Transportation solved?????

How was your drive to work and then home today? If you felt the commute was too long and roads too crowded, then join other Americans who think the same way about our state. Spending on transportation in Georgia has lagged well behind the state's explosive population growth, and our state spends the second lowest per capita in the country on transportation, ahead of only Tennessee. Road projects in Georgia are funded mostly with money from the state's gasoline tax, but those revenues have tumbled amid recession. Less revenue means fewer road improvements.

This is a problem that our State legislators have struggled for years to remedy, to end some of the worst gridlock in the nation in Metro Atlanta and in Georgia, the ninth-largest state. Georgia business leaders have pressed hard for a transportation funding plan saying the state's spending has not kept pace with its explosive growth. Supporters say more money is needed to keep and attract businesses to the state, despite critics who say the plans focus too heavily on the Metro Atlanta. Ah, but in rides the General Assembly on a white horse.

The last session of the General Assembly brought us a new transportation funding bill that has been hailed by lawmakers as the solution to our state's transportation woes. The House and the Senate overcame years of struggle and approved an funding bill that would allow Georgia voters to decide whether to hike the sales tax by one cent to pay for roads, bridges and rail projects. Sounds pretty simple doesn't it? Under the plan, Georgians would vote during the 2012 presidential primary on whether to increase the sales tax for transportation. The state would be broken into regions and only regions that approve the sales tax increase would have the money to spend.

Ah, but there lies one of the problems of this much heralded solution, the timing. The 2012 Presidential elections, for most of the counties and communities in this state, is also the time for the renewal of local SPLOST taxes on the ballot. Each election cycle, nervous officials at the local level sweat the outcome of SPLOST votes from a public that increasingly feels it is overtaxed. So now, instead of voting for a simple 1 or 2 cent sales tax increase for a local SPLOST, the voters will also be asked to consider another 1 cent sales tax for transportation. Will the extra 1 cent sales tax be too much for voters to stomach?

This matters to local governments because, in this tough economy, they have a direct need for SPLOST funds to continue to flow in whether its too pay for upcoming projects, or projects that were approved when times were good. For them to even think of losing that revenue could very well mean tax hikes in other areas, or more cuts to services. Not a pretty thought for local officials to face.

And here is, what I consider, the major problem with the transportation bill passed by the General Assembly, a complete lack of backbone. Like everything else, the members of the General Assembly have unburdened themselves of making tough decisions by just passing it down the line to the local level. "You're roads are crappy, the traffic is congested? You should've convinced your voters to pass the sales tax." Where is the spirit of the General Assembly that, in the 1830's, financed a railroad project that gave Georgia more railroad miles than the entire rest of our country combined? Where is the General Assembly that in the 1940's and 1950's financed a transportation construction frenzy of paved roads and bridges that still adorn our highways. When you cross that bridge next time, look at the date on the side.

No, today's legislators don't seem to have the guts of legislators of old. They seem to be too comfortable in their positions of presumed power to take a hard stand on an issue that would completely reinvigorate commercial and industrial growth in our state, as it has in the past. Such a stand might possibly jeapordize their position, and that's just too risky. No, it's much better to just drop the load, like so many other loads, on local leaders. Let them make the tough decisions, and let them take the heat. Is it just me, or does that almost smack of cowardice?