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Sunday, February 10, 2008
Olens on transportation plan: 20 percent off the top is too much
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As House lawmakers walked out the door on Friday, they dropped their answer to Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s transportation funding proposal.
They may have an immediate fan in Sam Olens, the chairman of the Cobb County Commission — but who is more importantly the chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.
Cagle’s plan would allow every individual county in Georgia to pass a special one-cent local option sales tax for transportation, and would allow these counties to band together to address regional issues.
But the Cagle measure would also allow the state to rake 20 percent off the top of all the receipts. This is designed to win support from downstate lawmakers — a two-thirds margin is needed to pass both chambers of the legislature — and from Sonny Perdue. The governor says areas with retail centers drain money from areas that don’t.
Said Olens in Saturday’s Marietta Daily Journal: “Having the state allocate 20 percent of the county’s funds elsewhere is a non-starter.” (We’d offer a link, but can’t find it. We’re reduced to Saturday’s hard copy.)
The House proposal would apply the penny sales tax statewide. And the state take would be only 10 percent.
Over the weekend: Franklin loses her ‘super’ status at exactly the wrong time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over the weekend, Shannon McCaffery with the Associated Press made this excellent point:
Shirley Franklin’s tenure as president of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors expired at a bad time for presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
The Atlanta mayor stepped down as head of the group just two weeks ago after a year at the helm. She lost not only her title, but her status as a Democratic Party superdelegate, which comes with special privileges to cast a ballot at the party’s national convention this summer.
Franklin, an Obama supporter, handed the baton to Providence, R.I., Mayor David Cicilline, who’s backing his rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
It’s unlikely that the race for the White House will come down to a single vote. But the superdelegates could become critical if the race between Clinton and Obama remains a virtual dead heat.
If neither candidate receives enough delegates to claim the nomination, the superdelegates would end up selecting the winner.
Obama trounced Clinton in Georgia with 66 percent of the vote on Super Tuesday. Clinton leads the national race for superdelegates. A survey by The Associated Press found that she is outpacing Obama in Georgia as well, winning support from five of the state’s 13 superdelegates. Only two are backing Obama. The other seven are publicly uncommitted, including former President Jimmy Carter.
Clinton’s superdelegates are U.S. Reps. John Lewis and David Scott, both of Atlanta, along with state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. Carole Dabbs, an aide for former Sen. Max Cleland, is also behind Clinton. So is former electricians union leader Lonnie Plott.
U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson of Lithonia and Sanford Bishop of Albany are supporting Obama.
U.S. Reps. John Barrow, of Savannah, and Jim Marshall, of Macon, remain uncommitted and both said through spokespeople that they have no plans to endorse. State Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kidd and longtime party activist Mary Long are also officially neutral.
