The Georgia Motor Truck Association and three carriers have filed a class action lawsuit against the state Department of Revenue alleging that a new law allowing cities and counties to impose a 1% per-gallon fuel sales tax is unconstitutional.
They charge that the law allows revenue from the tax to be spent on projects other than road and bridge maintenance.
The law, which took effect July 1, also imposed a state excise tax of 29 cents per gallon for diesel and 26 cents per gallon for gasoline, replacing the prior 7.5 cent per gallon and 4% state sales tax for both fuels.
The 1% motor fuel sales tax could require truckers and other motorists to pay additional taxes of up to 15 cents a gallon, according to the lawsuit. The new law also imposes a $100 truck and bus “highway user impact fee” for vehicles weighing greater than 26,000 pounds — to be collected when a vehicle’s tag is renewed each year.
The truckers’ lawsuit asks a Fulton County state court to rule that the local motor fuel tax violates that state's constitution, which it said requires the local fuel tax proceeds be spent only on road and bridge maintenance.
Their lawsuit said that the law, state House Bill 170, instead allows local fuel-tax revenue, which will amount to tens of millions of dollars, to be used for such projects as administrative buildings, civic centers, bicycle paths, schools, sidewalks and jails.
The three Georgia carriers who have joined forces with the state trucking association are J&M Tank Lines Inc., F&W Transportation and Prolan Logistics.
“Motor fuel taxes are supposed to be spent on roads and bridges, but now they can spend it on anything they want to,” the truckers’ attorney, W. Pitts Carr of Atlanta, told Transport Topics. “Our whole argument is that under the constitution it has to be spent on roads and bridges.”
A spokesman for the Georgia Department of Revenue declined to comment on the lawsuit and a spokeswoman for the Georgia Municipal Association did not return a phone request for information on the local tax.
Although some local fuel taxes have been collected in past years, Carr said the new law clearly raises a constitutional question because the state Legislature is not only authorizing the levy of local retail fuel taxes, it is specifically designating them for non-road and bridges purposes.
“The citizenship has a legal right to insist that things be done in accordance with the law,” Carr added.
House Bill 170 also would amend the Transportation Investment Act to allow those regions which did not pass a regional transportation referendum (in 2012) to bring another call before the voters.
