Comments (0) | |

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009

Legislature split on how to fund roads

ATLANTA — Georgia’s top leaders agree the state needs more money for transportation, but there’s significant division over how to get it.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle is backing a regional penny tax for projects — a Constitutional amendment that would allow local governments to band together and add a penny tax to purchases to fund local projects. Atlanta-area business leaders have been pushing that idea for more than a year as a way to address the metro area’s congestion problems, though the same approach could also be used in other communities.

But Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson spoke against that approach Tuesday morning during the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual Eggs & Issues Breakfast. He called it a “Band-Aid” approach that won’t solve the whole state’s transportation issues.

Instead, Richardson indicated he prefers a statewide sales tax to fund projects across Georgia.

“That’s the direction we’re headed,” Richardson’s spokesman, Marshall Guest, said after the speaker’s remarks.

Cagle said it would be “pretty difficult” to pass such a tax through the Senate, which he presides over.

Either method would require a Constitutional amendment, and all Constitutional amendments require a statewide referendum to put the issue directly before voters, as well as a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate.

Gov. Sonny Perdue is somewhere in the middle on the issue, though he leaned a bit toward Richardson’s position during a Tuesday news conference following his own remarks at Eggs & Issues.

“I think the speaker made some good points this morning,” Perdue said. “Transportation is a statewide issue and, obviously, there’s been a cry in the metro area. But I’m concerned that I want a statewide solution to transportation as well.”

Though Cagle predicted the legislature would move quickly on transportation this year, Perdue left the door wide open for a timetable Richardson has suggested: Waiting until next year. Because of election laws, a referendum vote couldn’t be held until 2010, regardless of which method leaders choose, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

“Whether it’s this year or next year ... I think you’ll see more funding for transportation,” Perdue said. “You heard two different proposals this morning about that. We’ll sort all that out. I am confident we’ll come to a consensus.”

A deal was nearly cut last year to hold a referendum on the regional transportation sales tax proposal. But the legislation died in the Senate as leaders wrangled over competing tax cuts that would have helped offset potential new transportation taxes. Momentum seemed to be building to try the regional approach again, particularly with Cagle — and presumably his Senate — on board.

But without Richardson’s support, it would seem nearly impossible to move a tax proposal through the House. Still, Cagle expressed optimism Tuesday, telling reporters that “we’re not at all back at square one” on an issue legislators are feeling heavy pressure to act on.

“I think there was a very clear message that was given today. ...” Cagle said Tuesday. “We need a new structure in terms of, not only the way we fund transportation, but also deliver transportation. ... And we’ll sit down and discuss the funding issue.”

To contact writer Travis Fain, call 361-2702.