For Vehicles Registered in Georgia - New "Heavy Vehicle" Impact Fee - Effective

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
JimGeorgia

JimGeorgia

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 9, 2014
Posts
118
Location
Georgia
For RV's registered in Georgia, just a quick "heads up" that depending on your weight, there is a new heavy vehicle impact fee that will be imposed on registrations after 7/1/15:

For Vehicles 15,500 to 26,000 lbs:  $50.00
For Vehicles 26,001 and above:    $100.00

This was included in the transportation bill which passed the Georgia Assembly on 3/31/15.

Here's a link to the bill:  http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/153458.pdf
 
The bill addresses several things.

SECTION 3-2
Alternative fueled vehicles -
These do not pay a tax collected at the fuel pumps to support roads
and bridge maintenance.

SECTION 3-3
Says that "Certain heavy vehicles" registered in Georgia shall pay
a highway impact fee. All they said was a weight.
They have not in this bill said commercial or non-commercial vehicles.
Many states have an impact fee for commercial vehicles only.

This bill also addresses sales tax and limits certain acts by the Governor.

I do not see the immediate alarm for re-registration of vehicles.

With all the marked through areas this looks like a draft copy.
When did Governor Deal sign it?

Additional info:
Georgia Municipal Association

To fund the state's transportation needs, HB 170 would:


Impose a 26? per-gallon state excise tax on gasoline and a 29? diesel rate to replace the current 7.5? per gallon and 4% state sales tax. The state's excise tax rate would be indexed and adjusted yearly based on fuel efficiency of vehicles registered in the state and the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
   
Impose an annual truck/bus ?highway user impact fee? that would be collected when a vehicle's tag is renewed each year, with $50 being assessed for vehicles from 15,500 lbs. to 26,000 lbs. and $100 for those vehicles greater than 26,001 lbs.
 
Impose a $5 per night fee on hotel and motel stays.
 
Impose an annual $200 user fee on privately owned electric vehicles and an annual $300 user fee for commercial vehicles.
   
Eliminate the $5,000 state tax credit on the purchase of an electric vehicle.


 
No one said rving was cheep.    Still not as bad as some other states.    Most tow vehicals and under 10,000 same with trailers so looks line it will only hit rvs
 
I don't believe it will hit RVs.
per my post:
Impose an annual truck/bus ?highway user impact fee?

The fuel tax increase will be worse.
 
Oldme:

The mark through language in the "as passed" version is not a draft copy.  In Georgia legislation is written that way in that anything marked thru represents language that is stricken and anything underlined represents new language.  Any other language is in existing law.

Governor Deal has not yet signed the bill, but has indicated that he will.

As for RV's being excluded, the language does say "certain heavy vehicles".  Ultimately since it is not defined in the law and no exception is specifically made in the definition, it will up the the Georgia Department of Revenue to implement rules and regulations that define such.  I have a call into the Department to see if they can provide more insight and will post accordingly.
 
I just got my registration renewal for my MH in WA state. I only have to pay $487 for "mass transit". On top of $78 weight fee, computer fee, county paperwork tax, registration fee, etc. and so on. Pay to play at it's finest.

Ken
 
In VA we have a property tax on vehicals.  But my trailer is 20 years old. So my bill was a hole 5$ last year. Has has permenant trailer plates. One time fee of 150 3 years agaio
 
i paid a one time fee of $78.50 for my trailer registration so long as i dont change the plate to another trailer which is way cheaper than a lot of you guys south of the border




BUT

THERE IS A CATCH


we pay about 5x more for everything else which sucks  :-[
 
I understand that the language does say "certain heavy vehicles".

Per the Georgia Municipal Association that contacted the voting
representatives that is to Impose an annual truck/bus ?highway user impact fee?. RVs are not viewed as either a Truck/Buses. It appears this is aims at Commercial vehicles.

The gas tax increase bothers me more.
I sent that to a neighbor that teaches economics.
He also commented as how that would negatively impact
Ga. tourism and was surprised that more business groups
have not been vocal against it.
 
All,

Today I spoke with the Atty for the GA Dept of Revenue who has responsibility for adopting rules/regs to implement HB 170.  Bottom line is that they for all intent and purposes, have not come to a decision, since "certain" is not defined in the code and there is no reference point to the code involving commercial vehicles.  They have added a .1 carve out in the code that involves all vehicles.

The Department will implement rules/regs between now and 7-1 and the atty has assured me he will be in contact once the decision has been made.  Too many times the "legislative intent" is not always incorporated into the rules/regs and we indeed may have to have the General Assy make it clear next year that "certain" does not include RV's.

I will advise as more info is forthcoming.
 
oldme said:
I understand that the language does say "certain heavy vehicles".

Per the Georgia Municipal Association that contacted the voting
representatives that is to Impose an annual truck/bus ?highway user impact fee?. RVs are not viewed as either a Truck/Buses. It appears this is aims at Commercial vehicles.

The gas tax increase bothers me more.
I sent that to a neighbor that teaches economics.
He also commented as how that would negatively impact
Ga. tourism and was surprised that more business groups
have not been vocal against it.
Click to expand...

I was involved in the legislation (HB 170) and wanted to share a couple insights:

The gas tax equates to a 6.7 cpg increase, based on today's sales tax rate for the state and local taxes, however it has built in index increases tied to improvement in the new fleet CAFE.  That is as the new cars get more fuel efficient, the tax will go up by that percentage amount, which is estimated to be about 3 percent a year.  Then for years 2015-2018, they will take that percentage (3 percent in the example above) and multiply by the CPI.

As for business groups, the State Chamber supported this legislation because of the shortfall in dollars available for transportation improvements.  it is estimated it will raise $900 million in year 1.

I represent businesses that sell motor fuel and we opposed this because it places Georgia border retailers at a significant cost disadvantage against SC and AL.  SC will be almost 18 cents per gallon cheaper and AL nearly 10.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,334 (members: 20, guests: 1,314)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,927
Posts
1,387,644
Members
137,675
Latest member
ozgal
Back
Top Bottom