By Jon Gillooly
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA - Cobb Chamber of Commerce leaders are not happy with the failure in the Georgia Senate of a constitutional amendment that could have helped fund transportation projects in the state.
The resolution would have allowed citizens to vote on a 1-percent regional local option transportation sales tax. It was approved by the House but denied by the Senate on April 4, the last night of the 40-day legislative session.
"We're very disappointed. The measure failed by three votes, and three state senators from Cobb voted against it," said Chamber President and CEO Bill Cooper.
The three Cobb senators who voted against Senate Resolution 845 are state senators John Wiles (R-Kennesaw), Judson Hill (R-east Cobb) and Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock).
"I think they're going to be asked a lot of questions from people in the business community when the dust settles. They ought to be accountable for why they voted the way they did," said David Connell, former chamber chairman.
Cooper said the topic arose during the chamber's Board of Directors meeting Monday, when the chamber's governmental affairs chairman, Shawn Davis of Atlanta-based Joe Tanner & Associates, gave the chamber a legislative wrap-up.
"If it had passed, it would have allowed voters to decide if they liked to have the tax. Not allowing it to go to the voters was the worst part," Chamber Chairman Sam Kelly said.
Cooper said when it comes to transportation, "This state has not done anything of any consequence in 20 years."
This bill, he said, was the victim of politics.
"It was the No. 1 priority with the business community in the entire state of Georgia. So much time and energy was put into it. This kind of sets us back," Connell said.
Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens said many of the senators who voted against the transportation measure did so because of a failure to pass a tax reform package.
However, he said, "We have the second worst congestion in the country. Our quality of life is hurt by needless hours in traffic as our state deals with issues such as Sunday alcohol sales and billboard liability. More than pork back home, we need the real issues resolved," Olens said, adding, "The session was a disaster."
Hill said he co-sponsored the original transportation resolution, yet leadership across the Capitol failed to move the issue early during the session.
"The hastily thrown together compromise legislation that was presented in the last five minutes on the last day accompanied with little to no discussion or debate made it difficult to approve," Hill said.
Hill finds it difficult to vote for comprehensive tax policy without carefully considering the details.
"If I draw opposition for trying to be a guardian of responsible public policy, then give it your best shot. I believe that voters will side with me," Hill said.
Rogers said he also voted against the bill because he did not want to make a decision "in such a haphazard manner" with only a few minutes to digest the legislation.
Ron Sifen, a candidate for District 2 on the Cobb Commission, says when the issue returns next year, Cobb may need some new taxes to pay for transportation projects.
"But right now, we don't know what we need, because we have a long list of 'wish list' transportation projects, but government officials have thus far refused to prioritize these projects," he said.
Sifen wants Cobb to prioritize transportation projects into categories.
Priority A, Sifen said, should be the list of projects most effective in reducing traffic congestion, and which are affordable with available dollars over the next 25 years. Priority B is those projects that would be nearly as effective in reducing congestion, but would require new taxes. Priority C is other wish list projects.
"Apparently, a number of legislators agreed that we need to have more than an unprioritized wish list before the Legislature should move forward in approving new forms of taxation," Sifen said.
Although three of Cobb's senators voted against the transportation proposal, two voted for it. They are state senators Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) and Steve Thompson (D-Powder Springs).
Across the hall, 10 of Cobb's 14 state representatives voted for the bill. They are Sharon Cooper (R-east Cobb), Terry Johnson (D-Marietta), Judy Manning (R-Marietta), Don Parsons (R-east Cobb), Ed Setzler (R-Acworth), Rob Teilhet (D-Smyrna), Steve Tumlin (R-Marietta), Alisha Morgan (D-Austell), Don Wix (D-Mableton) and Sheila Jones (D-South Cobb.)
Three of Cobb's state representatives voted against the bill. They are Rich Golick (R-Smyrna), who is Gov. Perdue's floor leader, Bobby Franklin (R-east Cobb) and Matt Dollar (R-east Cobb.) State Rep. Earl Ehrhart did not vote.
Despite their own disappointment in the bill's failure, Kelly, Connell and Cooper said they had no intention of using the chamber to endorse opponents of the senators as that is not the chamber's role.
Connell said that decision should be left up to the voters.
jgillooly@mdjonline.com
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Posted Comments
How ironic that somebody complaining about traffic doesn't see how Sunday sales prohibition causes some of the traffic. If you are a Sunday grocery shopper, which a whole lot of people are, you have to make a special trip another day to get your beer and wine. That means totally pointless extra driving! The beer and wine could have been picked up Sunday if it weren't for this idiotic prohibition. You know what? I don't even drink! I just cannot stand pointless driving!
Only thing gonna reduce traffic is to leave the roads alone, build a train and tell people "use it or sit in traffic because you WANT TO and shut up about it"
I think now after several years of Republican control of the state voters are beginning to realize that these people have abandoned them. The only concerns seem to be wrecking the public schools, the health system, and anything that improves the overall quality of life.
I have been waiting my whole life for some enlightenment on the part of legislators to actually DO something about the horrible transportation situation in this county. They do absolutely nothing except pretend to be "planning". Well they've been "planning" since 1960 and still nothing. I grew up in Austell with buses, trains, streetcars, etc. and we could get in and out of Atlanta in a matter of minutes, not hours, and we only had 2 lane roads! I commuted to Carrollton to college on a bus in 1950, I visited relatives in Montgomery, AL on a train! We have gone backwards, not forward. I've visited in other cities, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Chicago, New Haven, Boston, Charlotte where trains are the norm and people can move without sitting in a car half the day. These people have to lose their jobs in November.