Highway Impact Fees for Heavy Vehicles; Use of Funds

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Motor Vehicles and Traffic
  4. Registration and Licensing of Motor Vehicles
  5. Motor Vehicle License Fees and Classes
  6. Highway Impact Fees for Heavy Vehicles; Use of Funds

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  1. As used in this Code section, the term:
    1. "Transportation purposes" means activities incident to providing and maintaining an adequate system of public roads and bridges in this state and for grants to counties for road construction and maintenance.
    2. "Transit" means regular, continuing shared-ride or shared-use surface transportation services that are made available by or funded by a public entity or quasi-public entity and are open to the general public or open to a segment of the general public defined by age, disability, or low income. Such term includes services or systems operated by or under contract with the state, a state agency or authority, a local government, a community improvement district, or any other similar entity of this state and all accompanying infrastructure and services necessary to provide access to these modes of transportation. Such term excludes charter or sightseeing services; school bus services; courtesy shuttle and intrafacility or terminal services; limousine carriers; and ride share network services, transportation referral services, and taxi services as such terms are defined in Chapter 1 of Title 40 and which are not paid for by a public entity.
    3. "Transit projects" means and includes purposes to establish, enhance, operate, and maintain, or improve access to transit, including the issuance of grants for the provision of transit, the issuance of general obligation debt and other multiyear obligations to finance such projects, the financing of operations and maintenance of such projects once constructed, and the contracted purchase of transit from providers without direct capital investment.

(b) In conjunction with the payment of fees for the licensing of the operation of vehicles pursuant to Code Section 40-2-151, certain heavy vehicles registered in Georgia shall pay a highway impact fee. The annual fees shall be as follows for each such vehicle registered:

(1) 15,500 lbs. up to 26,000 lbs. .................................$ 50.00 (2) Greater than 26,001 lbs. .......................................100.00

It is the intention of the General Assembly, subject to appropriations, that the fees collected pursuant to subsection (b) of this Code section shall be made available and used exclusively for transportation purposes in this state with up to 10 percent of the fees collected to be appropriated for transit projects.

If the amount collected under this Code section is ever not appropriated for a fiscal year as provided by subsection (c) of this Code section, as determined jointly by the House Budget and Research Office and the Senate Budget and Evaluation Office, then the amount collected shall be reduced by 50 percent. Upon the conclusion of a second fiscal year in which an amount is not so appropriated, this Code section shall stand repealed and reserved, and such fees shall cease to be collected, on the date the appropriations Act for such fiscal year becomes effective. Such budget offices shall certify any such lack of appropriation to the Code Revision Commission for purposes of updating the Code in accordance with this subsection.

(Code 1981, §40-2-151.1, enacted by Ga. L. 2015, p. 236, § 3-3/HB 170; Ga. L. 2020, p. 903, § 3-1/HB 105.)

The 2020 amendment, effective August 5, 2020, substituted the present provisions of subsection (a) for the former provisions, which read: "As used in this Code section, the term 'transportation purposes' means and includes roads, bridges, public transit, rails, airports, buses, seaports, including without limitation road, street, and bridge purposes pursuant to paragraph (1) of subsection (b) of Code Section 48-8-121, and all accompanying infrastructure and services necessary to provide access to these transportation facilities, including general obligation debt and other multiyear obligations issued to finance such purposes."; and added "with up to 10 percent of the fees collected to be appropriated for transit projects" at the end of subsection (c).

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2015, p. 236, § 8-1/HB 170, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 'Transportation Funding Act of 2015."'

Ga. L. 2015, p. 236, § 8-2/HB 170, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "It is the intention of the General Assembly, subject to appropriations and other constitutional obligations of this state, that year to year revenue increases be prioritized to fund education, transportation, and health care in this state."

Ga. L. 2015, p. 236, § 9-1(b)/HB 170, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "Tax, penalty, and interest liabilities and refund eligibility for prior taxable years shall not be affected by the passage of this Act and shall continue to be governed by the provisions of Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated as it existed immediately prior to the effective date of this Act." This Act became effective July 1, 2015. Continued funding was appropriated by the General Assembly in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Law reviews.

- For article on the 2015 enactment of this Code section, see 32 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 261 (2015).


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