Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Water, traffic, and property taxes to dominate 2008 Georgia legislative session

One is a Republican, one a democrat. One is in the House, the other the Senate. But both Rep. Edward Lindsey (R) and Senator Kasim Reed (D) represent metro-Atlanta districts, and they agree on several major issues affecting the metro area.

Water – The long-delayed plan to build reservoirs to capture and store water must move forward during this session. It is critical to stopping Atlanta’s national brand from eroding further.

Transportation – Atlanta can’t build or widen its roads much more, so Atlanta needs funding for creative solutions to improve the way we use our roads. Senator Reed favors a bill to allow two or more counties to create a regional sales tax to fund transportation projects specific to those counties. He prefers this approach to a state-wide one-cent sales tax, which he believes does not have enough support and would get bogged down in rural versus urban politics anyway.

Property taxes – Both support a plan to set a cap on how much the assessed value of your home can increase each year. Neither supports a freeze.

In this podcast, hear about these plus other issues including a revamping of education funding in the state and how the state might help save Grady Hospital.