By Kenneth Thompson

Staff writer

At the halfway point of the legislative session, Rep Vance Smith of Pine Mountain is leading a House push for a statewide 1-cent sales tax to raise funds for transportation projects.

Smith, who chairs the House Transportation Committee and whose district includes part of Troup County, saw his “Georgia 20/20 Statewide Transportation Act” win unanimous approval from the committee last week. The bill’s name comes from the year 2020 - the sales tax would be in effect for 10 years, from 2010 to 2020.

“This legislation addresses real transportation needs, not just in one part of the state, but for all of Georgia,” Smith said.”I look forward to bringing the 20/20 Act before the full House for my colleagues’ consideration.”

The bill is one of two major transportation funding initiatives being pushed in the General Assembly. On the Senate side, a proposal championed by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle takes a regional approach. The bill, which would allow voters from various regions of the state to approve a T-SPLOST (Transportation Special Purpose Local-option Sales Tax), passed the Senate floor on Feb. 3.

Smith’s bill goes to the House rules committee Tuesday and then could be available to go to the House floor for voting as early as Thursday.

“There are a lot of other things on the calendar as well, but Thursday would be the earliest possible time for that,” Smith said.

The bill, if it makes it through, would place the sales tax question on the general election ballot in Nov. 2010.

“The bill still has a good ways to go,” Smith said. “But there are so many pending statewide projects that need to be funded. It’s just a great bill that the state needs.”

A local project that could receive immediate help from the sales tax is a connector linking New Franklin Road to Interstate-85.

“That project would receive a significant boost as well as numerous others around the state,” Smith said. “Most of the projects are along major interstates such as 85.”

The bill’s final step would be a conference committee with three members from the Senate and three from the House.

“We will sit down and work out our differences and will either choose from the bill proposed by the House and the one proposed by the Senate or possibly combine aspects from both of them into one final bill,” Smith said. “We have felt very positive every step of the way with this bill and look forward to putting before the voters of the state of Georgia.”

The Senate’s bill would create one transportation district out of the Atlanta Regional Commission, and would allow other counties around the state to join in groups to implement a SPLOST at their discretion.

A list of projects to be paid for by the T-SPLOST funds would be organized by a group of counties. Each county governing body would then be able to decide to proceed or not. If any county decides to opt out, the list of projects would be altered. Voters in the district would then decide if the tax was worth implementing.

Kenneth Thompson can be reached at kethompson@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.