Gov. Nathan Deal, who has advocated holding next year's transportation referendums in November, said Thursday moving the vote to that date is no longer a priority of his.
Referendum supporters wanted to move the vote to November 2012 during the presidential election. That's when Georgia is guaranteed its largest voter turnout, a factor referendum supporters think might give a boost to the effort to raise local sales taxes by 1 cent to fund transportation projects.
"If there's a reason to revisit it in January [during the next legislative session] that can be done," Deal told reporters outside the House chamber where he was honored on his 69th birthday. "But right now, that is not on my agenda items. It will be left up to the members of the General Assembly."
Deal'scomments come a day after his office first said there was a deal with Republican leaders in the House and Senate to move the 2012 referendums from the July 31 primaries to the November general election and to mandate that all future special local option sales tax votes also move to November. That agreement -- if there ever was one -- quickly dissolved, however, as House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, and leaders in the Senate said there was no deal.
Late Wednesday evening the governor announced moving the date for the transportation referendum was dead for the year and would not be taken up by lawmakers while they're in Atlanta this month for a special session on redistricting.
Legislation adopted in 2010 set the regional transportation referendums across the state for the July 2012 primary election. But Republicans began to realize the 1-cent sales tax -- which could raise an estimated $6 billion over 10 years for the metro Atlanta region alone -- would likely fare better in November, when more Democrats were likely to turn out.
The impact of the deal's failure on the referendums is debatable, pollsters and supporters said.
Pollsters differ on how critical moving the date would be for the referendum.
Paul Bennecke, who is running the political campaign for the referendum in the Atlanta region, said the date move might not even help. He said his data showed a general election date might give the referendum a 1 percent or 2 percent advantage, but that was within the margin of error, meaning it could be meaningless. In any case, Benneckesaid, his political operation could have more impact in a primary election with fewer voters to target.
Others have said a move to the November election could have more impact, giving an advantage of as much as six points or more, in an election that may be very close, said GOP pollster Mark Rountree. Rountree added that the referendum can still win in July.
Deal agreed to allow lawmakers to consider moving the transportation referendums during the special session, but tea party backers argued that moving the date amounted to voter shopping. Those influential conservative voters said if the transportation referendums are important enough to be moved, then the law also should require that all sales tax referendums, for whatever purpose, should be moved as well.
Ralston said tea party groups and other outside interests, including local governments, influenced the decision to bail on the bill this session. He also, however, downplayed the impact the tea party had in the House.
"If the tea party wants to contribute in a meaningful way to the dialogue on any issue whatever, then certainly the members will listen to that input, but to suggest they hold substantial amount of sway is just wrong," Ralston said.
The failure to move the date of the 2012 referendums is apparently a result of inability of the Senate to find consensus.
Sen. Jason Carter, D-Decatur, said a coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate had the votes to pass the bill, but that Republican leaders refused to allow it to come to a vote because the GOP caucus was split on the issue.
"They are willing to sacrifice incredibly important issues in order to maintain that partisan line," Carter said.
Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, the chairman of the Senate's redistricting committee, said he was ready to support the measure.
“I know we had members of our body who had differences of opinion,” Seabaugh said. “They decided not to vote on it.”
Ralston said the House and Senate could not agree on a bill, but said it became more complicated than originally expected, but added that it was difficult to pin Senate leaders down on a position.
"I heard multiple positions from over there," Ralston said. "It's sort of hard to hit a moving target sometimes."
Deal on Thursday seemed to wash his hands of the idea of moving the vote's date.
He pointed out that the legislation creating the referendumswas adopted under then-Gov. Sonny Perdue with a specific date.
"I just did not feel like it was worth wasting any more time on that issue," Deal said Thursday.
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