In a town crowded with government transportation planners and policy makers, the state plans to pay a private consultant, McKinsey & Co., up to $2.5 million to develop the state transportation strategy Gov. Sonny Perdue announced two weeks ago.

Preliminary plans show the consultant's assignment is ambitious. It includes identifying policies and governance structures; evaluating transportation building programs and how to pay for them; and suggesting what to do about the state's floundering toll road program.

McKinsey is also supposed to "support agencies as they develop a concessions pilot program." For such programs, "concessionaires," or private companies, might pay big sums up front to operate toll roads and collect the tolls for long periods.

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Abraham said all policy decisions will be made by government policy makers, who will work closely with McKinsey throughout their research.

She said her own staff is too busy to take on the work and, in any case, McKinsey will do a different type of work than other transportation consultants.

"This is creating a business case" for adopting strategies, she said. "It's not another plan or study. It's pulling everything and all the research that's been going on in all these entities into one location and move towards comprehensive goals and strategies."

Georgia Regional Transportation Authority director Dick Anderson said McKinsey could "look at our transportation issues through a business lens and a return-on-investment lens."

Abraham said McKinsey will work closely and cooperatively with all transportation agencies in developing their recommendations. The state chose McKinsey to do the plan without putting the contract out for bids, said GRTA spokesman William Mecke, "because of the time and their expertise."

Mecke said it would take two to three months for a bidding process but the study was on a tight deadline. He said the procurement still met state guidelines.

Transportation agencies are notorious for undertaking dueling studies of identical or similar subjects.

That overlap extends to higher levels of government. The DOT board's $750,000 audit of the department, for example, was joined by DOT audits commissioned by the governor and another by the state House and Senate.

But McKinsey's study will be unique if it unifies agencies like the Atlanta Regional Commission, GRTA, DOT, MARTA, local planners and state and local politicians around a consensus on what to build and how to manage and fund it.

The McKinsey project drew some surprising support.

The ARC is metro Atlanta's official planning agency and has tussled with state agencies. Its chairman, Sam Olens, said last week that while "several agencies already have excellent planning staffs, there is a need for a buy-in from the state.

"And if this contract with McKinsey provides the avenue for that buy-in from the state, then it will be worth it," said Olens, who is chairman of the Cobb County Commission.

One of the biggest questions buzzing around the plan is whether it might spark a new version of the transportation tax opposed earlier by the governor.

"We're very encouraged by what he's doing," said Matt Hicks, a lobbyist for county governments who also works on behalf of the big-tent Get Georgia Moving Coalition, which supports transportation funding. "We think that's going to have a significant impact on what happens next [legislative] session."

The coalition of about 50 organizations supported a bill authorizing a transportation funding referendum that failed by three votes in the Legislature this year.

Following the funding legislation's failure, Olens decried a void in state leadership.

Asked if he hopes the study will produce a "business case" that convinces Perdue of the need for a transportation tax, Olens said, "I think the governor frankly believes that now. I think the governor wants to see the data to back up the impression."

Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said Perdue has no preconceived ideas, but everything is on the table.

"It may include taxes, it may not," said Abraham, agreeing that all options are up for consideration.