On transportation: No deal, but some first movement

One of the most important chess games in modern Georgia history continued into the night on Thursday, as House and Senate negotiators tried to work out differences on how to structure a sales tax to address traffic congestion in metro Atlanta and the rest of the state.

Among the moving parts:

— We’re picking up some word that Gov. Sonny Perdue is suggesting a compromise: A half-penny sales tax applied statewide, as the House wants, with an optional half-penny that can be levied by regional clusters of counties, as the Senate wants. A very complicated package that would have to be explained to voters on a November 2010 ballot.

— S.B. 200, the transportation reorganization bill demanded by Perdue, continues to be a ticklish partner to the sales tax issue. After passing by the skin of House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s teeth on Wednesday, the Senate is giving serious consideration to simply agreeing with the House decision rather than engaging in another 24 hours of negotiation. Any changes, some Senate strategists fear, and Richardson’s own Republican members might desert him — sending the whole package crashing down.

— One sign that Republicans are unsure of their own numbers is the presence, on the House and Senate negotiating teams, of Democrats with reputations for bringing their own members with them. In the House, that’s Calvin Smyre of Columbus, chairman of the caucus. In the Senate, that’s Kasim Reed, a candidate for mayor of Atlanta.

One never knows how much of a negotiation is stagecraft, and how much of it is real, but Smyre and Reed differed very much over use of the fourth penny tax that the state levies on motor fuel.

Below is a Reader’s Digest, condensed version of the 3:30 p.m. conference committee meeting in the state Capitol. Another session is scheduled for 6 p.m. You’ll see that the dialogue lays out negotiating positions taken so far.

This was a Senate initiative, with Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) playing the bad cop. Reed and state Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) played — if not good cops — then reasonable ones. On the other side of the table were House Transportation Chairman Vance Smith, Donna Sheldon (R-Dacula) and Smyre.

To wit:

Wiles: You’ve got concerns about transportation outside the metro area. You’re talking about roads that you had on your map. You talked about funding for that. Let’s just create a state transportation corridor fund, a fund that’s dedicated to relieving congestion by creating statewide corridors for moving freight and traffic through Georgia.

Reed: We believe the state corridor fund should be capitalized through the dedication of the fourth penny on motor fuel [sales] tax each year, which according to our stats would yield about $165 million a year annually, and — depending on the quality of your bond counsel — would yield somewhere [around] $2.5 billion a year, if bonded over 30 years, for projects in the corridor.

What we want to be clear about is, we heard your concern from the standpoint of this being more than a metropolitan Atlanta bill. What we’re trying to do, by putting hard numbers and dedicated revenue on the table for projects outside of the metro area, is to move us to a bill that we think will be voted on successfully statewide.

Our real concern with a statewide bill is with losing at the ballot. What we’re trying to do is to move in your direction on the substance, but to keep our approach with regard to the election outcome. Because we believe the regional approach has a better chance at the ballot.

Smith: I’m wondering how far the fourth penny funds will go as far as hooking up those economic development corridors. Was any thought given to any of that penny going toward transit?

Reed: Candidly, the thought was that we would work with you on how that would be dedicated.

Smyre: I can appreciate the discussion on the fourth penny. But we had decided that the fourth penny would fund transit. How far does it go without hurting MARTA? MARTA is a major linchpin, is a major component of economic development. We had agreed that the fourth penny would be dedicated to transit, and to those projects dealing with transit. In a way this would be harmful to MARTA.

Reed: By having the TSPLOST approach, we can have a conversation about how the TSPLOST dollars are handled to deal with MARTA. Our concern with the statewide approach is winning. So we’re backing off of the substance. But we believe the TSPLOST approach has to be the way, because we believe it will win. So we’re willing to be flexible as it relates to MARTA, but we see a key component in order to do this is to address your concern regarding the rural corridors.

Mullis [to Smith]: Mr. Chairman, I’m really trying to be calm. I’m not going to have the performance I had last time. But let me say again, the Senate will not pass a statewide plan. If we continue to go back there, we’re not going make any hay. I would recommend that we work from this level. But the Senate — again, is my mike on? — the Senate will not pass a statewide funding scenario.

Wiles: From our viewpoint, not only will it pass the Senate, it won’t pass statewide. My constituents trust the SPLOST process. People in my area, in metro Atlanta, are used to it. They have a lot more input at a local level than they do here. We’re giving you something something you want. A funding mechanism for rural Georgia. I don’t think y’all must have heard that.

Sheldon: Actually, we requested a funding program for the entire state that includes freight corridors… in the region. In offering up the fourth penny to fund those projects, when a lot of that has already been promised in negotiations to transit, is not going to get us down the road toward statewide funding….I don’t see a specific project list in the SPLOST that you guys have offered, and there’s not a date certain…So we would ask the voters of Georgia to go to the polls in November, and ask 149 counties essentially to approve a tax for 10 counties?