The state Senate passed S.B. 131 authored by Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) which creates a state authority to oversee Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It would remove control over airport operations, especially its historically corrupt contracting system, from Atlanta’s mayor. It is significant that Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, the Senate’s presiding officer, remained steadfast with his senators to promote Senate-House passage during last-minute negotiations with House Speaker David Ralston and Gov. Brian Kemp.
But Jones and Ralston couldn’t find common ground.
The Jones strategy was to merge the airport authority bill with one granting Delta Air Lines and other airlines a fuel tax exemption. Kemp wanted the fuel tax exemption but was apparently an agnostic on the airport. Ralston thought it was “premature” to go with a state airport authority and just wanted a state airport oversight committee. Yet authority proponents didn’t fold. They argued that airport bid-rigging, vendor bribery and airport jobs for unqualified mayoral cronies span over 40 years—and that the continuing mess affects the entire image of the state.
The bottom line: Nothing happened to implement either bill on April 2, the last day of the 2019 General Assembly.
However, both S.B. 131 as well as the airline fuel tax exemption legislation will remain alive and carry over to the 2020 General Assembly session in January. (Also a factor is rural transit legislation, which got mixed up in the last-minute authority/fuel exemption stand-off.)
Several questions remain: 1) Can Duncan/Jones cut a deal with Ralston, with agreement from the governor, to fashion a compromise getting both the state authority and fuel tax exemption passed? 2) Will more indictments and convictions of corrupt Atlanta players throughout 2019 cause momentum to build for an airport authority by January? 3) Will rural transit legislation be separated from those two issues and ultimately be voted upon separately in 2020? Stay tuned.
