ROADS/BRIDGES: Truckers file lawsuit against Georgia over how gas tax revenue should be spent

The Georgia Motor Trucking Association, F&W Transportation and Prolan Logisitics filed a class-action lawsuit, on behalf of all motor carriers in Georgia, against the state’s new gas tax. The plaintiffs state that the sales tax on gas is unconstitutional for cities or counties to use their tax revenues for anything besides roads and bridges. Currently, the gas tax that drivers pay at the pump is not required to be used to improve state infrastructure. Attorney W. Pitts Carr, who represents the truckers in the lawsuit, says that violates the state Constitution. He argues that all money collected from motor fuel sales must be plowed back into improving the transportation network. “So if this taxing scheme is unconstitutional, as we believe it is, this money should be set aside to the benefit of everybody that buys motor fuel in Georgia,” Carr said in a public statement. Amy Henderson, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Municipal Association, disagreed with truckers’ assertion that the law is unconstitutional. “First, the Constitution allows the state to create special taxing districts for cities and counties, which is what special purpose local option sales taxes are,” Henderson said in an email. “And, second, the revenue from those taxes is not the state’s money.”