The first rule of deal-making is to understand what you truly need out of the encounter.
State Rep. Calvin Smyre was interested in the basics: The removal of a pair of 40-year-old handcuffs on MARTA that date back to the days of Lester Maddox, and state recognition of the legitimacy and need for transit in metro Atlanta.
“Not just on the money side, but on the definition side,” Smyre said. That’s right. The Columbus Democrat wanted commuter rail included in the state’s legal definition of transportation.
You might call that a low bar. Smyre would call it a fundamental one – and an indication of just how deep Georgia’s transportation problems run.
With the 2015 session of the General Assembly over, Republicans are pointing to a $900 million-a-year transportation funding bill as proof that they can govern. But when pressed, they will also tell you that, with their caucuses split over the tax increases required, Democrats were essential to their success.
For the last five months, Smyre, the longest-serving member in the General Assembly, had served as the go-between twixt ruling Republicans and necessary Democrats in the House and Senate. By definition it is a thankless task.
On Thursday evening, as the 40th day closed, Smyre was clearly exhausted by a week of dashes between House and Senate to close the deal – something he hadn’t done since serving as a floor leader for Gov. Joe Frank Harris nearly 30 years ago. He’s now 67, and performed those inter-chamber sprints on two artificial hips.
“It was a tough, tough day,” Smyre said. And it had been made a little tougher by the fact that a truly unexpected prize had just disappeared, after dangling in front of Democrats for a precious 36 hours: Permission for MARTA to immediately increase its rail footprint via a half-cent increase in the sales tax. Worth a conservative $150 million a year, for 40 years.
But that puts us too far ahead of the story....
About the Author
