Transportation Compromise Looks Unlikely

State House and Senate lawmakers have just one day left to come up with a transportation compromise. But talks between both chambers appear to be grinding to a halt.

Lawmakers seem to be unable to move from their positions. House negotiators in a transportation conference committee say a penny sales tax for transportation should be paid by all Georgians – because it would bring in more money.

Representative Vance Smith:

“I say let’s crank this engine and move the whole state forward.”

But senators, including Jeff Mullis, say there is no way the Senate would ever support a statewide penny sales tax. It wants regions to decide whether to tax themselves for their transportation needs.

"I've told you from day one - I've told everybody from day one. And I don't know if I'm being heard. Is anybody hearing me? Can anybody hear me today? Well I'm telling you the facts. We will not pass a statewide in the Senate."

House leaders have put forth a plan that would let voters decide if they want a statewide approach. If that vote fails, then the Senate's regional plan would take effect.

But Senate leaders are sticking to their guns and want nothing "bigger" than a regional approach.

New Legislation Introduced to Fund Construction

Georgia lawmakers are taking another crack at fixing the state's transportation woes.
State Sen. Jeff Mullis introduced legislation today that would allow local communities to ask residents to impose the sales tax hike for road improvements and construction.
Backers of a 1-cent sales tax to fund transportation in Georgia say it could generate up to $1.2 billion in new money for roads and rail projects around the state.
Republican leaders in the House have said they will push a statewide plan.

(AP)

Transportation top issue for State Senate

Transportation top issue for State Senate

The Georgia State Senate is taking another crack at passing a transportation plan endorsed
by Atlanta Business Groups.

The current plan is very similar to a proposal that failed in the Senate last year---
it would allow voters in regions to decide whether they would want a 1 cent
transportation sales tax.
Senate Republican Majority Leader, Chip Rodgers says the plan puts the power of funding
transportation projects in the voters hands.


“We are certainly open to working with the house," Rodgers says. " If they have got a better plan, we’re all ears and, we’re certainly happy to incorporate it.”


Last year The plan was criticized by some rural and conservative senators as a road to higher taxes.
Those concerns helped kill that bill in the last hour of last year's session. Rodgers says he believes those concerns have been
worked out.


Jeff Mullis agrees. The Republican state senator from Chickamauga says Senate Leadership
is committed to passing the bill this year.

“You know, transportation is also the Lieutenant Governor’s priority in the General Assembly this year. He’s made no bones about it since the last session," Mullis says. " So hopefully with the Governor’s Office we’ll find a solution.”

Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle caught a lot of heat after the bill's failure last year. For it's part, the state House is now pushing a plan that is much more statewide in scope, but could make it harder
to fund the metro atlanta projects. Rodgers says negotiations will continue through the
session.

Transportation committee makes recommendations for state

A committee of lawmakers who studied ways to fund transportation in Georgia issued its final report Wednesday at the Capitol.

The committee spent the past year criss-crossing the state and now has 18 recommendations for lawmakers. Suggestions include a constitutional Amendment to replace the 7-and-a-half percent tax on fuel, with a penny sales tax on other goods. It would allow regions like metro Atlanta to pass their own penny tax for transportation to be spent on projects only in that region. Senator Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga co-chaired the study committee, and said they were determined to do something for the state's transportation woes.

Lawmakers also want to have influence over transportation issues. They want regular reports from the DOT, and recommend the establishment of an official transportation oversight committee.

Transportation Funding Study Committee wraps meetings

Finding money for Georgia’s transportation needs is the issue a committee of state lawmakers hopes to solve. They wrapped up two days of meetings in Atlanta today.

Members of the Joint Senate and House Transportation Funding Study Committee heard a number of proposed solutions, but it’s the bigger ideas that will be debated the next few weeks-—an additional statewide gasoline tax versus a sales tax.

Committee chair, Republican Senator Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga, says the emergence of non-taxed alternative fuels changes the equation:

"I think a sales tax maybe instead of a motor fuel tax could be the funding source".

House Speaker Glenn Richardson in his brief address to committee members says he's "willing to do anything, except do nothing" in solving Georgia's transportation woes. Richardson told reporters he would hope lawmakers in next year's General Assembly can consider a transportation sales tax, along with his own sales tax proposal.

The committee expects to come out with its recommendations in a few weeks for consideration by top lawmakers.

Ticket to ride: state lawmakers mull transit options

Columbus Deputy City Manager David Arrington
addresses the session. (Photo: Dave Bender)

State lawmakers continue a series of meetings around the state to come up with ways to improve Georgia's Transportation infrastructure. They are in Columbus this week.

Monday and Tuesday's sessions of the State Senate and House Transportation Funding Study Committee is the third of six such meetings.

Co-Chairman, Republican Senator Jeff Mullis of Chickamauga says the group is talking about a lot more than just funding:

"It's not just money; it's policywise, it's new technology that's come on-board, such as "HOT Lanes," which is "High-Occupancy-Toll-Roads" and new roads. We don't believe in tolling existing roads, but to create new lanes or new roads to do that, so that the user's paying for it -- and not just all the taxpayers."

Experts also talked to the committee about public transportation, air travel and port-facility improvement.

• Previous GPB News coverage of this issue is here.
• For more on this issue, click here.
• Detailed agenda and webcasts are here.

Presentation slide from the session illustrating
transportation modes within Georgia.
(Photo: Dave Bender)

In related news, the idea of a regional airport in northeast Georgia is gaining steam, with the re-activation of a dormant transportation commission. For more on that, click here.

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Senate Committee Approves Confederate History Month

The Senate Rules Committee has approved a measure making April “Confederate History and Heritage Month” and sent it on to the full chamber for a vote.
Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) says he sponsored the legislation to pay homage to his ancestors.

“It’s only appropriate for me, with a family who fought in the Civil War, a family who owned property where the battlefield exists now, to be part of such a bill to commemorate the War Between The States in Georgia,” Mullis says.
He says his resolution shouldn’t be controversial, but it is. It comes just days after African-American lawmakers called for an official apology from the state for slavery. Mullis says his legislation is not a response to their call, although he does not support it.