Here's an executive summary of the Governor’s Transportation proposal as embodied in HB 1218:

The state would be divided along the boundaries of the 12 regional commissions, and no local government would be allowed to opt-out of any region.

There would be a statewide referendum during the presidential primary election in March of 2012 to approve a one percent sales tax with an eight year sunset.

If a region approves a tax, funds raised in the region, minus administrative costs for state agencies like the State Road & Tollway Authority, would stay in the region, and ten percent of the funds collected in each region would be split among local governments based on a formula similar to the current Local Assistance Road Project distribution.

The DOT's director of planning would drive the process of selecting projects to be funded, in consultation with a Regional Transportation Roundtable comprised of a county commission chair and at a minimum one mayor from each county in the region. If agreement is not reached on projects in a region, the planning director would deliver a list of projects for a regional referendum.

The current restrictions on the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's (MARTA) use of funds would be suspended for three years.

This would end the congressional balancing requirement the DOT Board currently uses to apportion motor fuel funds across the state. In place of congressional balancing, motor fuel funds would be balanced by Regional Commission boundaries and distributed amongst two funds, one based on population and another on state route lane miles in each region.

IT'S NOW OR NEVER

Our planning region is the Atlanta Regional Planning Region, governed by Atlanta Regional Commission, and consists of 10 metro counties. This is good -- we need to work out our traffic problems on a regional basis, not statewide. I suggest putting the plan, when finalized, on the ballot in the July 2010 Primary, not wait another two years to start it.

The plan for funding our transportation is an additional one-cent sale tax for the entire region dedicated to transportation (not defined) and I have a problem with that idea. For forty years Fulton and DeKalb have been paying an extra penny for transit needs-MARTA-and the proposed plan now wants us to pay an additional penny, but doesn’t address what to do on a regional basis for mass transit. We must answer, now, the future of mass transit in the region, or it will never be addressed.

MY PLAN

The 10 county-area for our district is good. But, MARTA and all the individual existing bus systems need to be consolidated into one operating system with overall planning and implementation of mass transit services. Transit fees and revenues from the region should fund this. We cannot let this opportunity to make mass transit truly regional pass us by.

Fulton and DeKalb would continue with their penny MARTA sales tax. In addition, both of these counties would pick up an additional half a penny sales tax, with the remaining eight counties paying a full penny sales tax. Plus, the entire region would pay a gas sales tax of one or two cents gas sales tax (depending on amount needed for sufficient funding of transportation plan needs). I term this a "Use Tax" for road use in our area. The penny sales tax, proposed to be paid by all the counties, would be dedicated to transportation in our region, so the alternate I’m suggesting will need to be comparable.

There is currently a law on governing MARTA's use of its penny tax revenue: only 50 percent can be used on operations -- the remaining half has to be allocated to capital improvements. This restriction should be eliminated to give the new system access to the funds for operation, or capital improvements on an as needed basis.

The Governor’s plan calls for the State Road & Tollway Authority to receive the funds and oversee project development. This is unnecessary and wasteful. The same work is now being done by GDOT, and nothing convinces me we need to expand another agency to do what is already being done quite well. This is more about power and control of funds then about good governance.

Last year, the General Assembly allowed for a new director to oversee transportation planning, design and implementation. This makes sense with road planning work for our region, but GDOT should continue letting the contracts and overseeing construction.

I believe the elimination of "congressional balancing" for allotting state road funds will ultimately provide more transportation funding for our area while allowing maximum flexibility for fund usage.

As you can see, many issues come into play on the proposed transportation plan. I am very mindful of our area's needs and will continue to be involved with how the plan affects our area as it evolves. Also, I would like your thoughts on this issue and invite you to contact me at the Capitol, 404-656-5125, or at wendell.willard@house.ga.gov