cost of interstate highways.

“Those days are long gone,” she said.

via Study group discusses funding for transportation | savannahnow.com.