Tea parties and the fight over roads and rail
Without fanfare, without even a mention, the tea party movement scored its first major victory in Georgia last week.
And as a result, you may be sitting in traffic just a little bit longer.
For three years, metro Atlanta’s business community has been tugging, shoving, and prodding the ruling Republican elements of the state Capitol to put more money into roads and rail.
Sonny Perdue, in the last 12 months of his tenure as governor, finally hopped aboard the bandwagon last Thursday. He declared that the state’s transit bureaucracy had finally improved enough to be trusted with more money.
The governor announced $300 million in bonded spending for road and rail projects selected by the Legislature. More importantly, he endorsed a statewide referendum that would allow regions of the state to levy a 1-cent sales tax on themselves for road and rail projects.
Georgia’s economic health requires it, Perdue said.
But the timetable has been changed. During the several clashes over the issue within the Legislature, the one consistent area of agreement – among GOP lawmakers and business interests – was the need for a vote this November.
Perdue and Republican lawmakers now want the issue on a 2012 ballot – well after the governor leaves office. Perdue said the two-year delay was necessary to allow voters time to regain a sense of economic security, and to permit transportation authorities to draw up the lists of projects for voter inspection.
Yet the economy was already in the tank last year, when 2010 was an acceptable date. And as far as transportation is concerned, the state has compiled entire libraries of undone to-do lists that stretch back decades.
The only ingredient that has changed is the rise of anti-tax activists aggravated by the election of Barack Obama and his push for health care reform. They threaten to split the GOP, nationally and in Georgia.
Last April’s tea party at the state Capitol was among the largest in the country. Ever since, Republican lawmakers have been rethinking a 2010 vote on a transportation sales tax, fearful of the impact it could have in the July primaries as well as the November general election.
Mark Rountree is a GOP strategist whose has long specialized in state legislative races. His firm, Landmark Communications, will be involved in 40 or so Republican primary contests.
“If you do the math, there are thousands of people showing up at tea party rallies. When was the last time we had thousands of people show up for a transportation rally?” Rountree asked. “What’s at hand immediately is the tax issue. And people are worried about that. Obama is making it difficult for people to do tax issues all over the country.”
Especially in the race for governor, the dilemma is clear: Do nothing, and Democrats accuse you of incompetence. Put a sales tax referendum on the November ballot, and risk a serious rebellion in your own party.
“Clearly you would split the business community from the libertarian community. The party has to hold both of them together to win,” Rountree said.
The 2012 referendum date is only one part of the evasive maneuver that Republicans are constructing. For three years, it has been assumed that a ballot initiative would come in the form of a proposed amendment to the state constitution – which requires a two-thirds vote by both chambers of the Legislature.
Perdue and Republican lawmakers think they have landed on a constitutional clause that would allow the vote to be called with a simple majority vote by the House and Senate, and the signature of the governor.
“There is a long-standing provision in the Constitution that allows the Legislature to create tax districts,” said Sharon Gay, a governmental affairs specialist with McKenna, Long & Aldridge law firm, who was among the first to begin pushing the idea last year.
Simple majority votes in the Legislature would put pressure on Democrats to carry the burden. Most Republicans could then vote against the measure.
While conducted statewide, the 2012 referendum would divide Georgia into a dozen separate districts. Areas that voted against a sales tax would not be subjected to it. Metro Atlanta might be the only region to pass it.
Which leads us to what may be the greatest irony our “transportation saga,” as Perdue called it. Tea party activism, responding to a new resident of the White House, has forced Republicans to back away from an immediate solution to Georgia’s traffic problems.
The vote is now likely to be rescheduled for November, two years hence. Georgia Republicans could well be counting on a second surge of African-American voters, turning out in support of an Obama re-election bid, to help approve a transportation tax in metro Atlanta.
And solve a very large, and very Republican problem.
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72 comments Add your comment
John R Smith
January 16th, 2010
3:33 pm
The issue is “No more taxes”. Contrary to what the press is saying, there is no split in the Republican party. Those of us in the Tea Party movement want candidates that understand, We, The People, cannot afford anymore taxes. We are supporting our own families as best we can and can no longer afford the bloated governments (local, state, National). SPENDING MUST STOP. Is this clear? SPENDING MUST STOP.
ask a Native
January 16th, 2010
4:06 pm
That’s funny, the Republicans are split over spending? I don’t recall this being an issue when Big Spender Bush was in office? Someone help? Why weren’t there any tea parties then? Why are they now split on spending?
The Libertarians (whom many Republicans have long labeled “libbies”=liberal, irony) were at the forefront of the anti-tax movement and have been fighting the battle for years. It didn’t matter if (R) or (D) was behind the leader’s name. This same media has bamboozled conservatives into thinking they were doing something groundbreaking by marching on the capital. Thanks, Hannity. Your ilk are easily influenced. And I am amused.
Left wing management
January 16th, 2010
4:18 pm
Excellent post. Pretty well sums it up. They say the country is becoming ungovernable at the Federal level, but that’s just the half of it.
Left wing management
January 16th, 2010
4:20 pm
Ask a Native: “I don’t recall this being an issue when Big Spender Bush was in office? Someone help? Why weren’t there any tea parties then?”
You’re on the right track there, Native.
The simple answer, of course: we had a different POTUS.
)
Pro Transit Minority
January 16th, 2010
4:22 pm
Atlanta is fortunate that the current recession has temporarily fixed many of the congestion problems in the Metro Atlanta area. When the economy recovers, we will find that many business’ will not tolerate the congestion in the inner ring, will move further out of the city and hence contribute to expanding congestion. Tax for transit; now and here!
Try Me
January 16th, 2010
4:24 pm
We need a different POTUS now too. And a different kind of majority in Congress. No more big spenders. Stop the madness now.
Bobbs
January 16th, 2010
4:55 pm
I just love the anger that emits from the Tea Party folks. I feel like they focus what spending they want to stop rather than saying all spending needs to stop. Obviously, there must be taxes and government spending on some level. The Government still has to pay for certain things, so I guess the Tea Party people should be more specific about which spending should cease and which should be optimized and made more efficient.
Bobbs
January 16th, 2010
5:03 pm
O Yea. In addition I am for the regional tax district vote to be made in 2010. We already have numerous transit plans written up. Specifically the Transportation Board Concept 3 plan is a great example of a regional plan for the Metro area’s district. Hopefully the legislature can get this vote on the 2010 ballot. I wonder if the vote would need to take place in each district at the same time?
Roger
January 16th, 2010
5:12 pm
Carl Sanders set up a good way to handle the Dept. of Transportation. Abuse of any system set up can be found when Politicians decide they know better than the Citizens. Much of the abuse has incrementally come about because Legislators did not want to vote for Board members in transparency. Also Legislators did not want to increase the gasoline tax which is dedicated to the DOT for being fearful of giving too much power to the DOT Director. Recently due to power struggles a woman was placed in charge of DOT. She did a fine job for the Politicians but a lousy job of running DOT for the best interest of the citizens of GA. Last year the Legislature voted now to have 2 Heads of DOT. This system was broke when it started. If the old system set up by Mr. Sanders had a few weak spots; then those should have been addressed from a Blue Ribbon Committee that could act independently of the Political power structure. Let’s have the Media push for some substance in reorganizing DOT that help Citizens of GA. and not the power players of chaos.
Left wing management
January 16th, 2010
5:35 pm
John R Smith: “Contrary to what the press is saying, there is no split in the Republican party.”
What is this, a FOX News stooge in here?
Of course there’s a split in the Republican party over these matters. Unless of course you mean it in the cynical Orwellian sense that there’s less and less of a split as you gradually drive all those who disagree with your extremism out from the party.
And besides, your anti-tax absolutism is really rather infantile. OF COURSE we have to have a way to build and support infrastructure like sewers, schools, bridges, and so forth. And don’t say we can entrust it to private contractors. You know it, and I know it. To support these things, we have to all pay in. It’s called: TAXES.
Alabama Communist
January 16th, 2010
5:38 pm
One of the major planks of the Tea Party Republicans was that the Transporation Tax could only be use on Log roads that were laid out in 1812 between Athens and Sandersville.
Bitter EX democrackkk
January 16th, 2010
5:39 pm
OVER spending must STOP, is that clear?
Bitter EX democrackkk
January 16th, 2010
5:42 pm
When Michael Steele, Newt Gingrich and many other lieberal progressive republicans learn the
reality of freedom and liberty according to libertarianism and Dr. Ron Paul and the http://www.CampaignforLiberty.com then we dont gain much for the country…
Audrey in Georgia
January 16th, 2010
5:55 pm
Do Nothing…
Delay…
Die
David S
January 16th, 2010
6:07 pm
Only an idiot would believe that throwing more money in the direction of central government planning will solve any transportation problems. The Tea Party folks as you seem to like characterise those who have woken up, have finally realized what libertarians have been saying all along (and by the way, it was the Ron Paul Campaign For Liberty folks that held the first official Tea Party) that government can’t be trusted to do anything right.
There are no rallies for “transportation” because the folks who rally for limited government know damn well that private enterprise will be required to solve transporation issues, not failed government central planners. When you trust the free market, you don’t support central planning. The anti-government Tea Party types know that if the state and local governments would respect property rights, end government regulation on transportation (like the burdensome restrictions on taxis and all other forms of transport for hire), zoning, property taxes, and every other government theft and control mechanism, private corporations would be happy to step in and address the problems we now face with transportation.
Private ownership, operation, and maintenance of the roads would further enhance the incentive and ability of private cooperatives or companies to expand transit opportunities within the city and the state.
Let’s not forget the examples all around us of government failure when it comes to transportation. Amtrak, Marta, the bus systems, the wonderful electric trains (generally privately owned) that were destroyed by city and county governments during the 40s and 50s all over this country at the behest of the big 3 auto makers, the TSA, the FAA, the 285, the connector, virtually every intersection on Jimmy Carter and so many other boulevards all over the city. Everywhere you look you see a road, freeway, offramp, intersection, train, bus, or whatever that has been owned and operated by the central government since its creation – and all are the problems we now complain about.
So don’t blame the Tea Party folks for not wanting to jump deeper into the socialist failure pile of government run transporation, or even the spineless governor for not wanting to risk any political heat.
Americans are waking up, and those who continue to think that stealing more money to pour down ratholes on special interest projects better realize that the hosts are finally tiring of the parasites and are looking for some new methods to rid themselves of the relationship.
Keith
January 16th, 2010
6:08 pm
Just put a measure on the ballot asking if voters want to raise the gas tax and give them a list of projects to be funded and put a ten-year sunset on the tax. No need to create new agencies and wacky sales tax plans, regional referendums, and tollways.
Henry Grady
January 16th, 2010
6:09 pm
Last time I checked, you had to spend money to make money. The tea party movement as presented through the rallies, talk show hosts, an the press is misguided. It is angry rhetoric that misses the point. Pay for what you spend and be responsible. Cutting services/Taxes at all costs is the best way to put your state, county, nation at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring states, counties, nations…
The original tea party had nothing to do with tax or no tax…it had everything to do with being taxed by a government that you didn’t elect and having Britain’s economic interests being put at a competitive advantage over the colonies. The current ‘tea party’ movement should be called the penny pincher movement. They are the man in the parable that buried their bag of gold in the backyard rather than investing it for their master.
The largest peace time tax increase in the history of this country was during a recession and was by none other than Ronald Reagan…
If the ‘tea party’ wants to enter the debate, I say start not with rhetoric about cutting taxes, but start with specific suggestions on how to cut spending.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17936.html
my f150 gets 16mpg
January 16th, 2010
6:16 pm
Use tax monies to give me free stuff, and I will vote for you. Health care, housing, living wage. child care ect. I will serve government forever in exchange for a free green car, and free solar panels for my govt. funded house.
Old pro
January 16th, 2010
6:28 pm
good analysis, except for the laughable quotes from Rountree. 40 legislative races? nobody will even talk to that guy at the capitol. try more like 4 race.
jim, get some new sources. looking sad there.
Cutty
January 16th, 2010
6:28 pm
Picture that, Republicans needing the support of blacks to move their agenda forward. Pathetic policy! Nothing more than a lack of leadership on the issue. Another two more years of nothing being done, while that $300 million goes to conractors for ‘planning studies’ on the already overanalyzed issue of transportation. Republican leadership in this state has done nothing for Georgian the last 7 years. I dare anyone to prove me wrong.
Road Warrior
January 16th, 2010
6:40 pm
sit back pass nothing and watch how our road systems crumbles to the level of a third world country in the next few years. people don’t realize if you dont raise money now there wont be anything left to fix! Our states roads were rated among the best 4-5 yrs ago but the lack of funding by the legislature & Governor has caused it to fall almost to a state of disrepair. any tax passed in 2012 wont be avaoable to spend until 2015 5 more years of decay!!! rasie the gas tax now one of the lowest in the country if we are saerious about having a good road system that will bring jobs & help the economy. without a good road system our state is doomed
Corey
January 16th, 2010
7:20 pm
Early last year the Tea Party drove their cars on government funded highways to the nearest government funded MARTA station and overwhelmed government funded MARTA station attendants so much so that the workers gave up and positioned the gates in an open position so that the Tea Party folk could ride for free on government funded MARTA trains which run on government funded heavy rail through a government funded tunnel under Peachtree St. to the government funded MARTA Five Points Station and walked down government funded Atlanta streets to the capitol to hold anti-government/tax rally. Priceless!
colin richards
January 16th, 2010
7:25 pm
Atlanta has some of the worst transportation problems in the world. The Tea partiers don’t want Atlanta or Georgia to be modern, state of the art or efficient. We need High Speed Rail, like they have in Europe and other modern countries, all over the USA. It would do more than anything to help our economy! What’s more,the Governor is cutting back in education even MORE now. Georgia is at the bottom of the barrel there, too. He knows the more ignorant people are kept, the more Tea partiers there will be to vote GOP. The GOP in the South stands for little else than rabid hatred of the Federal Government and lack of progress. They do not believe in infrastructure or progress. The South has not come far or changed much ideologically since the Civil War.
glenn g
January 16th, 2010
7:26 pm
The problem in the US is that the vast majority of its people want “money for nothing and our chicks for free.” Fund this, fund that, gight this war, fight terrorists, cancer, sponsor the illegals, universal health care, blah blah…but raise taxes–
glenn g
January 16th, 2010
7:28 pm
NO WAY! What stupidity.
285
January 16th, 2010
7:48 pm
Atlanta needs to start improving the infrastructure now, or it will be even more expensive later. Does it not strike anyone that the business community via the chamber is asking for road and transit improvements? This is about future growth.
BPJ
January 16th, 2010
8:01 pm
The “tea party” types want us to keep paying more in the Time Tax. What is the Time Tax? It’s the time we spend stuck in traffic thanks to these “anti-tax” morons. North Carolina and Tennessee – hardly socialist bastions – have already passed transportation sales taxes.
Calling a teapartier “infantile” is an unfair insult……..unfair to infants!
frankly
January 16th, 2010
8:29 pm
Galloway are you really that dense?
There is a world of difference between deficit spending in Washington DC for projects the people DO NOT want and a voter approved local tax for specific transportation projects. One has absolutely NOTHING to do with the other and your linking the two is sophomoric. You make it sound as if Perdue was all for the transportation tax before the “tea party” movement. Just so you know, he WAS NOT.
And let me clue you in to something. The “tea party” movement is not specifically about taxes. Its about deficit spending and a federal government lurch toward socialism that the majority of the country does not want.
Adrian Shadowmoss
January 16th, 2010
8:40 pm
Uh, Corey, is that air I hear escaping from both orifices at the sides of your head? “Government-funded” indeed. You’re right, however, where do you suppose the “government” gets its money? Or is that a huge arbor of beautiful money trees on CapitAl (intended) Avenue?”
Yeah, I know, it can print more at the Federal level but Georgia as with other states does not have the power or right to print its own money and has to rely instead of the Tea Party folks and others – including you!
AJS
Corey
January 16th, 2010
8:42 pm
Yes Frankly, scare them with the “S” word. When Dr. King was alive his detractors tried to scare people with the ‘C” word – communism. Now with Obama at the helm it’s the “S” word. This country is not nor will it ever be a socialist nation. Yeah. the boogie man’s a coming. It’s easy to scare people by screaming “socialism” because most Americans can’t get beyond the now defunct Soviet Union when they think of socialism. An inconvenient truth – our federal government is being financed by a communist nation. Can you say China? The financing started way before Jan 19th 2009.
Fed up with trumped up causes
January 16th, 2010
8:45 pm
The know-nothing tea party idiots strike again–
move to Texas ya’ll and succeed— PLEASE…
The whole movement is based on myth, half-truths and outright lies–
How dumb do you have to be to buy this non-sense?…
We need sensible transportation solutions now and methodologies for paying for them–
Corey
January 16th, 2010
8:49 pm
Nice try Adrian, we are the government via our elected officials – that’s what’s called a republic. And because a group borders on neurosis and grabs the loudest megaphone and creates a media circus does not a majority make.
Corey
January 16th, 2010
8:59 pm
I stand corrected. We just might become a socialist nation unless someone has the gumption to rein in Wall St. and force them to play by a set of sane rules. Wall St., who was aided and abetted by the likes of Phil Gramm et.al. You remember Phil. He said “Americans are whiners” and “the fundamentals of the economy are sound” as it was headed toward the abyss. The same Phil who was McCain’s economic adviser.
Wake Up People
January 16th, 2010
9:21 pm
During the eighties our federal government’s deficit spending was financed largely by Saudi petro dollars. That’s why Mr. Reagan killed the energy independence initiatives started by Mr. Carter. On 9/11/01 the chickens came home to roost. During much of the eighties and nineties Middle Easterners were virtually waved through American Embassies in the Middle East on their way to America. What? You think I’m making that up?
Bankers-
January 16th, 2010
9:26 pm
Enter your comments here
Ed
January 16th, 2010
9:29 pm
Taxes or not, if something is not done to solve Atlanta’s long term transportation issues, companies will take there jobs to Charlotte. It is really that simple. How come local and state leaders in North Carolina and Charlotte manage to deal with transportation issues and the local and state leadership of GA cannot?
Bankers-R-Us
January 16th, 2010
9:32 pm
The top 1% is laughing all the way to bank arm in arm with the bankers while “We The People” fight amongst ourselves whether the person with an (R) or a (D) in front of his/her name will make the best candidate/leader. Keep em in the dark, guys. Ha ha ha!
James
January 16th, 2010
9:50 pm
Tea_bag_gers are pouty little bigoted children sorely in need of a parent to turn off their radios and tvs. They need to take a civics class and learn how to think for themselves.
eyes rolling
January 16th, 2010
9:54 pm
Stupid teab@ggers
Steve
January 16th, 2010
10:28 pm
It’s all the fault of those liberal fatcat Wall St. banker commie socialists and those democrats like Phil (former McCain campaign manager) Gramm (now co-chair of Swiss banking giant UBS).
Welcome to Alice in Wonderland.
Midtowner
January 16th, 2010
10:47 pm
I agree with the Tea Baggers.
No new taxes, quit funding things that we keep having to cut.
Since the lion’s share of Fed $$ goes to Medicare, cut that, kill off the old people, let all those jobs looking after old people go away too. Keeping old people alive past their expiration date is what’s driving a huge chunk of healthcare to go out of control.
Then there’s the military taking up huge chunks of money/tax dollars – get rid of much of that too, so all those stupid magnetic yellow ribbons will go away too, and all the jobs associated with the military will disappear too, like up around Marietta.
We’re already cutting school hours, so keep cutting education, so everyone has a cut-rate education, so all they can get are cut-rate jobs, and american companies go overseas to hire even more.
Inflation goes up, the cost of things go up, taxes go down, services drop like a rock, we go back to the bad old days of the 1800s of no safety net for anyone and a huge chunk of the population living in abject poverty like a third-world country. The depression of the 1840s was called the “Hungry Forties” because so much of the population was starving; killed off Edgar Allen Poe, can’t be all bad.
Oh, and everyone I know DOES want the “Public Option” for health care. But then again, many of them have been seriously poor at one point in their lives or another, and not able to afford things like a doctor’s visit when sick. I can always tell when a politician has never been anywhere near the point of making the decision of paying for food or for medicine, b/c they did not have the money for both.
James
January 16th, 2010
11:54 pm
@Midtowner – +1 – Let’em pull themselves up by their bootstraps or starve in the dustbowl by their own hands.
Bitter EX democrackkk
January 17th, 2010
7:47 am
It IS truly amazing at the IGNORANCE displayed here by stupid fools who probably dont pay ANY taxes…the rEVOLution builds and it has already started…www.CampaignforLiberty.com
The Campaign for Liberty is hosting its first regional training in ATL this weekend for about 500 folks…over 1000 people were at the Ron Paul event Friday night at the Sheraton but this ‘newspaper’ didnt have a word about it….wonder why? STRIVE to be SMARTER than the parties of SLAVERY want you to BE ! ! !
I'm Not A Believer
January 17th, 2010
9:06 am
Funny Sonny……don’t believe or trust anything that comes out of this guy’s mouth.
James
January 17th, 2010
9:16 am
Ron Paul is a homophobic sack of wine.
CRG
January 17th, 2010
10:29 am
I agree with Frankly on this one. The real issue here is control over spending tax funds. The options have been a statewide tax vs. a regionally-controlled tax. I would think that Tea Partiers would prefer a regional tax because local governments control the spending of the funds, rather than a centralized bureacracy throwing money to the four corners of the state in any manner it sees fit.
Let’s be pragmatic here: we can spend our current funds differently (without tapping into a new source of funds), or we can impose a new tax through a public vote. Why should Republicans be so afraid of a public referendum? They are letting the People decide what is best for their regions. It is disingenuous to think that the public/Tea Partiers will punish the GOP for letting the people decide whether to tax themselves to improve transportation infrastructure. If Tea Partiers actually scared the GOP into putting off the vote, then the GOP has seriously miscalculated the number of angry voters who will turn out in upcoming elections because they have not been allowed to decide for themselves how to fix GA’s transportation problem. How did so many ill-informed political consultants get under the Gold Dome?
Too Much
January 17th, 2010
10:40 am
Now Sonny supports transportation…wow. The business community in Metro Atlanta has been asking for the help with transportation for at least the last five years. Let’s wait another two years? Why, so a Republican can become governor because they fear tea baggers? Wake up you stupid ninnies.WAKE UP YOU STUPID NINNIES AND KICK THESE BUMS OUT OF OFFICE. Sonny and the legislature are putting party before the needs of the people.
I can careless what party a person is in as long as they are properly representing the needs not the wants of the people. Tea baggers are a small group of 6th grade educated morons. Anyone above a 6th grade education would know better.
A 12th grade education would get you at least a basic understanding of economics. We should cut spending first. Maybe the tea baggers will line up behind Karen Handel she at least finish high school. In their eyes she’s bright and not quite the intellectual that Sarah Palin is. LOL
Whodinie
January 17th, 2010
11:10 am
Sonny Perdue and the Republican leadership have single handedly destroyed what Georgia once was. I am an independent who voted for Perdue because I felt that Georgians should have a say in what our state flag should be. Well Sonny lied and misled many who voted for him. I voted against Sonny in the last election. I think it is time that the entire state think about where Georgia has been and where the current Perdue administration has taken us.
It is time for Georgians to wake up. We can’t allow another Perdueist or any of his endorsements (Handel) take control as our Governor. I am strongly considering Roy Barnes. He has been there and you know what to expect. Don’t forget the Homeowner Grant Relief program that Barnes started and Perdue and the boys done away with. Another REPUBLICAN tax increase.
I have had ENOUGH of PERDUEISM.
Whodinie
January 17th, 2010
11:13 am
Too Much – Why would you even consider someone who doesn’t complete the job that they were elected to do?
It is absurd to even think that Karen Handel could be our next Governor.
Zeb
January 17th, 2010
12:05 pm
The road builders and developers have controlled Georgia politicians for decades. The only form of government acceptable to our politicians is a kleptocracy where road builders and developers line the pockets of the politicians in exchange for politicians channeling huge chunks of federal and state tax revenues into the road builders’ and developers’ pockets. That system financed road builders and developers living like kings, and thousands of low-paid constructions jobs that have now dried up and blown away as federal and state money has evaporated. Georgia has one of the least enlightened political and business communities in the country. They are still operating under a 1960’s mind-set that equates the the laying of endless asphalt with progress. Here is a perfect example: a four billion dollar boondoggle tunnel under Atlanta would be preposterous and laughable almost anywhere else in the civilized world. Here, perhaps because of money travelling under the table, it is treated as an entirely reasonable proposition by our “transportation planners.” Many of our neighboring states have leapt into the 21st Century with their transportation planning and bugeting, while Georgia sinks into the tar pit.