Senate sticks to its guns on transportation funding
The Senate just added its regional transportation plan to a House bill and sent it back to the House as a gesture that it does not plan to change its mind on transportation funding.
Senators also added an amendment that allows MARTA to spend its penny sales tax any way it wants to. It removes the 50-50 split that the transportation system had been working under. The restrictions on MARTA’s spending had been put in place long ago to ensure efficiency so that the system would have equal spending for maintenance and operations.
The Senate is sticking to its original negotiating position on how to pay for transportation funding, which may scuttle transportation negotiations this session. It depends how the House reacts.
Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) gave a rousing speech on the floor of the Senate earlier, saying the Senate is ready to move forward on a penny sales tax for transportation.
But he said the House is not going along. Senators rallied around Mullis, who said voters would never pass a statewide sales tax.
The Senate cheered and gave shouts of “Here. Here!”
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4 comments Add your comment
David
April 3rd, 2009
12:27 pm
Come on House!
Ashamed
April 3rd, 2009
1:02 pm
They need to be working on something that will benefit everyone and not just a very few… thinking small once again when we need big picture thinkers! I wholeheartedly agree with Sen. Thompson… they think projects take a long time to get built now wait until you allow local governments to get involved…
professional skeptic
April 3rd, 2009
1:16 pm
I just want something passed at this point. Maybe if we hold hands and pray for them to agree on something, just like ol’ Sonny prayed for rain…
No, I’m serious…
John Knight
April 8th, 2009
12:58 am
Yes, our state senators are idiots. However, they shouted “Hear, hear,” not “Here, here.”