Another View: Rep. Alan Powell

Improving Transportation Or Consolidating Power?

By Rep. Alan Powell

(2/25/09) Last week, the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker joined together to announce their support for legislation that would overhaul the administration of the state Department of Transportation. Their proposal would create a new State Transportation Authority (STA) to take over the authority of the current Department of Transportation (DOT) board, which has governed the highway program in Georgia since the 1960s.

Currently, DOT board members are elected by the state legislators within Georgia’s 13 congressional districts to ensure that the transportation interests of all areas of the state – rural, suburban and urban, North Georgia mountains and South Georgia flatlands – are represented when it comes to funding priorities.

This new proposal would do away with that form of representation in favor of one that puts all of the appointment power in the hands of three individuals: the governor, who would appoint five out of 11 STA board members, the lieutenant governor, who would appoint three, and the speaker, who would appoint three. There is no guarantee that the selected members would represent all parts of the state.

This consolidation of power over transportation decisions would take Georgia back to the days when my late granddaddy, "Tug" Risner, served in the General Assembly in the 1940s and 1950s. When he needed to discuss a road project for his counties or cities, his first call would not be to Commissioner Jim Gillis; rather, it would be to the governor. The governor, in turn, would check Grandaddy's voting record to determine whether the road project was worth supporting. Only then would Mr. Gillis be contacted. In other words, the governor's political allies got their road projects; his opponents did not.

These are critical times for transportation in Georgia. Legislation that could lead to a statewide 1 percent sales tax for transportation funding cleared a key House committee Feb. 19. The House Transportation Committee favorably reported HR 206 and HB 277, sending the proposal one step closer to a vote on the House floor.

If approved by two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate and then by a simple majority of voters in the next general election, the additional sales tax would bring in an estimated $25 billion to fund transportation projects across the state over the next 10 years. Yes, folks, that is $25 billion with a “b” to be spent by a governing board hand-picked by the state’s three most powerful politicians.

Every citizen of Georgia would be picking up the tab through an additional 1 percent sales tax, whether or not any transportation improvements are made in their communities. Some areas of the state would pay the bill but see no benefit.

Do our state’s leaders really believe that our transportation problems can be fixed by demoting the DOT board members in favor of a new and not-so-improved, top-down approach that threatens to diminish input from rural Georgia? It this proposal truly about improving transportation, or is it simply more of the same from a further centralized source of political power?

Meanwhile, legislative budget writers are now taking into consideration the impact of the $787 billion economic recovery plan signed into law by the president last week. An estimated $6 billion of that funding is designated for Georgia in the form of infrastructure grants and other programs designed to create jobs and stimulate the economy. Gov. Perdue has indicated he might reject some of the funding depending on what strings are attached.

But the governor did acknowledge the influx of federal funding made it possible for him to sign HB 143 into law, guaranteeing payment of $428 million in homeowners’ tax relief grants to local governments for this year only. It has also been reported the governor might back off his proposal for a new 1.6 percent tax on hospitals and health insurance revenues in light of Medicaid funding that is included in the stimulus package.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, federal aid coming to Georgia includes more than $1 billion for highways and bridges, $168 million for transit capital grants, $97.8 million for weatherizing modest-income homes to make them more energy efficient, $420 million for Title I schools, $333 million for special education, additional stabilization funds for modernizing and renovating schools, $220 million in additional unemployment insurance trust fund dollars and $1.73 billion for increased Medicaid payments.

While it appears the stimulus plan will provide a one-time bailout for the governor and the leaders of the legislative majority, the truth is it will not solve the state’s systemic budget problems that have been the result of fiscally irresponsible policies the past six years.

Rep. Alan Powell, D-Hartwell, represents the 29th District (Franklin, Hart and Madison counties) in the Georgia House of Representatives.