MTO: Legislators vow to fight for Macon's road funds

ATLANTA - Top legislative leaders vowed Wednesday to protect Macon from losing a projected $26 million in transportation dollars, even if it means changing the funding formula they recently created.

"Macon doesn't need to take a hit, and Macon's not going to take a hit as long as I'm around," Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor said.

	HIGHWAY DOLLARS
	The General Assembly changed the formula for divvying up transportation dollars this year. Here are projections from the state Department of Transportation on what that means to the region's congressional districts and some of their cities for fiscal 2000-2002. 2nd Congressional District (includes Macon, Taylor, Crisp counties) Old formula: $361.9 million or 9.09 percent of total New formula: $334.1 million or 9.09 percent Albany only Old formula: $18.8 million New formula: $21.3 million, an increase of $2.5 million 8th Congressional District (includes Bibb, Monroe, Crawford, Peach, Houston, Twiggs) Old formula: $474.6 million or 11.93 percent of total New formula: $334 million or 9.09 percent Macon only Old formula: $199.9 million New formula: $173.6 million, a decline of $26.3 million Warner Robins Old formula: $40.9 million New formula: $41.5 million, an increase of $614,000 10th Congressional District (includes Jones, Baldwin, Hancock, Washington, Putnam and Laurens counties) Old formula: $439.2 million or 11.04 percent of total New formula: $334 million or 9.09 percent Augusta only Old formula: $107.3 million New formula: $104.5 million, a decline of $2.7 million

State Rep. Terry Coleman, D-Eastman, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said legislators may need to "tweak" the funding formula next year to ensure that Macon and rural Georgia are not penalized.

Officials also may look to a loophole in the new formula that allows a majority of the state transportation board to shift money from one congressional district to another, if one has a road project ready for funding and another doesn't, Taylor said.

"I think that is a key, key factor," said Senate Appropriations Committee chairman George Hooks, D-Americus. "We can work closely with the DOT board to ensure that projects, particularly in Macon and rural Georgia, get funded."

The state Department of Transportation, in a report made public Tuesday, estimated that Macon's share of transportation dollars would drop in the next three years by about $26 million - from an originally scheduled $199.9 million to $173.6 million. It also predicted that less money would be going to Savannah and Augusta and more would be going to Atlanta.

The revised figures were based on a provision in legislation that passed this year, creating the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, said Marta Rosen, the DOT's planning director.

The provision requires that all transportation dollars - except for those earmarked for maintenance projects, GRTA, the state ports authority or Atlanta's rapid rail system - be divided equally among the state's 11 congressional districts. It was pushed by rural legislators, who have long felt that their areas were short-changed in highway funding.

The DOT report prompted Larry Justice, chairman of the Bibb County Commission, to draft a letter Wednesday to members of the General Assembly, asking them to fix the formula in the next legislative session.

He said he had already been advised that four local road projects each would have to be pushed back a year because of the change. The most expensive - $4.5 million in federal and state money for four-laning a portion of Jeffersonville Road - would be delayed from fiscal 2002 to 2003, Justice said.

House Majority Leader Jimmy Skipper, D-Americus, who helped negotiate the funding formula, said Wednesday he has yet to figure out how the DOT came up with its revised estimates.

"They are not the numbers the DOT provided for us in the legislative session," Skipper said. "I'm not convinced those numbers are right."

The DOT's Steve Parks said he believed the majority of the $26 million at issue for Macon was earmarked for the Fall Line Freeway project.

"We know that is not going to be ready to bid on in three years. The environmental (studies) are not even ready yet," Parks said. "But the project's not a loss, and the project won't go away."

He said officials anticipated some short-term adjustments in changing from a formula that required an even split of 70 percent of the funds over five years to one that requires an equal split of 100 percent of the funds in three years."

"Five years from now, you are assured you are getting your one-eleventh of the pie," Parks said.

Coleman said legislators might need to change the formula to exempt funding for rural highway development, in much the same way the existing plan exempts GRTA funding.

Taylor said a likely option may be reallocating some of the $1.5 billion earmarked for projects within the city of Atlanta.

The city was just barred from proceeding on 64 road projects because of air-quality problems, Taylor said.

"Clearly, those are going to be projects that are going to be back to the DOT board," he said. "When you try to turn a steamship around, you're going to have some surprises. But there's nothing we can't manage."