Changes to state transportation bill not likely in 2016 session

While state officials are taking comment in forums across Georgia, changes to last year's transportation funding measure aren't likely in the 2016 legislative session.

 

"We don't claim to get everything right all of the time, I can guarantee you that, and we're certainly willing to go back and review things that need to be fixed and changed, but I will say this too, we're not going to change portions of this bill based on a sky is falling mentality," Georgia House Transportation Committee Chairman Christian Coomer said in Gainesville Thursday.

 

House Bill 170 is expected to result in an additional $757 million in transportation funding in the fiscal year 2016 state budget, according to DOT.

 

The measure generates the money through several components, including a state excise tax of 26 cents on gasoline and a 29 cents on diesel.  It also includes annual highway impact fee for heavy vehicles and a five dollar a night hotel/motel fee.

 

The reason behind the predicted lack of action on tweaks to the bill this year is a lack of data to base decisions on, Coomer said.

 

"We're not going to have reliable data for what House Bill 170 does, until we have about at least a year of data in hand," Coomer said.

 

The bill went into effect in July of 2015.  A year's worth of data would push any changes off to the 2017 session.

 

"Once we have the data in hand, if we can identify problems that the bill creates unintentionally, we're going to find solutions to those problems," Coomer said.

 

Thursday's forum, organized by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce's Georgia Transportation Alliance and the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, included a couple of audience questions related to the five dollar a night hotel/motel fee.

 

"If we find that the five dollar fee has actually caused hotel occupancy rates to go or that we're losing conventions over that fee, we're certainly going to find a way to fix that problem, but we want to make sure that we identify the problem and shoot straight with a good solution," Coomer said.

 

While lawmakers likely won't take up changes to the transportation bill in this session, Coomer said transit issues are expected to get attention.

 

"You're going to hear us have a lot of discussion about how transportation policy should shift with regard to transit funding and transit policy across the state, Coomer said.

 

As far as news related to vehicle transportation coming out of the session, Coomer said to expect some soon.

 

"On Monday, there's going to be a pretty significant unveiling, in you will, of some road projects of some road projects across this state that the governor has been talking about for some time," Coomer said.