VIDEO: Transportation funding
The Joint Committee on Transportation Funding has released its final report:
Transportation advocates were hoping that a long awaited study committee’s report would endorse one of two competing tax plans aiming to relieve Atlanta’s gridlock.
But when the dust cleared Wednesday, both proposals remained standing. The Joint Study Committee on Transportation Funding failed to anoint either one, recommending instead that lawmakers introduce both the plans.
It could set up a showdown in the statehouse, where legislative leaders have promised that some sort of taxing scheme would be passed this year.
Business groups back a plan that allows multiple counties to band together and levy their own taxes to fund transportation projects in their districts. It also has gained key support in the Senate.
A separate tax scheme backed by state planners calls for a 1 percent sales tax hike to raise $22.2 billion over 10 years for projects ranging from new highways in metro Atlanta to paving dirt roads in rural Georgia.
Both proposals would likely require a constitutional amendment and a referendum before they can take effect. But the report did little to settle the debate over which should be adopted.
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The committee chimed in on other transportation issues as well. It urged lawmakers to “re-examine the role of transit” in statewide transportation plans and supported an effort to build a high-speed train that would run on a magnetic levitation system between Atlanta and Chattanooga.
The two tax plans were introduced in the last session. HB 442, the statewide one-cent sales tax (a tax increases of $22.2 billion over ten years), was introduced by State Rep. Vance Smith. HB 434, the regional sales tax for transportation projects, was introduced by State Rep. Chuck Martin.
As I noted in my legislative preview, the legislation proposed by State Rep. Martin seems more politically viable. Many leaders are not going to vote to pave the way for a $22 billion tax increase, regardless of whether or not voters have the final say so.
The full report can be read here.
I’ll get the video of the press conference up later.
[UPDATE] Here is the video…