Georgia may lose unused earmarks

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill taking back $713 million in unused transportation earmarks, including several for Georgia. But the bill spared about $80 million that transit advocates had feared would be yanked from a proposed Atlanta commuter rail line.

The measure (HR 5730) would still need to pass the Senate, but a similar one has already passed there, said Ben Marter, a spokesman for Rep. Betsy Markey (D-Colo.).

It was unclear if Georgia's $10.5 million in rescinded earmarks was leftover money from projects that got built, or money for ideas that never came to fruition.  Some of the earmarks were so old that if the projects were built back then they could be in need of rebuilding by now.  Some go back to before the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, when the federal government helped fund the creation of the state Department of Transportation’s Navigator traffic management system. The measure would rescind $2.8 million from that effort.

Others include:

• $52,000 for interchange at I-20 and Lithonia Industrial Blvd.
• $4.1 million to widen U.S. 84 in Waycross and Ware Counties

Marter said the principle of the bill was “use it or lose it.” The threat that Georgia would lose the money earmarked for an Atlanta commuter rail line and station has helped push action on part of that project. The state Department of Transportation, which may not legally spend gas tax money on rail, is now proposing to build the station as part of a public-private real estate development, where rental income could help fund the station.