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DEL.ICIO.USYes, it’ll pass the Senate, but afterwards TSPLOST could be headed for backburner
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Senate President pro tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) and Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) just finished meeting with reporters for a Monday morning briefing.
One of the most important nuggets: The TSPLOST initiative that will be passed by the Senate this week could thereafter be headed for the backburner.
S.R. 44 and S.B. 39 are to come up for a vote on Tuesday. The Senate measure would permit counties to band together to levy a one-cent sales tax aimed at local traffic congestion.
In a press release, sponsor Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) called his proposal “the most sweeping form of transportation legislation in Georgia history.”
But Williams said two things that one couldn’t help take into account. First, the Senate leader said the governor’s pending legislation to rearrange the state’s alphabet soup of transportation agencies “will probably dwarf the funding issue.”
Secondly, House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith will unveil another approached to increased funding today, this one based on a statewide sales tax. Fitting, since this is Groundhog Day, and this is exactly where we were last year.
But Williams said this about cutting a deal with House Republicans on the transportation sales tax: “We’d like to, but it’s not our focus.”
Piped up Rogers, the majority leader:
“It’s a 2010 ballot issue. While we would love to pass it out this session so we could go around the state and explain what’s in the measure, we also recognize that we’re not under any hard deadline until the next session.
“We would rather get the measure right before we go to the ballot.”
Shhh. Now, be quiet. If you listen closely, uou can hear metro Atlanta’s business community stewing.
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