Published Monday, February 08, 2010

Regional board outlines its transit and road ideas

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

Different plans to increase funding for transportation projects have been floated in the Georgia General Assembly in the past two years, but 2010 just might be the year that a new funding source is actually approved.

Each scheme has been a little different, and the members of the 10-county Three Rivers Regional Commission have approved a policy statement laying out characteristics they feel a good plan should have.

"These are the things we stand for in this region," said Lanier Boatwright, executive director of Three Rivers.

"Things are happening so quickly in the legislature that we want them to know -- these are specific things that we are concerned about," said Coweta County Commissioner Tim Lassetter, chairman of Three Rivers.

The Three Rivers RC was created in July by the merger of the Chattahoochee Flint Regional Development Center, which served Coweta, Carroll, Heard, Meriwether and Troup counties, and the McIntosh Trail RDC, which covered Butts, Lamar, Pike, Spading, and Upson counties.

The 10-point policy statement was transmitted to state officials and all local chief elected officials, Boatwright said.

The point of the statement is not to "say we support House Bill XYZ or Senate Bill XYZ, but to say 'when you develop any transportation plan at the state, this is what we can get behind, this is what we can endorse and support," he said. "This is what is important to us."

The first point is that new funding should include all modes of transportation, including transit and passenger rail. Some plans discussed previously would not allow money to be spent on transit projects.

"We very much believe in transit," Boatwright said. In the Spalding County area, "we have worked a long time for commuter rail," he said. Some funding for a commuter rail that would link Griffin to Atlanta, by way of Lovejoy, was set aside several years ago.

"We are worried about losing it. At the state level, not a lot has been done, but the money is still there," Boatwright said.

Number two is that any new funding should be as a supplement to -- not a replacement of -- existing funding.

Any funds from a Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax should not be subject to some of the rules that now govern funding for road projects -- "balancing" by Congressional district or mandatory congestion mitigation formulas.

Both Coweta and Spalding counties are considered part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Planning Organization for transportation projects. When it comes to getting state and federal funding for projects in those counties, "we are judged on criteria that do not apply to us because we are having to compete for funds with Gwinnett and Cobb and DeKalb and Fulton," Boatwright said. "Seventy percent of the criteria is dealing with congestion. And we don't have anywhere near" the congestion that those counties have, he said. "That criteria knocked us out of a whole lot of projects."

Any money generated from a regional transportation tax should stay in that region.

A one-cent sales tax in the 10-county region would bring in approximately $74 million a year, Boatwright said.

"That is a lot of money," Boatwright said, and the money could be used to leverage additional federal and state funds as well.

And within those regions, counties must be allowed to opt out -- and opt in.

Concerns about opting out, and the regional commissions having the power to decide how to spend the money, were some of the reasons that the 2008 TSPLOST plan failed by 3 votes in the Senate. Had the plan received the requisite two-thirds super majority for a constitutional amendment, voters would have decided on it state wide.

"The governor initially has said that they shouldn't be able to opt out," Boatwright said. "We think there is a local choice out there that should be very important."

However, "hopefully people won't opt out when they see the value and have a part in the process. I don't think people will opt out if they have an option to participate in a detailed transportation plan -- they'll see the value," he said.

The intent is that local governments set their own priorities for road projects, and a funding plan should allow for a regional panning and prioritization process to identify projects of regional importance.

The SPLOST legislation should also have a clear sunset date, so that it will have to be renewed periodically.

Any SPLOST referendum should have a project list, but allow for modifications by an oversight committee if federal or state funding, or "commitment variables" would prevent the implementation of a project.

There should also be an independent, non-legislative oversight committee tasked to oversee the tax expenditure and implementation of projects.

And each region should retain flexibility to make decisions regarding "certain funding criteria unique to specific jurisdictions."

"I think the prioritization is just an initial approach," Boatwright said. "As you go along... as in anything, you should be flexible to change your criteria and your ranking of projects," Boatwright said. "Issues change."

"We have to be flexible and adaptable."