A walk-out at the transportation negotiations — by the lobbyists

In negotiations over a transportation sales tax, state Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw) makes a point. Photo credit: Kimberly Smith/ksmith@ajc.com

Three-quarters of the way through the fifth gathering of House-Senate negotiators over a sales tax for transportation, frustration resulted in a walkout on Friday afternoon.

Not the legislators. But lobbyist and business leaders fed up with reaching the final hours of a legislative session with nothing to show for it.

About a quarter of the packed audience exited, and the language some of them muttered as they abandoned the negotiating conference was quite blue.

Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, put the sentiments into words that could be aired on television or printed on a web site.

“This feels like ‘Groundhog Day,’” Williams said, referring to the movie and not the shadowy holiday. “You know — where you wake up and you think, ‘I’ve done this before.’”

“We’ve been down here as a statewide business community for three years in a row, begging this General Assembly to let regions of this state tax themselves and fix their problems. And here we are nine hours from closure and we do not have a bill on the table,” he told a scrum of TV cameras and reporters. “Georgia is clearly not having the kind of leadership we need to come out of this economic storm.”

By the time Willams spoke, six lawmaker-negotiators had left the scene, following a second attempt by the Senate in as many days to reach a deal. Here’s the thumbnail:

— The basic position is that the House is demanding a referendum on a statewide sales tax. If that fails, legislation would authorize counties to band together and add their own.

— The Senate, pushing a regional sales tax, doesn’t think a statewide tax would pass muster with voters in 2010.

— Regionality has much to do with this. House negotiators are Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus), Donna Sheldon (R-Dacula), and Transportation Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain). Senate negotiators are John Wiles (R-Kennesaw), Kasim Reed (D-Atlanta) and Transportation Chairman Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga). Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) is an ex officio member who has huddled with the Senate team at every meeting.

House members Vance Smith (left), Calvin Smyre and Donna Sheldon at sales tax negotiations. Photo credit: Kimberly Smith/ksmith@ajc.com

— On Thursday, the Senate budged slightly and offered to dedicate a fourth penny of the state sales tax on motor fuel to freight corridors outside metro Atlanta. This morning, the House tendered no response.

— This afternoon, the Senate sweetened the deal. Regions that adopt the TSPLOST would put 5 percent of their take from a sales tax into the corridor fund. Williams said he was also under the impression that the Senate was willing to agree to the House version of S.B. 200, the reorganization measure demanded by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

At the fifth session, Wiles voiced a warning to the House side. “There are two ways to negotiate. One way is to just say no always. Another way is to make offers. There’s always that school of thought that says if you’re talking about compromise you’re talking about capitulation,” he said. “If you take that and smugly walk out of here, and think that’s what we’re doing, it’s not true.”

See the Senate offer here, along with an accompanying chart that was passed around.

Afterwards, Williams said it was time for the House to show some willingness to bend.

“I don’t think there’s any lack of information or alternatives or policy. I think it’s just gotten down to politics, period. The principal leaders need to put the politics aside for the sake of this state’s economy. My fear is, if we don’t do something now, the voters won’t seen something on the ballot until 2012. And then we won’t see anything in the ground until 2015 — 2016,” he said.

Last year, a transportation deal failed in the Senate by three votes. Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who now has gubernatorial ambitions, was slapped with much of the blame by the business community.

Asked if that assessment still stands, Williams said, “I think the Senate has shown some big movement. I think there’s plenty of blame to go around. I don’t think you could blame it on any one person.”

“We’ve met with the speaker and the governor and the lieutenant governor, all within the last few days — urging them toward some bill that has a chance at voter approval. The business community — we’re not being shy about what we want to see done,” Williams said. “My leadership and the CEOs that I work for have told me to do everything humanly possible to push this thing.”

Asked if he thought a deal waited in the weeks, the business leader said, “I have to pretty much believe what I see going on in the room. And I’ve seen Jeff [Mullis] walk in and put several big things to put on the table. And I’m sure he wouldn’t do that without Casey [Cagle]’s approval. I don’t think Vance [Smith] has been given that same degree of flexibility. This is a fundamental problem in our state. We ought to be able to fix it.”

And if it doesn’t? Aside from 300,000 jobs or so. “It just makes the personal lives of everyone who lives in metro Atlanta a little less tolerable, day by day,” Williams said.

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