The Capitol Report

February 21, 2008

Vol. 4, No. 5

Both the House and Senate made significant advances on their respective transportation funding measures on Wednesday.

The Senate voted 51-4 to pass Senate Resolution 845 which allows counties to form regions voluntarily and bring a one percent SPLOST to their voters to fund transportation projects. Senator Doug Stoner (Cobb - D) added an amendment to the bill to ensure that 90% of the money generated in the region would stay within the region. The original language only guaranteed 80% of the funding would stay within the region. The amendment passed without dissent.

The House proposal, HB 1139 and HR 1226, received “do-pass” recommendations from the Transportation Committee by a vote of 21-5 after a four hour debate that lasted well into Wednesday evening. Representative Mark Hamilton (Forsyth - R) made the case during the debate for requiring DOT to publish a project list before the referendum. The committee agreed that the increased accountability for DOT was important to the success of the referendum and passed the amendment by voice vote.

The House proposal would bring a referendum to the state this November for a one percent sales tax to fund transportation projects. 90% of the funding would be required to be spent within the region where it is generated and the other 10% would be available for inter-regional or statewide projects.

With the Senate Resolution now passed over to the House and the House legislation in position for a floor vote, the focus now turns to determining if the House and Senate can agree on a common approach that combines the best elements of both proposals.

**The Capitol Report is provided by the Cherokee County Chamber, in partnership with the Regional Business Coalition. The Regional Business Coalition (RBC) is comprised of 16 local chambers of commerce and business organizations in the metro Atlanta region representing over 16,000 businesses. To learn more, please visit www.rbcatl.com.