Georgia Legislative Watch

Neither chamber is budging from its position on transportation funding:

With all members at last appointed to a conference committee on transportation funding, the House and Senate are sprinting toward Day 40 of the Legislative session.
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The Senate approach to paying for transportation improvements would allow multi-county regions to form and tax themselves. The penny sales tax raised in a region would be spent on projects in that region, approved by the voters. The House bill, on the other hand, would put a statewide one-cent sales tax before voters, and already includes a specific list of projects.

Wednesday evening’s committee meeting was a civil affair chaired by Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) and Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), basically introducing the committee. But their starting positions remained firm.

“In no way will a statewide plan pass in the Senate,” said Mullis. ”I will not put a bill on the floor of the Senate that will fail. I’ve been through that once and I don’t think I could handle that again emotionally,” he said.

Smith countered that he was glad Mullis mentioned the regional approach, because the House bill, while starting out putting a statewide penny sales tax before voters, would keep the regional version as a fallback in case the statewide referendum failed.

They meet again tomorrow at 10am.