{"id":12231,"date":"2015-02-10T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T16:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=12231"},"modified":"2015-02-11T18:31:29","modified_gmt":"2015-02-11T23:31:29","slug":"hb-170-counties-vs-cities-lcc-2015-02-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/hb-170-counties-vs-cities-lcc-2015-02-10.html","title":{"rendered":"HB 170: counties vs. cities? @ LCC 2015-02-10"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nYesterday a Georgia House subcommittee did exactly what Valdosta\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nurged it not to do about distributing HB 170 funds.\r\nGiven that LMIG mismatch between cities and counties\r\nto replace the previous mismatch of forced double taxation\r\non cities and counties, is the legislature trying to cause\r\ndissension between counties and their cities, or is it just that inept?\r\nWe know Valdosta’s position.\r\nWhat will the Lowndes County Commission do?\r\n

\r\nValdosta City Manager Larry Hanson\r\n\r\nwrote to bill’s sponsor<\/a>:\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nI would urge you not to use the LMIG formula for distributing funds\r\nto local governments, unless the formula is modernized. The current\r\nLMIG is unfair to cities and unfair to communities that have used\r\ntheir transportation dollars to pave roads, rather than merely\r\nmaintain dirt roads. It is hard for me to justify that dirt roads\r\nare part of a comprehensive state transportation network. Dirt roads\r\nare local roads and should be funded, in my opinion, by local\r\nrevenues. This is more of a maintenance and operation (M&O) issue\r\nthat a capital expenditure issue. The current LMIG formula is 2\/3\r\ncenterline road mileage and 1\/3 population. This means a dirt road\r\ncounts the same as a four lane arterial collector because both have\r\none “centerline.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nYet according to\r\n\r\nJon Roberts in Peach Pundit yesterday<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nTransportation Committee chairman Jay Roberts outlined the proposed\r\nchanges to a packed hearing room. Instead of allowing cities and\r\ncounties each to institute a three cent excise tax by a vote of\r\ntheir governing body, plus another three cents each if approved by\r\ncitizen referendum, the new proposal allows county commissioners the\r\nability to vote in a six cent countywide gasoline excise tax, which\r\nwould be split with the cities according to the existing\r\nLocal Maintenance and Improvement Grant<\/a> (LMIG)\r\n\r\nformula<\/a>, which is based on\r\ncenterline miles of local roadway within the county or city.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSpeaking to reporters after the hearing, Chairman Roberts stated\r\nthat he thought this should ease concerns by counties and cities,\r\nnoting that a six cent excise tax plus additional LMIG funding from\r\nthe state, plus the ability to move transportation from a county’s\r\nexisting budget to the excise tax should make up for the loss of\r\nrevenue from a gasoline sales tax. And, Roberts stated his guiding\r\nprinciple that he was not going to allow sales tax on fuel not to be\r\nused for transportation purposes. On whether the proposed statewide\r\nexcise tax rate of 29.2 cents per gallon would hold Roberts said\r\nthat he was waiting on the fiscal note, which will describe the\r\namount of money the bill is expected to raise.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIf the state legislature wants a tax hike, it should raise a statewide\r\ntax, instead of forcing local governments to do so.\r\n

\r\nValdosta Board of Education apparently passed<\/strike> already passed<\/a> a\r\n\r\nresolution against HB 170<\/a> last night.\r\nLowndes Board of Education ‘s next scheduled meeting is\r\nthis Thursday,\r\n12 February 2015<\/a>;\r\nthere’s no agenda posted.<\/strike> also met last night<\/a> with a resolution against HB 170 on its agenda that reportedly<\/strike> passed unanimously<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nAnd what will the Lowndes County Commission do?\r\nThere’s still nothing about HB 170 in\r\ntonight’s voting session agenda<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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 […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,8,2,41,72,132,603,20,1105,88,3,449,54,1106,55],"tags":[8245,258,8244,2311,8704,8241,2282,8701,8699,8218,8718,8730,8741,8243,1261,548,8702,8792,345,8710,8815,91,1180,1181,12,7,8734,8242,8210,4,1147,139,63,8700,8767,6,8726,8816,8727],"class_list":["post-12231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-georgia","category-government","category-health-care","category-incarceration","category-internet-access-speed","category-lake-park","category-law","category-lcboe","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-transparency","category-transportation","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vboe","category-water","tag-10-february-2015","tag-bill-slaughter","tag-david-ralston","tag-diesel","tag-economy","tag-excise-tax","tag-gasoline","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-hb-170","tag-health-care","tag-incarceration","tag-internet-access-speed","tag-jay-roberts","tag-jim-galloway","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lake-park","tag-larry-hanson","tag-law","tag-lcboe","tag-lcc","tag-lmig","tag-local-maintenance-and-improvement-grant","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-motor-fuels","tag-quail-branch-lodge","tag-regular-session","tag-sales-tax","tag-sgmc","tag-tim-carroll","tag-transparency","tag-transportation","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-vboe","tag-water"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3bh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12231"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12245,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12231\/revisions\/12245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}