Published Friday, August 01, 2008 in Opinion
Talk grows louder about transportation funding problems
Editorial
How do we pay for our transportation needs? As we have written before, transportation funding is one of the great issues facing our state, and this week, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the federal approach to transportation funding is "broken."
So what do we do?
First, let's look at our state. With current funding, we will not have the money to meet the transportation needs in Georgia. That is particularly true in the Metro Atlanta area, where we are beginning to strangle with increasing traffic congestion. It's getting so bad the metro area is losing good industrial prospects that are locating where traffic problems are not so great.
We hope the Georgia General Assembly gets off its behind in January and finally addresses the transportation funding issue. It seems the two major new sources of transportation money may be another SPLOST -- this one a regional sales tax in counties where voters approve the tax -- or another statewide one-cent sales tax increase for transportation. The state gasoline tax could be raised, but no one is promoting that idea.
Voters may not relish either of these taxes, but polls are indicating that more taxpayers are willing to pay if the enormous congestion problems can be addressed.
On the national level, Secretary Mary Peters said action must be taken to speed up transportation projects. She wants to consolidate 102 federal transportation programs into eight umbrella projects that she said would cut waste. She wants to focus on maintaining and expanding federal highways instead of diverting funds to other projects. Some fear that could jeopardize mass transit expansion.
Peters talked about these changes during a meeting in Smyrna, Ga., this week.
Quite frankly, we don't know enough about the federal changes to offer an opinion. We do agree we need to speed up the process of getting transportation projects completed, and under current formulas we are not meeting our needs.
We're glad the fed is looking at change. We also are impressed with some of the revamping at Georgia DOT under the direction of Commissioner Gena Abrahams. And we hope our state lawmakers will quit squabbling and address the issue of state transportation funding.