Right on the heels of the state taking administrative power away from local school boards by giving unelected statewide bodies the power to charter new schools, handicapping the ability of our localities to finance road maintenance by interceding in the collection of excise taxes on gasoline, pushing to overtake so-called failing schools and place them in a state-run and state-administered school district with limited oversight or input by parents and other local stakeholders, and suspending (and eventually removing) locally-elected officials from one of the state's largest counties, here comes the latest chapter in the "Despite All of the Bluster About Cityhood, Georgia Doesn't Really Care About Home Rule" saga...

http://www.macon.com/2015/03/09/3628113_butts-county-senator-seeks-state.html?rh=1

ATLANTA -- A Butts County state senator is lobbying his colleagues to study a state takeover of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, now operated by the city of Atlanta.

“A lot of the transportation issues ... the problems we have talked about in this state, are metro Atlanta issues, and I feel like we need to talk about metro Atlanta solutions,” said state Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson.

The “issues” and “problems” are road and bridge repairs as well as construction that Georgia needs to undertake at a cost of about $1 billion per year, according to a House of Representatives study committee.

Twenty other senators have signed onto Jones’ Senate Resolution 451 to create a summer study committee on an airport takeover and a big tax review. He filed it Monday morning.

Atlanta has “a good problem to have ... the largest, busiest airport in the world,” Jones said.

“It’s always been operated by the city of Atlanta. ... We need to look at a mechanism, I think, similar to what we do with the World Congress Center Authority as well as the Georgia Ports Authority,” he said.

Boards appointed by the governor oversee each of those authorities. The Georgia World Congress Center Authority operates the convention center, the Georgia Dome and Centennial Olympic Park, all in Atlanta. The Ports Authority runs the ports of Savannah and Brunswick.

But the airport idea is only half the resolution, which also proposes reviewing all of Georgia’s tax breaks. There are a few hundred tax breaks, counting income and sales taxes which are further broken down by individuals and corporations.

Jones wants to compare “which ones are of value to the state” and which could sunset.

For example, he said the film tax credit has served the state well and has grown a movie industry.

But the $5,000 sales tax credit on electric vehicles, he said, “is one we could think of sunsetting.”

The Legislature is already contemplating ending that tax credit this year.

A study committee might be an easy sale; actual legislation might not.

“Anytime you try to do something that’s not status quo, it’s going to be interesting, but they’re worth looking at,” Jones said.

The resolution is a Senate-only study committee, so it only needs a vote in that chamber to start business this summer.

If the committee recommends any legislation, it would appear no earlier than the next legislative session, which starts in January 2016.

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2015/03/09/3628113_butts-county-senator-seeks-state.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - TR

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"Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."

Did I get that right? Isn't Atlanta notorious for further expansion from the city center while drawing tax revenue away from their city core?

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus