On Tuesday, Speaker David Ralston and a few of his closest friends unveiled the House version of a bid to create a unified metro Atlanta transit system that would incorporate MARTA, but allow historically reluctant counties to deal with something called "The ATL."
This is the meat of the 2018 session of the General Assembly. A Senate version of the legislation gets underway at 2 p.m. this afternoon. Our AJC colleague David Wickert has the Tuesday details here:
State legislation unveiled Tuesday could boost state funding for public transportation by tens of millions of dollars and pave the way for transit expansion across metro Atlanta.
House Bill 930 also would begin to create the sort of regional transit system that lawmakers say is needed to spur economic development and alleviate some of the world's worst traffic.
Some big questions – including exactly how much money Georgia would invest in transit – remain unanswered. And opposition to a regional transit system is already emerging.
But sometimes the text of a bill can’t capture the political movement that has taken place. Pictures are necessary. The one we’re looking at is the one above by the AJC’s Bob Andres. Ralston is walking into the House anteroom where the unveiling ceremony was to be conducted.
Over the speaker’s left shoulder is the face of Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash. Behind her, you can just barely see Bob Ott, a Cobb County commissioner. Both represent slices of geography that for decades have kept MARTA at a stiff arm’s length. Their presence alone on Tuesday may have said more than the bill itself.
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Before U.S. Sen. David Perdue became President Donald Trump's close ally on immigration, the Georgia senator was a debt hawk.
That identity became a little harder to hang onto Monday, when Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget plan that offers steep cuts to America’s social programs, increases military spending – and abandons any hope of balancing the federal budget. The spending plan would establish a series of yearly, $1 trillion deficits.
And so it’s not surprising that on Tuesday, Perdue issued a statement that in essence said he hasn’t given up on his original political persona:
"Last week's funding situation and this budget underscores just how broken our budget process has become. We have reached the point where if we do not make serious changes to our large and growing entitlement programs, we will never be able to balance our budget.
"President Trump has been successful in turning around the economy and removing excess regulations. We have already passed the tipping point, but this has bought us some time. No matter which party is in control in Washington, we need to see a serious commitment to solving this debt crisis and creating a stable fiscal future for our country."
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Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has a message that's pretty familiar to Georgia Democrats: Invest the money and Georgia can "absolutely" be a competitive state.
The new mayor took to Politico's Off Message podcast with the argument that black women - by far the dominant bloc of Georgia's Democratic electorate - could be the deciding factor in Georgia's midterms. Said Herroner:
"It's taken what we are dealing with on a national level, I think, to really get us energized and not taking anything for granted, but I do think we are recognizing and exercising our power in a way that we've never done before, and that's exciting...We are becoming engaged, and we realize the danger of staying home."
The podcast also offered a reminder that Bottoms is now Georgia’s most prominent elected Democrat in the state. Politico spoke to party chair DuBose Porter, who said she’s signed up to serve on its executive committee and pledged to campaign for statewide officials.
"She understands Atlanta's potential," Porter told Politico. "And she understands what her role now has the potential of being."
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State Sen. Michael Williams of Cumming has become the first GOP candidate for governor to thumb his nose at a House bill to extend broadband access into rural Georgia by taxing online streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify. From the press release:
"This will not generate enough money to fix rural broadband, it will only grow state government. The same lawmakers will come back in two years demanding even more taxes…
"The same lawmakers keen on handing over billions of your money to Amazon are also supporting a new tax on your Netflix subscription. Simply ridiculous."
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We're looking at Senate Bill 107, a bill authored by state Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody. As currently written, the measure would free political candidates from filing a Dec. 31 campaign finance report – but would add another on May 10, roughly two weeks before the end of what has become Georgia's new primary season. Millar said the existing Jan. 31 reporting date had made the Dec. 31 filing somewhat redundant.
But here’s what caught our eye: The measure would still subject political action committees to the Dec. 31 deadline, but appears to exempt PACs from filing any report if they spend less than $25,000 a year.
Which means a sizeable amount of cash in Georgia elections -- admittedly, the lesser contests -- could remain dark.
Millar told us this morning that the latter provision wasn’t originally part of his bill, but was added at the behest of the agency once known as the State Ethics Commission.
