Senate OKs optional transportation tax

The Georgia Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Tuesday that could let voters decide to pay a penny sales tax in metro Atlanta for new roads, rail and other transportation projects. The measure would allow other counties in the rest of the state to band together to tax themselves, or go it alone, if they chose.

Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), who sponsored the Senate legislation (SB 39 and SR 44), hailed its passage as “the first step out of the gate” toward solving metro Atlanta’s and Georgia’s transportation mess.

Mullis said voters would probably protest metro Atlanta’s transportation gridlock with pitchforks and sickles at the Capitol, but “they can’t get here because they’re stuck in traffic,” he said.

Whether the bills will become law, however, is anything but certain.

On the other side of the Capitol, a different proposal is making its way through the House.

That bill and a companion resolution (HB 277 and HR 206), sponsored by Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain), would levy a statewide penny sales tax to fund a list of projects the bill spells out. Counties could not opt out.

At least two of the project ideas listed in the House bill have made news before. One seems similar to the Northern Arc, though it would be at least 15 miles north of I-285. Another is a north-south highway tunnel under Atlanta.

Department of Transportation board member David Doss, who proposed a similar list of projects two years ago, said he believed the tunnel would fill the gap between Ga. 400 and I-675, an area where a surface highway was defeated by neighborhood political pressure.

Both projects would be built by private companies, probably to be repaid through tolls, not sales taxes, said House spokesman Marshall Guest. The Senate proposal, in contrast, allows regions to draw up their own project lists.

Last year a regional proposal made it through the House but failed in the 11th hour in the Senate.

This year, Senate and House leaders already have admitted that transportation funding might have to wait until next year. Whether passed this year or next, voters couldn’t vote on it until 2010. During Tuesday’s Senate debate, some senators pointed out the bill might have to have more work.

Some legislators said a delay could endanger the initiative. Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) said he feared the fragile coalition of 10 metro Atlanta counties and the city of Atlanta that support the tax, would break apart by the 2010 election year. “It’ll be swept up into partisan politics in the gubernatorial election,” he said.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who is running for governor next year, called the House statewide approach, “the largest tax increase in Georgia history,” when he was surrounded by TV cameras after the Senate vote. He hopes the House will come around to the Senate’s point of view. “It’s extremely important that we act this year,” Cagle said.