Monday morning HB 57 passed 165 to zero,
according to
Gavin Bade in Utility Drive yesterday.
The
bill still has (for 46-3-62(2)) the same residential 10 kilowatt
limit as in the 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act,
but changes the 100 kilowatt commercial limit to:
(B) One hundred and twenty-five percent of the actual or expected maximum annual peak demand of the premises the solar technology serves, for a commercial application.
Bade reported 13 January 2015 that Continue reading
According to Terri Welden at the Lowndes County School Superintendent’s
office just now,
the Lowndes County Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution
against HB 170 last night.
It reads in part:
WHEREAS, this Board urges the members of the Georgia General Assembly and our local delegation to strongly oppose any provision or measure to reduce allocation of sales tax funding to local governments;
Here’s the entire LCBOE resolution, which is quite similar to the ones passed that same night by the Valdosta Board of Education and the Valdosta City Council. What will the Lowndes County Commission do at its meeting tonight that still doesn’t even have HB 170 on its agenda? Continue reading
The Valdosta Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution against
HB 170 last night and forwarded it to the local legislative delegation
via email and on paper, according to Joy at the Valdosta School Superintendent’s
office just now.
Not surprisingly, VBOE’s resolution looks a lot like the City of Valdosta’s resolution. Both were written before yesterday’s changes to HB 170, which still pit counties against cities.
The Lowndes County Board of Education unanimously passed a similar resolution also last night.
What will the
Lowndes County Commission do tonight?
And what will the
Lowndes County Board of Education do Thursday?
Here’s the Rationale in the yesterday’s VBOE agenda:
HB170 has been introduced this legislative session. It proposes to remove the local tax on fuel and replace it with a tax at the distributor level which would be paid to the state. For Valdosta City Schools this would mean a reduction in revenue of approximately $1.8 million annually from ESPLOST. The total loss of revenue for the city and county governments and the city and county school districts would be approximately $12 million annually. If passed, this bill would have a devastating effect on our community.
And here’s the resolution: Continue reading
Yesterday a Georgia House subcommittee did exactly what Valdosta
urged it not to do about distributing HB 170 funds.
Given that LMIG mismatch between cities and counties
to replace the previous mismatch of forced double taxation
on cities and counties, is the legislature trying to cause
dissension between counties and their cities, or is it just that inept?
We know Valdosta’s position.
What will the Lowndes County Commission do?
Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson wrote to bill’s sponsor: Continue reading
How long will the Lowndes County government and ACCG wait to act,
while the Georgia legislature moves on
its stealth transportation
tax hike for Atlanta that would defund local school boards and city
and county governments?
A House subcommittee has made some changes to the bill,
but it would still force local governments to raise taxes,
and it adds an unrelated repeal of an electric vehicle tax credit
to its boondoggle for trucking companies and Atlanta.
Do we want our local public schools to be defunded like
wildlife programs were through the state’s wildlife license plate revenue
tax taking?
If not, now’s the time to lobby against HB 170, before
the full House Transportation Committee meets Thursday.
Yet there’s still nothing about HB 170
on the county’s agenda for this evening’s voting Regular Session.
Valdosta has already Continue reading
Local schools would lose
$4 million annually
and local governments overall
$12 million annually,
because
HB 170 would
“re-allocate local sales tax funding from local governments to the state of
Georgia”, resolved Valdosta’s Mayor and Council last Thursday.
Plus HB 170 would effectively authorize
“double taxation of municipal residents”,
because both Lowndes County and Valdosta would have to raise property taxes,
which would result in Valdosta’s citizens being taxed more twice (by
both the county and the city).
For how serious Valdosta considers this threat to its ability to provide services
to local citizens, witness how fast this resolution got passed
(within weeks after HB 170 was introduced into the legislature)
compared to how long it took for Valdosta to pass
a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline
(about eighteen months).
Here’s the complete text of the Valdosta resolution that passed 5 Febuary 2015. See also Valdosta’s PR about this resolution, which contains links to the evidence, and Valdosta’s letter to the sponsor of the bill.
RESOLUTION NO. 2015-3
A RESOLUTION TO OPPOSE THE STATE OF GEORGIA’S
TRANSPORTATION FUNDING ACT OF 2015 Continue reading
Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll
sent a message Saturday with an attached letter from
City Manager Larry Hanson to the sponsor of
HB 170, strongly opposing that stealth tax hike.
This is in addition to
the resolution the Valdosta City Council passed against HB 170.
Carroll’s cover letter:
All,
Attached is a message Mr. Hanson prepared and sent to Rep. [Jay] Roberts regarding the proposed State Transportation Funding legislation or HB 170. Rep. Roberts is the lead sponsor of this bill.
As many of you have already heard, the Valdosta City Council adopted a resolution Continue reading
While the Lowndes County Commission has no position, the City of Valdosta already voted to oppose the legislature’s HB 170 proposed stealth tax hike that would convert a local sales tax into a state excise tax, forcing local governments to raise property taxes.
Valdosta PR Resolution to Oppose the State of Georgia’s Transportation Funding Act of 2015,
Click here to view the Resolution to Oppose the State of Georgia’s Transportation Funding Act of 2015.
Click here to view the Local Sales Taxes Collected on Motor Fuel Sales by county.
The Valdosta Mayor and City Council unanimously approved Continue reading
The only rezoning to get much time was the
Devine Subdivision at Tillman Crossing,
at this morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Maps were displayed for that and
REZ-2015-01 Gramercy 2
and
REZ-2015-03 Scurry Property,
but the board packet is still not on the county’s website.
I filed an open records request, asking for them to be emailed,
and got a telephone callback saying they were ready for pickup,
which means I won’t get them until tomorrow, and you may not
see them until after tomorrow evening’s voting Regular Session.
Tuesday evening there will be Continue reading
Sue the state? You’ll lose, because of sovereign immunity,
unless HB 59 passes.
Then you might be able to sue GA-DNR for circumventing permiting
in allowing construction on the Georgia Coast, or if it
should approve a compressor station in Albany, or if it
should issue any other permits for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.
State agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources (GA-DNR),
can use “letters of permission” to do things like make alterations to
Georgia’s coast, and anyone suing to stop it runs up against sovereign immunity
unless the issuing agency has expressly waived it.
Now that may change with
HB 59,
“State tort claims; waiver of sovereign immunity for declatory judgment or injunctive relief; provide”.
It has six co-sponsors, including
Jay Powell, District 171, Camilla, Mitchell County, GA.
Here’s the key part: Continue reading