Fund Public Transit Choices

Inadequate state investment in public transportation and an automobile-centric approach to transportation threaten Georgia’s air quality, lower our quality of life, contribute to poor health and impair our ability to compete for new businesses and jobs. Addressing Georgia’s transportation problem will require creative and varied mechanisms for expanding the state’s investment in public transportation in order to offer convenient and safe alternatives to car travel between and within towns and cities.

In June 2008, Governor Perdue announced his support for a rail line from Atlanta to Griffin that had been allocated more than $93 million in federal funds several years earlier. We will work to support the Governor in making this and other commuter rail lines a reality.

We urge the General Assembly to remove limitations on how and where transportation funds can be spent to ensure that existing transportation dollars are used most effectively. We also urge legislators to pass measures to dedicate one percent of the General Sales Tax on Motor Fuel to “all transportation purposes” and allow local governments to work together to fund joint transportation projects, including their operating costs, through a new locally levied Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST).