Even as House Republican leaders scour their caucus for votes for H.B. 170, at least one of their number has drifted into the "no" column.
As our AJC colleague Aaron Gould Sheinin reported last week, the revised transportation bill didn't land on Friday's House calendar. That may have given opponents more time to regroup.
Today we got word from state Rep. David Stover, R-Palmetto, that he's taking his name off the list of sponsors because it amounts to a "$500 million tax increase."
House leaders are set to speak at an afternoon press conference. The topic will be tax reform, but they can expect some questions on this as well. From Stover's Facebook post:
Not surprisingly, Erick Erickson of Redstate.com has come out against H.B. 170 as well, with the words "massive" and "tax increase." From this afternoon's post:
But the net result will be the same. Every city and county in Georgia will be forced to raise new taxes to pay for roads and bridges. They're operating the same way they are operating with RFRA. Makes sense considering they're using the Chamber of Commerce play book on both.
With RFRA, they'll gut it, then pass it and claim to have supported it all along.
With transportation, they'll pass it knowing it will force massive new taxes, but claim they did not vote for a tax increase.
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