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January 30, 2008

Transportation committee’s report recommends 2 tax plans

From Staff, Wire Reports

Transportation advocates were hoping that a long awaited study committee’s report would endorse one of two competing tax plans aiming to relieve Atlanta’s gridlock.

But when the dust cleared Wednesday, both proposals remained standing. The Joint Study Committee on Transportation Funding failed to anoint either one, recommending instead that lawmakers introduce both the plans.

It could set up a showdown in the statehouse, where legislative leaders have promised that some sort of taxing scheme would be passed this year.

Business groups back a plan that allows multiple counties to band together and levy a transportation Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST) to fund transportation projects in their districts. It also has gained key support in the Senate.

“The local governments would decide whether they wanted to do it or not,” said state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, the chairman of the Senate’s transportation committee.

“They’d have to put the projects on the ballot, and the taxpayers would get to vote on whether to fund those projects.”

Mullis said the goal is to find ways to fund needed transportation projects in areas that have major transportation needs.

A separate tax scheme backed by state planners calls for a 1 percent sales tax hike to raise $22.2 billion over 10 years for projects ranging from new highways in metro Atlanta to paving dirt roads in rural Georgia.

Both proposals would likely require a constitutional amendment and a referendum before they can take effect. But the report did little to settle the debate over which should be adopted.

“It’s up to the flow of the Legislature which one moves forward,” said Mullis. “I’m glad we had more. We’re a General Assembly from different demographics and we want input. Who knows? One or all of them could be passed.”

Business leaders didn’t seem worried that a clear favorite has yet to emerge.

“We have to spend money on transportation. We’re very encouraged the committee has said a transportation funding bill will be passed,” said Sam A. Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

“The key question is: Will voters pay to fund transportation improvements? and I think they will.”

Charles Tarbutton, who chairs the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, said the report boils down to one conclusion: “Georgia needs new and innovative funding solutions for transportation.”

The committee chimed in on other transportation issues as well. It urged lawmakers to “re-examine the role of transit” in statewide transportation plans and supported an effort to build a high-speed train that would run on a magnetic levitation system between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

Planners should study whether to convert high occupancy vehicle lanes throughout the state into toll lanes, according to the report. And it suggested restructuring the motor fuel tax by replacing the 7.5 cents per gallon drivers now pay with a fee that could rise with the price of gas.

It remains to be seen how much of the report will work its way through the Legislature, but lawmakers said proposals will soon be introduced.

“I know we’ve been vague, but the details will be in the legislation,” said Mullis. “Our job was to give recommendations.”

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