UPDATED: Highways and byways, headed for a dead end?

UPDATE: House is now taking up S.B. 200, the transportation governance bill

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It’s always fun to watch when major legislation in the House is in danger of going down the tubes.

House leaders scurry to and fro, whisper in hallways and dash behind closed doors. Like what’s going on right now with S.B. 200, the massive overhaul of the state’s transportation governance system. 

Other than the 2010 budget, it’s the single biggest piece of legislation out there and is tied to billions in transportation funding as well as the political futures of a number of top Republicans. 

The House and Senate are in a stare down over competing plans for dealing with the governor’s demand for changing how transportation is operated and managed in the state. Gov. Sonny Perdue, in fact, has said he does not want to hear about new way to fund transportation — an entirely different fight — without first getting a plan for governance. 

But now, the House Republican leadership is in a pickle. Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) boldly pushed through a brand-new version last week in the Transportation Committee and the Rules Committee on Tuesday narrowly agreed to add it to today’s floor debate. 

But the bill hasn’t come up yet — because no one is sure it has the votes to pass. And with only one more day in the 2009 session (Friday) time is running out to get it done. 

Meanwhile, Richardson is in a constant huddle with other key lawmakers, including Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simon’s Island), Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) as well as the speaker’s chief of staff, Clelia Davis.

Rep. David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge), who is sponsoring the bill in the House, has been meeting with Richardson in private and moments ago in the ante room declined, politely, to disclose the status of any headcount on the bill. 

“There has to be some suspense,” Ralston said, smiling.