Power Breakfast: Perdue signs major transportation bill, DeKalb schools, airport audit, AT&T, Gulf spill

The countdown to 2012 started Wednesday as Gov. Sonny Perdue signed legislation allowing Georgians to vote two years from now for what would appear to be the largest single increase in transportation funding in the state’s history, AJC reporter Ariel Hart writes.

The new law takes a major crack at an issue metro Atlanta has struggled with for decades — increasing congestion that is choking the region’s growth, every year costing its drivers $3 billion, with each commuter wasting about 57 hours, Hart writes.

In a nod toward a growing need for mass transit that can’t legally be funded with the gas tax, the law allows funding for a variety of transportation types and will let Clayton County decide whether to join MARTA.

For those whose eyes gleam for a particular interstate interchange or new streetcar, the new law may represent the best chance over the next decade to get major projects funded.

But between now and the 2012 referendum lie a host of obstacles, Hart writes. And at the finish line lies a reward that even the bill’s biggest backers concede won’t come close to stamping out the state’s transportation needs.

Also in the AJC:

• DeKalb schools cut lower-paid workers
• Summer forecast for gas prices: Reasonable
• Airport plans audit of international terminal expansion
• AT&T limiting unlimited data plan
• Lenders say ’serious’ borrowers needed
• Twitter use lands candidate spot in political debate
• Bank, key figure in loan dispute had troubles, too
• Mableton man pleads guilty in cargo theft ring

In other media:

• U.S. says no way on nuclear option for Gulf oil spill
• U.S. was reluctant to announce spill probe
• White House extends benefits for gays
• World markets up amid U.S. employment hopes

For instant updates, follow me on Twitter.