House leaders back statewide transportation sales tax
A day after Senate leaders threw their weight behind a regional tax to combat congestion in metro Atlanta, their counterparts in the House said they would prefer a statewide approach.
Under legislation filed Friday by House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain), the entire state would vote in November on a penny sales tax for transportation.
If it passes, Smith's proposal would guarantee that 90 percent of the revenue collected in a given region — such as the 10-county metro Atlanta area — would be spent on projects within that region.
The remaining 10 percent could be used elsewhere in the state on everything from highways to local roads.
The Georgia Department of Transportation would control all funding and would work with individual regions to decide which projects to fund.
However, voters would not necessarily know which specific projects the money would be spent on before being asked to approve the tax, which would begin in 2009 and sunset after seven years.
"There are projects on a list right now that have never been accomplished," Smith said fast payday loans. "That's how we got into this mess. But we'll make sure people will know where their dollars will be spent."
The Senate plan introduced Thursday by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle to the cheers of business leaders outlined a regional penny sales tax that Atlanta residents could vote on without involving the rest of Georgia — although 20 percent of the money collected would go to the state.
The two concepts — statewide and regional — dueled it out over the summer as lawmakers tried to figure out how to take the edge off a multibillion-dollar shortfall in the state road budget that has helped make Atlanta's traffic the second-worst in the nation.
But neither plan emerged supreme.
Now, with the Senate formally behind the regional approach and the House supporting the statewide option — and either version needing a two-thirds majority in both chambers to pass — the two may have to find common ground.