House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, said Wednesday that he is not inclined to reopen the list of transportation projects that could be funded with a 1-cent sales tax as Cobb County wishes to do, but he said its situation requires consideration.
The list of projects proposed under the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, to be voted on this summer, includes a transit line into Cobb County. But when the list was approved the state was also planning to build extra lanes on I-75 and I-575. The public-private deal that would have brought those lanes fell through, though the state still plans to build them at a later time, and now Cobb leaders want to use the transit money to build the highway lanes.
Ralston said he does not wish to reopen the list "because once you pull a string out of it, it may all come unraveled. I am not sure anyone wants to see that, so you have to be delicate in how you deal with it."
At the same time, Cobb lost the highway lanes it was counting on.
"That is a valid point that they make," Ralston said. "I think it's one that we will have to take into consideration as we look at their desire to reopen it, because when you have a change of condition like that, it is evident that may be in and of itself enough reason to reopen it. We will have to wait and see."
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