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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 06
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Sales tax proposed to pay for metro road improvements
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill proposing a sales tax to pay for transportation improvements in the meto area’s five biggest counties could be introduced in the state General Assembly as early as next week, Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday.
Williams, speaking to the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the measure would allow county commissioners in Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton to put an increase of up to 1 penny in an additional sales taxes on a ballot in their counties between now and 2010. A penny increase over 10 years could raise as much as $9 billion or $10 billion, he said.
Raising the funds is essential, he said, if the metro area wants to avoid the traffic headache it experienced last week when two competing conventions tied up traffic downtown for hours.
“[Traffic] is one of the unintended consequences of our success,” he said of Atlanta’s growth as a convention center. “
Williams said the bill would be introduced by prominent Republicans from the counties, but declined to name them.
The money would be used for specific projects that would be agreed upon before a referendum, much like a special purpose local option sales tax many counties have used to raise money for schools, he said. It would also have a sunset date.
If approved, the counties would have to decide how to manage the projects, he said. The bill would allow other counties to opt in, but specifically target the five largest.
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