http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/...tea-party-foe-of-transportation-tax.html
tlanta Business Chronicle by Dave Williams, Staff Writer
Date: Friday, December 9, 2011, 3:14pm EST
Dave Williams
Staff Writer - Atlanta Business Chronicle
Metro Atlanta’s $6.1 billion transportation funding referendum got some pushback Friday from the Tea Party.
Representatives of the small-government, low-taxes group struck at the concept of regionalism, the philosophy behind the regional penny sales tax proposal, during a public hearing at the state Capitol.The referendum’s supporters, including metro business leaders, say Atlanta’s traffic congestion is too big a problem to be solved with piecemeal efforts stopping at city and county lines.Regionalism was at the heart of legislation the General Assembly passed last year authorizing transportation funding votes on next summer’s primary ballots in metro Atlanta and 11 other regions across the state.
But on Friday, Tea Party activist Susan Stanton told a legislative study commission that regionalism flies in the face of home rule, a sacrosanct principle in Georgia of the right to local self-government established in the state constitution.She objected to a core provision in the legislation stipulating that the proposed sales tax would be collected in every county in regions that approve the referendum, even if a majority of voters in that county oppose it.
“County voters may not opt out,” Stanton said. “Local governments will lose control.”