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House OKs bill letting MWA recruit industry
By Nancy Badertscher
The Macon Telegraph
ATLANTA - House members from Bibb County abandoned efforts Tuesday to give the Macon Water Authority broad powers over landfills and construction and pushed through a bill capping the authority's new duties at industrial development.
The bill now goes to the state Senate, where it needs the support of two of Bibb County's three senators to clear as local legislation in the remaining 15 days of the 40-day session.
There was no immediate consensus among senators from Bibb County Tuesday about the bill.
"I hope it goes through the Senate so we can move forward in Bibb County," said Frank Amerson, chairman of the Macon Water Authority. "The No. 1 priority of the water authority is to provide a tax base and job opportunities and to sell water and sewer, which calls for an industrial site."
An 11th-hour amendment to the bill sponsored by Rep. Robert Reichert, D-Macon, prompted Rep. David Graves, R-Macon, and Rep. Robert Ray, D-Fort Valley, to abandon their support.
Instead, Rep. David Lucas, D-Macon, and Rep. Billy Randall, D-Macon, offered their support.
Reichert's original bill spelled out that industrial development would not include landfills or any other solid-waste disposal. But it was amended Tuesday morning to eliminate that provision after water authority attorneys complained that the provision could prohibit the authority from disposing of waste from its existing operations.
"They said they could not run the risk," Reichert said. "They assured us, they promised us, they were not going to hood-wink anybody."
Amerson said: "There's no landfill, period. There's nothing in what passed the House that can be construed as putting us in the landfill business in any way."
Lucas signed onto the bill despite his earlier stand that a broader bill was needed to take advantage of the water authority's financing capabilities.
Lucas sponsored an earlier bill to allow the water authority to close the city landfill and open a new one and to fund the construction of a long-term drug-treatment center, which would have been operated by the state. The bill failed to gain the support of a majority of Bibb County's House members because of the landfill provisions.
Lucas said Tuesday that he decided to drop the broader bill for this legislative session, in part because blacks had not rallied behind the push for a drug-treatment center.
"That ought to be a concern for our folks," Lucas said.
The bill empowers the water authority to partner with the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority to buy and develop industrial sites, including a 450-acre site along Interstate 75 between Hartley Bridge and Sardis Church roads on which officials have already taken an option.
Sen. Susan Cable, R-Macon, and Sen. Robert Brown, D-Macon, both were non-committal about the bill Tuesday.
"I have not seen it," Cable said of the House bill. "And I'm not going to take a position yet. I have some concerns that have not been resolved concerning the (Sardis Church Road) site."
Brown, however, said he does not believe the House bill "goes far enough."
"Some concessions are going to have to be made to the legitimate concerns of south Macon," said Brown, who declined to give specifics.
Brown drafted his own alternative to the water authority bill last week but was unable to get either Cable or Sen. Sonny Perdue, R-Bonaire, to sign on to it.
Brown's bill would have expanded the water authority's powers into industrial development and landfill operations and would have committed the authority to a $5 million matching grant to the Tubman African American Museum for the construction of a new building in Macon.
"I'm always optimistic," Brown said. "I still believe we're in a position to have a compromise to bring us to a happy median."
Brown killed a House-passed bill two years ago that would have empowered the water authority to enter into industrial development. Perdue could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
After Reichert's bill cleared the House on Tuesday, Lucas pushed another bill through the House to change state law to limit the power of authorities that issue revenue bonds.
The amendment would prohibit authorities from going elsewhere in the state to buy or condemn land for a landfill without permission from the affected local government. The bill must pass the Senate and be signed into law by the governor to take effect.
Lucas initially decided to try to change the state law to gain Ray's support for his broader water authority bill. Ray pulled his signature from Lucas' bill after Crawford County residents voiced concern that the water authority would use its new powers to cross the county line and put a landfill in their back yards.
Lucas said Tuesday the state law change may come in handy later.
"I think we'll have to do it (a landfill) sooner or later," he said.
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