{"id":12234,"date":"2015-02-10T11:37:32","date_gmt":"2015-02-10T16:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=12234"},"modified":"2015-02-10T13:25:46","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T18:25:46","slug":"hb-170-would-have-a-devastating-effect-on-our-community-valdosta-board-of-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/hb-170-would-have-a-devastating-effect-on-our-community-valdosta-board-of-education.html","title":{"rendered":"HB 170 would have a devastating effect on our community –Valdosta Board of Education"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nThe Valdosta Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution against\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nHB 170 last night and forwarded it to the local legislative delegation\r\nvia email and on paper, according to Joy at the Valdosta School Superintendent’s\r\noffice just now.\r\n

\r\nNot surprisingly, VBOE’s resolution looks a lot like\r\n\r\nthe City of Valdosta’s resolution<\/a>.\r\nBoth were written before yesterday’s\r\nchanges to HB 170<\/a>,\r\nwhich\r\nstill pit counties against cities<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nThe Lowndes County Board of Education unanimously passed<\/a> a similar resolution\r\nalso last night<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nWhat will the \r\nLowndes County Commission do tonight<\/a>?\r\nAnd what will the\r\n\r\nLowndes County Board of Education do Thursday<\/a>?<\/strike>\r\n

\r\nHere’s the Rationale in the yesterday’s VBOE agenda<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nHB170 has been introduced this legislative session. It proposes to\r\nremove the local tax on fuel and replace it with a tax at the\r\ndistributor level which would be paid to the state. For Valdosta\r\nCity Schools this would mean a reduction in revenue of approximately\r\n$1.8 million annually from ESPLOST. The total loss of revenue for\r\nthe city and county governments and the city and county school\r\ndistricts would be approximately $12 million annually. If passed,\r\nthis bill would have a devastating effect on our community.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd here’s\r\n\r\nthe resolution<\/a>:\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nA RESOLUTION TO OPPOSE THE STATE OF GEORGIA’S TRANSPORTATION\r\n
\r\nFUNDING ACT OF 2015\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>,\r\nthe Joint Study Committee on Critical Transportation Infrastructure\r\nFunding has issued a report which identifies the need for the State\r\nof Georgia to raise additional revenue to address transportation\r\nneeds; and\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>, House Bill 170 has now been introduced which recommends the state\r\ninvest over $1 billion annually in transportation related projects,\r\nwith over $500 million of the $1 billion coming from local sales\r\ntaxes from cities, counties and school systems; and\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>,\r\nin 2013, local governments in Georgia collected $516 million in\r\nlocal sales taxes (LOST, SPLOST, ELOST, ESPLOST, HOST, MARTA and\r\nAtlanta’s MOST) from the sales of motor fuel; and\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>,\r\nif motor fuel is removed or exempted from local sales taxes, the\r\nGeorgia Municipal Association estimates that Lowndes County could\r\nlose approximately $12,387,653.89 million annually, including\r\nproceeds to the Valdosta City government, the Lowndes County\r\ngovernment and the Lowndes County and Valdosta City School Systems;\r\nand\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>,\r\nthe proposed bill would reduce local SPLOST funding, local LOST\r\ncollections used for funding services and property tax reduction and\r\nlocal E-SPLOST funding to the school systems by approximately\r\n$4,129,217.96 for each tax annually; and\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>,\r\nin 2013, the total amount of SPLOST funds spent on transportation by\r\nthe cities and counties of Georgia was approximately $746 million;\r\nand\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>,\r\nGeorgia’s local governments have made and continue to make\r\nsubstantial investments toward transportation projects; and\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWHEREAS<\/strong>, this Board urges the members of the Georgia\r\nGeneral Assembly and our local delegation to strongly oppose any provision\r\nor measure to reduce allocation of sales tax funding to local governments;\r\n

\r\n\r\nNOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED<\/strong> the Board of Education for the City\r\nof Valdosta, Georgia hereby urges the Georgia General Assembly and\r\nour local delegation to strongly oppose any bill, provision or\r\nmeasure to re-allocate local sales tax funding from local\r\ngovernments to the state of Georgia. Furthermore that the state of\r\nGeorgia not approve any provision of a transportation bill that\r\nauthorizes double taxation of municipal residents.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\nBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED<\/strong> that this Resolution was introduced at a\r\nRegular Meeting of the Valdosta Board of Education, held on the 9th<\/sup><\/small>\r\nday of February, 2015, and adopted at said meeting by the\r\naffirmative vote of ________ members of the Board.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nVanassa Flucas, Chair, Valdosta BOE\r\n
\r\n
\r\nDebra Bell, Vice Chair\r\n
\r\n
\r\nJeana Beeland\r\n
\r\n
\r\nWarren Lee\r\n
\r\n
\r\nWilliams F. Love\r\n
\r\n
\r\nDean Rexroth\r\n
\r\n
\r\nJulian C. Sherwood III\r\n
\r\n
\r\nLiz Shumphard\r\n
\r\n
\r\nKelly Wilson\r\n
\r\n
\r\nE. Martin Roesch, Superintendent\r\n

\r\nATTEST:\r\n
\r\n

\r\nJoy Jennings, Recording Secretary\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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 […]","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":[14,8,2,20,1105,449,54,1106],"tags":[8215,2311,8704,8241,2282,8701,8699,8218,8243,8702,8710,8815,12,7,8242,1147,8700,8767,6,8726,8816],"class_list":["post-12234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-georgia","category-government","category-law","category-lcboe","category-transportation","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vboe","tag-9-february-2015","tag-diesel","tag-economy","tag-excise-tax","tag-gasoline","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-hb-170","tag-jay-roberts","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lcboe","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-motor-fuels","tag-sales-tax","tag-transparency","tag-transportation","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-vboe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-3bk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12234","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=12234"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12246,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12234\/revisions\/12246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}