MTO: Barnes proposes state transportation authority

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Barnes proposes state transportation authority
Board would have power to control regional development

By Nancy Badertscher
The Macon Telegraph

ATLANTA - Gov. Roy Barnes proposed legislation Monday that would create a new state transportation authority with the power to veto major development projects and to invest up to $2 billion to start its own mass transit system.

Barnes, who until recently lived in the fast-growing Atlanta suburb of Cobb County, made addressing urban sprawl an early priority of his administration. He has said that metro Atlanta's prosperity is now threatened by its growth, air pollution and congestion.

The bill pushes the state Department of Transportation, the Atlanta Regional Commission and local governments to work together on regional planning by threatening intervention from the proposed Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

Metro Atlanta, with its air pollution problems and traffic congestion, is the obvious target of the bill. But Macon also could be affected.

The bill initially limits the authority's jurisdiction to counties in metro Atlanta that have failed to meet the federal Clean Air Act standards for ozone and carbon monoxide or are contiguous to non-attainment counties.

But it also includes a provision to allow the authority to extend its reach into Macon, and other areas which is expected to fail the federal air pollution standards within the next seven years.

"Our belief, based on ozone monitoring this far, is that the Macon area will be non-attainment...," said Harold Reheis, director of the state Environmental Protection Division.

Augusta also is likely to join Atlanta as a non-attainment area, said Harold Reheis, director of the state Environmental Protection Division. Columbus is questionable, and Savannah is, at this point, unlikely to run afoul of the federal standards, Reheis said.

Barnes has been talking about a state transportation authority for two weeks but had not unveiled specifics until Monday.

"Hopefully, it will never be used, if the Department of Transportation, the ARC and the local governments can cooperate in reaching a coordinated plan that solves our transportation and air quality problems," he said.

Barnes said his 43-page bill gives the state authority the power to modify, review and revise any regional plan drawn by the DOT, ARC and local governments.

He said the 15-member authority, which he would appoint from the general public, also would have the power to design, construct and operate projects of its own, including a mass transit system.

Revenue bonds of up to $1 billion could be used, plus the Legislature could sign off on another $1 billion, Barnes said.

The authority could withhold state funds if the regional development plans were not followed. It also could overrule a regional plan with a two-thirds vote of its membership.

A development with regional impact would have to be approved by the authority, and - if it were not approved - would lose crucial transportation dollars. To ensure some checks and balances, the local government still could approve the development with a three-fourths vote of its membership.

"We don't have a choice," Barnes told reporters at a standing-room-only press conference in his Capitol office. "We either address this problem or this boon area that has fed the jobs and fed the tax coffers ... will suffer."