Perdue against special session for MARTA

Gov. Sonny Perdue isn’t ready to call lawmakers back to Atlanta for a special session to fix MARTA’s funding problems.

Perdue said Tuesday that he’s concerned about a potential cut in MARTA services. But he wants to explore other options to solve the system’s problems.

GEORGIA POLITICS
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Political Insider:
Gone fishing.

Gold Dome Live:

• Inspector finds DNR gave ‘excessive’ raise to employee

2009 Legislature Guide:
• Track bills & more!
• Issues | Players | Links

Related Links:
• More Georgia politics
• Metro News
• National News

“Certainly the governor can call a special session, but this is not the first time somebody’s bill has not passed and they’ve run to the governor’s office to ask for a special session,” Perdue told reporters. “We will have to look at a lot of things.

“Special sessions are something we shy away from. We will do our best not to call a special session.”

MARTA officials have said they will have to make drastic service cuts, such as shutting down one day a week, if the state doesn’t free up the agency’s access to its own money.

The Legislature left that issue hanging when it adjourned Friday. On Monday, the MARTA board called on Perdue and state leaders to have a special session to address it, and to pass transportation funding legislation that lawmakers also failed to resolve.

The transit bill (Senate Bill 120) would have lifted a state restriction on how MARTA spends its money, allowing the system to use the $65 million it has sitting in capital reserves. MARTA depends partly on a sales tax paid in Fulton and DeKalb counties, and those revenues have declined along with the economy.

The governor said that MARTA officials made no effort to get him involved in passing legislation that would have freed up funding for the system.

“It’s always unfortunate when people who depend on MARTA have their service cut, and I hope they [MARTA] can find a way … to make it through the end of the year,” the governor said.

Perdue said his transportation staffers and chief financial officer met with MARTA officials Tuesday “to see if there are other ways to resolve this. We want to make sure they are able to continue their operations.”

Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said state law doesn’t let the governor change such funding restrictions by executive order.

“We are exploring every possible option that we can think of,” said MARTA board Chairman Michael Walls, adding that he was “grateful” for the meeting with the governor’s staff.

“Right now it looks bleak,” he said, but until the board makes its final decision in June, “we won’t stop looking for ways to avoid calamity.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Rashad Taylor (D-Atlanta) said some lawmakers will have a news conference Wednesday asking Perdue to either call a special session or issue an executive order lifting the restrictions on how the system uses its funds.

“The over 500,000 metro Atlantans who depend on MARTA are looking to Governor Perdue for help,” Taylor said in a release.