The third week of the General Assembly was for the most part used for committee hearings and starting work on the midyear budget. In fact, the House had only one issue of substance to vote on and that was the Rules changes to allow more open debate on bills coming to the floor, changes which were well received by both sides of the aisle.

While we are in this lull in debate, let me address what is developing in transportation planning. Last year SB 200 set up a division and director of planning to have primary responsibility identifying where state transportation projects and dollars will go. This new division is well under way with Todd Long, a veteran in transportation planning, as its director.

He has presented to the governor and General Assembly a  preliminary plan that will be reviewed, commented on and then finalized hopefully, in the next 60 days.  This partnership of Long and Vance Smith, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation (and a veteran of service in the General Assembly) appears to be working quite well as the personnel for Long’s transportation division are the planners who were formerly with the Ga. DOT, so there is not a duplication of services.

Now what everyone is awaiting is the governor’s plan for dividing the state into geographic planning areas and proposal for new funding dedicated to transportation initiatives.

Various proposals are being floated for this need.  Some of the most discussed are (1) a penny sales tax (2) user fees such as tolls on new projects, and (3) increases in gas taxes by the gallon or dollar purchased as another form of use tax.  I expect we will see in the recommendation some of options (1) and (2) being requested. One thing we keep hearing is how far down Georgia ranks in the country with revenue dedicated to transportation.

One major benefit, whatever comes out in the end, is the planning district for our area will be the current 10 county Atlanta Regional Commission.  This means the dollars raised in our area stay here.  It is projected around $800 million will be raised annually in the region to improve transportation needs, with emphasis on critical projects such as Ga. 400 and I-285, probably the worst-congested interchange in the state.  The dollars raised in our planning district will also be leveraged with state and federal dollars to accelerate the projects throughout the district.  Whatever comes out will benefit the entire region and keep the money here, not going to rural areas of the state that has long been the gripe we had with our road dollars.

One piece of the puzzle that still needs to be addressed in this metro area planning is mass transportation, MARTA and all the new bus systems which have sprung up in recent years.  My position is, these all need to be consolidated into one new authority or division of our regional transportation plan and supported by the region with part of the revenue dedicated to transportation.  No one foresees future construction of heavy rail (MARTA’s current system), but some combination of light rail and buses due to their flexibility and lower cost.  I pledge to pursue keeping mass transportation with whatever package of legislation comes forward for our region.

I would like your thoughts on what should be considered in the planning for funding transportation, as well as the overall needs of transportation in our region. Please pass on your ideas to me at wendell.willard@house.ga.gov or at 404-656-5125.