A state senator on Friday took the wraps off a bill that would permit regions - including one that would encompass 10 metro-Atlanta area counties - to band together to charge a one-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects.
Residents in the affected areas would have to vote to approve the tax hike, under the bill being pushed by the chairman of the Senate Transportation Commissioner Jeff Mullis, a Republican from Chickamauga.
The plan is similar to one that fell just one vote short of passing in the final minutes of last year's legislative session.
It puts the Senate at odds with House Speaker Glenn Richardson, who's supporting a statewide plan that would levy an additional one-cent sales tax across Georgia.
"Transportation is not an Atlanta problem, it's a Georgia problem," Richardson told business leaders at a legislative breakfast earlier this week.
The issue has opened an early rift among the state's ruling Republicans.
Gov. Sonny Perdue said the "speaker made some good points."
"I want a statewide solution to transportation as well," Perdue said.
But Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who presides over the state Senate, suggested that a statewide sales tax would have a tough time passing in his chamber and suggested he preferred a regional approach.
The issue has pitted lawmakers in metro-Atlanta, which suffers from some of the worst commute times in the nation, from rural lawmakers, who balk at the idea of having to pay for the city's traffic problems.
Georgia's transportation spending has not kept up with its rapid population growth, much if it in and around Atlanta. And gas tax receipts, which pay for road projects, have been on the decline as the recession and the summer's high gas prices have prompted some Georgians to pinch pennies at the pump.
Mullis' plan would create one 10-county region for metro Atlanta made up of Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties. Other areas could combine to create their own regions.
After the appropriate local governing body creates a list of road and other transportation projects they would vote on whether to levy a one-cent sales tax to fund them. If they vote yes, the proposal would go to Georgia voters in the region who must also endorse the tax hike.
"We're not doing this with a lot of fanfare," Mullis said Friday as he gathered signatures from senators willing to co-sponsor the plan.
"We just want to get it out early enough that it gets done," he said.
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Georgia General Assembly: http://www.legis.ga.gov
http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/1/216890