News Analysis: Effect of changes to Georgia DOT uncertain

ATLANTA --- A balanced budget, a new law, a new commissioner and the governor's new man handling planning are huge changes at the Georgia Department of Transportation, but they're no guarantee everything will run smoothly.

For one thing, money is likely to remain a challenge in every state agency as tax collections keep falling. In July, the first month of the fiscal year, the state collected 9.6 percent less than in July 2008, which was nearly 7 percent down from the year before that.

Accountants figured out ways to wipe the DOT's $2.2 billion deficit off the books for the year, but the department still has nearly $500 million in debt to bond holders. Interest on that debt will take about a quarter of what the department expects to get from the shrinking gas tax this year and nearly a third next year.

But every state agency is feeling the same pain. The unique challenge will be determining who's running the department.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY passed Senate Bill 200 just before adjournment. It was designed to improve the department's operations by giving the governor and the Legislature more say.

Many legislators had reservations about the details of the bill. As a result, it just squeaked through. Had passage been more certain, a conference committee would have been expected to tidy up most of those details, but legislative leaders decided not to submit it to a conference and the possibility of failure on a separate vote for final passage.

The first quirk left in the bill played out last week when the House Transportation Committee approved Gov. Sonny Perdue's appointment of Todd Long as planning director. To begin with, the House has no say over other appointees, though many undergo a Senate confirmation vote.

During Mr. Long's confirmation hearing, he kept referencing some of the other quirks in the law. He said the law isn't clear on what happens if the General Assembly exercises its new right to reject funding for projects that have already gone through the public hearing process required by federal highway laws. Another unresolved issue is how to mesh the DOT commissioner's authority to select certain kinds of projects with the projects selected by the planning director, who is essentially the governor's proxy.

Asked whether the new law would slow road construction projects, Mr. Long said the hope is that it will speed them up.

"The problem at DOT for 40 years is we've always had too many projects brewing in the pot," he said.

Legislators hope the new commissioner, Vance Smith, will also be a positive influence, because he was one of their own as the veteran chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

THE BILL PROVIDING new government authority on road projects came about because of uncommon cooperation between Mr. Perdue and the leaders in the General Assembly, spawned by their shared frustration with the DOT board and with roads that weren't being built fast enough.

Ironically, Mr. Perdue's road-acceleration program, Fast Forward, gummed up the department's finances so badly that road building practically stopped. The department quickly ran up a $2.2 billion deficit and could afford no new projects.

Business groups across the state lobbied hard in recent years for tax increases for road construction. Instead of passing legislation to boost the revenues, Mr. Perdue and the General Assembly pushed SB 200.

The department can only fund new projects with federal money, which will run out after the next fiscal year. That means between now and the end of the next session of the General Assembly, there will be more discussion about transportation taxes.

At the same time, the department, Mr. Perdue and the Legislature will be feeling their way through the provisions of an imperfect law that is supposed to tell them how to run the agency.

Reach Walter Jones at (404) 589-8424 or walter.jones@morris.com.