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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2009 > March > 03 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USUPDATED: Dems make gains on transportation bills?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House moments ago agreed to send the three major transportation bills that were to be debated on the floor today back to the Rules Committee.
The move was made, Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said, to allow new amendments to be considered to the bills, which would create a new 1-cent statewide sales tax to pay for transportation projects and change how MARTA is allowed to use its revenues.
Word in the House is that the bills were returned to Rules as a deal made with House Democrats. What those Democrats want we don’t yet know, but we will soon, as the Rules Committee will meet in 15 minutes — 11 a.m. — to consider new amendments.
The likely outcome is that the compromise versions of these bills will come back to the floor today and still be debated, and most likely adopted, in the House some time today.
UPDATE: Rules Committee is about to meet. They are expected to approve an amendment giving House and Senate Democrats each a seat at the table with the new transportation fund oversight committee.
Also, it is expected that the amendment will require all four cents of the state fuel tax to go to DOT, whereas currently one penny now goes to the general fund.
Finally, the compromise is said to require that all funds go to the agency designated by the federal government as the recipient — which is the Department of Transportation, and not the state tollway authority.
More to come …
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