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.

Mayor Franklin: Save water or lose the argument

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin acknowledges the push to conserve water will have minimal impact on the flow of the Chattahoochee, our main water source. Speaking to Buckhead Rotary on Monday, Mayor Franklin said we must at least try to conserve in order to have a strong bargaining position in our 18-year water war with Alabama and Florida. The governors of all three states are in Washington this week to work out a temporary plan for how they will share what's left of the water in Lake Lanier.

"If we cut our water usage by 50%," Mayor Franklin said, "it will only have a four-percent impact on the Chattahoochee." However, she said we must wage an aggressive conservation campaign, else have a weak bargaining position with the other states, which accuse Georgia of failing to conserve.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley recently told a newspaper, "Atlanta can’t spend all summer during a drought watering their lawns and flowers and then expect someone else to bail them out."

In this week's podcast, Mayor Franklin makes a case for restricting water use, even discouraging the capture of "grey water" from showers for watering plants, but rather taking quick showers and sending all water down the drain and back to the Chattahoochee.