MARIETTA - While the last two sessions of the General Assembly have failed to create a mechanism to help ease metro Atlanta's traffic congestion, the stakes are much higher with the 2010 governor's race, business leaders say.

"I believe the Republican leadership recognizes in both the House and the Senate that much of the governor's election hinges on the passing of a regional transportation funding source," said Shaun Davis, government affairs chairman for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.

"There are many who believe that certain Democrats for governor would not be in the race if the business community believed the regional problem was adequately addressed," Davis said.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, called that speculation, but did say, "I think there is wide dissatisfaction in the direction of the state by everybody, not just business."

Republican Cobb Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens added, "The water and transportation issues have been ongoing for too many years. Many of these problems should have been resolved over a decade ago."

Cobb Chamber leaders met with the 19-member Cobb Legislative Delegation this week to present them with the chamber's legislative priorities for the upcoming session, and No. 1 on the agenda is transportation funding.

"Our region is the fastest- growing in the country, yet we are ranked as having the second-worst traffic and next to last in per capita spending. A new funding source is a high necessity," Davis said.

Last year, the General Assembly couldn't agree on what that funding source would be. The House supported a statewide 1-cent sales tax proposal for transportation. The Senate supported a regional sales tax approach that would allow multiple counties to band together and ask voters via constitutional amendment to approve a regional 1-cent sales tax for transportation funding.

But Davis said multiple surveys suggest that voters would reject a statewide sales tax because they think the money would go to metro Atlanta. And the regional approach has its own problems. For example, Davis wonders what would happen if the 10 counties in the ARC approved a regional sales tax, but Cherokee County decided not to participate. Would the new road project stop at the Cherokee line since Cherokee would not be contributing to the funding?

"I'm telling you, there are no clear answers," he said.

The latest option is to, rather than put the question before voters to pass by constitutional amendment, use existing statute to create a special tax district, much like the Cumberland Community Improvement District, known as the "Platinum Triangle" in the Galleria area. A CID is a district in which commercial property owners agree to tax themselves at a higher rate in order to pay for infrastructure improvements in their district.

But state Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) advised the chamber against pursuing a special tax district option for transportation because there are concerns about whether it was constitutional.

State Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth) asked if the chamber has surveyed Cobb County on what transportation option citizens want. Davis said it hadn't, but is considering it. Meantime, Davis pointed to the approval of the 2005 Cobb transportation SPLOST. While that special purpose local option sales tax passed by a narrow margin, the important fact, Davis said, is that conservative west Cobb voters turned out to carry it to victory. That's significant because west Cobb residents are the ones that are plagued by traffic, he said.

Davis believes a transportation proposal will crystallize by late January, and until then the chamber is not taking a position on which transportation option to support. The key, however, is that the regional dollars must be spent as closely to the region in which they came from as possible, he said.

As an incentive to legislators, the chamber is creating a new award to be given to the legislator who is most supportive of the chamber's legislative agenda, called the Friend of Business Award. The 2010 Friend of Business Award will be presented after the session to the legislator who was best able to pass a funding mechanism for transportation.