Time to close the deal on Georgia transportation

By Dave Stockert and Bill Linginfelter


Once again, we find ourselves in the waning days of the state legislative session with transportation funding still unresolved. On a hopeful note, our state leadership has repeatedly voiced its commitment to rectifying the decades-long underinvestment in Georgia’s vital transportation infrastructure — and to do it this year. Legislators have heard, loud and clear, that the state’s economic prosperity and its citizens’ quality of life depend on it. We know that legislators are working hard to craft and pass a transportation funding plan, and we applaud that effort.

But in our haste to beat the clock on this session to pass funding legislation, it is important to remember that legislation is just the first step. Ultimately, Georgia’s voters will decide whether the transportation funding plan meets their needs in a way they are willing to pay for.

Other states that are out ahead of us on funding transportation provide a useful road map. From their experience with voter referendums on transportation funding, we know that any plan must have certain essential elements.

There must be a strong, regionally focused project selection process. While transportation projects should be consistent with the statewide strategic transportation plan, it is critical that projects funded with regional sales tax dollars address the transportation needs of that region. The process for selecting projects should be simple, transparent and allow for maximum input from the locally elected leaders who are closest to a region’s voters and taxpayers. And projects funded by a regional sales tax should make big improvements to that region’s overall transportation infrastructure.

The transportation funding plan must also address mass transit, and, specifically, the needs of MARTA. MARTA is the Atlanta region’s mass-transit backbone, and its financial sustainability must be assured.

Finally, the timing of any proposed referendum to approve a sales tax for transportation must be as flexible as possible. Doing so, local leaders will be able to identify the date that is best to bring the matter before the voters.

Georgia’s transportation funding issue is at a pivotal moment beneath the Gold Dome. This year, it seems there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. Before this session of the General Assembly even started, the three most powerful figures at the Capitol said that this is the year to address our pressing transportation needs. All three are now supporting a regional sales tax referendum. This is great news. Now, we must close the deal, and we must do it in a way that has the best chance of winning the support of Georgia’s citizens.

Dave Stockert is president and CEO of Post Properties Inc. and chairs the transportation committee at the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

Bill Linginfelter is area president for Georgia/South Carolina of Regions Bank and the chamber’s chairman.