Do you think there is any chance they will manage to do away with the toll lanes? It appears as if we are stuck with them and facing the prospect of more HOT construction. I still cannot get over the fact that we spent millions to build HOV lanes only to turn around a few years later and convert them to toll lanes. Unbelievable.

I really doubt it. Let's count the ways that HOT lanes skirt accountability and yet "get something done"... not in a "This is the vision we articulated" way, but in a "Look! We did something and the cost / funding structure is so complex we can't readily be blamed / explain it" way.

See how that is like Transportation Candy (T-CANDY) ?

A representative “de-friending” on a site that is supposedly used to collect feedback? Unless terms of use or vulgarity violations are involved, that seems to be counterproductive in a rather big way…

Committee on Assignments, that should be on the agenda as Senator Balfour was elected within Gwinnett as a Senator ONLY.

It's up to the Senate, where they claim they will focus on ethics reform, the comments made by Speaker Ralston at the Republican State convention this year notwithstanding.

As we have been reminded elsewhere, the Gwinnett HOT Lanes are a project with FEDERAL funds involved, they won’t GO anywhere UNTIL after those contract terms and YEARS are BOTH met.
(We never did hear what advantage we got for our county’s involvement)

Mayor Kasim Reed was “excited about the revenue to come” WHY wasn’t this project tested closer to downtown?

And there other HOT Lane segments to be installed in the near future, regardless of any future resurrection of T-SPLOST or TSPLOST-lite programs.

Going forward, it’s time to fix GDOT before another attempt at “fundraising” begins.

Why create or continue to support STRA or other new regional authorities?
Roll it back in under DOT. (Translation cut the big ticket salaries)

The use of fuel taxes for general treasury? Time to stop the practice here and on every other fee levied that gets “funneled away” from the original project…
Goes right to the heart of government trust.

R - I think the biggest challenge for both the legislature and the folks living in Gwinnett is that of being a part of a region.

How do you think it would be best to plan, tax, and spend based on a metro atlanta region?

@Jack

Sadly, I for one am very cold to the “Atlanta Gwinnett region” concept but I will hear the case.

In the meantime, I’ll put it to the group in another way.
When our leaders in city and county governments within the “region” freely support dissolving their respective entities and to then RECOMBINE at a regional level, (lesser amount of elected officials included) then it will be time to consider it.

For example, Macon just combined with the county itself. Till that day arrives here, any regional taxing method is just adding expense layers.

Adjacent property owners realize that working together on common issues like water control CAN be done across their respective holdings WITHOUT having to surrender individual ownership in the process.

So then were you against the TIA bill as it passed the GA? It seems to me the language in there about taxing based on regions would have been better left stripped out, or the bill not passed at all.

Hello Jack: Do you know about the upcoming GeorgiaForward 2012 Forum where one of the topics will be After T-SPLOST What's Next For Transportation? www.georgiaforward.org/2012-forum

@ Jack
Yes I was against the TSPLOST, the transportation "program" that forgot what it was supposed to do along the way...

We were told "we had to have it" because companies were not moving to or are moving away because commute times are too great...

So the ARC in a moment of honesty, admits that the final list wasn't going to impact commute times... at all...

Are there some worthy projects in the mix yes, where those good items in the MAJORITY? Not on your life. The class A policy wonks and wonkettes will debate for YEARS on this.

Since 75 percent of the regions rejected it, I apparently wasn't in the minority with that sentiment either.

There were far more points of contention than can be listed here. But the best reason I had to stop it in its tracks was the claim, championed by so many supporters, that the tax receipts couldn't be directed away after passage like the gas taxes the state collects ...

So then I MUST raise my taxes, because my state government redirects funds intended for transportation projects collected from transportation Fuel taxes and there is NOT even a single chirp about FIXING this problem?

Do the movers and shakers really think GA residents are this dense? Really?
Maybe in Clayton when voting for a Sheriff, but STATEWIDE?

Do away with the D.U.M.B. lanes and end the Ga 400 toll. Period.

I mean, really now, that's the best "new" ideas they have...a sliding scale toll lane that makes traffic worse? Skirting responsibility just ain't gonna cut it. There are no physical barriers...simply set all the digital signs to read "HOV lane OPEN to cars with two or more occupants", set all the price tickers to $0.00 and stop enforcing the peach pass. You could debate and point fingers and play politics as usual, or you could set a firm date to do away with it. Tomorrow works for me.

Not so simple, you say? We'll see. Such a firm date has been set with the 400 Toll Lanes. Will they follow through? Honestly, I give that a 50/50 change. Deal's reelection is on the line as is, no way he'll keep his job if he falls though on another promise.

Jeffery, what else has Deal failed at?
Thx