Transportation crisis spurs state ‘summit’

Just about every top Georgia transportation official is scheduled to be at a meeting Wednesday to discuss the state’s transportation funding crisis.

Meeting organizers these days like to term everything a “summit,” but this one could deserve the name.

Transportation funding was already in a critical state before this year. But now accounting changes at the state Department of Transportation have cut hundreds of millions of dollars from planned spending, and the recession has devastated MARTA’s income from sales taxes.

In addition, a portion of DOT’s income depends on the price of gas, and that’s been volatile, sliding recently to a four-year low.

The agenda for the meeting, called jointly by the participants, has three sections:

>”Immediate actions in advance of any new funding”

>”Short-term funding and strategy”

>”Long-term funding and strategy”

The immediate action on everyone’s plate is budget and project cuts. Tad Leithead, head of the Transportation and Air Quality Committee of the Atlanta Regional Commission, said the region will probably have to cut three-quarters of the money from the current year’s project list.

In the short term, Georgia officials hope for federal stimulus dollars, and for the state Legislature to approve a measure allowing referendums to raise transportation funding. Longer term, transportation experts recommend a shift from the gas tax as a form of user fee, perhaps to an odometer tax.

Slated to attend Wednesday’s meeting are the boards of the DOT, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, the State Road and Tollway Authority, MARTA, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and a board set up to plan for mass transit in the Atlanta region.

It’s doubtful the boards will reach agreement on all that in a day. The real effect of the meeting may be to bring home the severity of the moment and urge that agencies —- and maybe even elected officials —- put aside politics in the face of it.

The meeting is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 40 Courtland Street, where the Atlanta Regional Commission also has offices, and is open to the public.