This week’s Courier Herald column: Last week Governor Nathan Deal assembled state leaders at Georgia’s Capitol for an announcement. The State would be contributing $100 Million toward building Bus Rapid Transit on Georgia 400 through North Fulton County. The money will leverage $184 Million in Federal Funds granted to build express lanes from I-285 to
Yesterday afternoon House Bill 930 was signed into law at the Georgia Capitol. Those in attendance waited silently and in the dark prior to the ceremony in the Capitol’s North Wing. A scene for The Walking Dead was being filmed on the 2nd floor. Make of that metaphor what you will, but it punctuated the
This week’s Courier Herald column: The effort to fix metro Atlanta’s transit governance issue received a lot of public and press attention during this legislative session. When a problem almost a half century in the making is solved across party lines and with support of urban and rural state leaders, it’s a success that is
This week’s Courier Herald column: The journey that culminated in this year’s Atlanta regional transit bill began years ago, and has been an ongoing effort since the 2015 bill that increased funding for Georgia’s road and bridge network. Included in that bill was a bond package split between transit providers across the state, urban and
Guest Op-Ed By Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) From the world’s busiest airport to the fastest growing container port in America, Georgia leads the nation in moving people and goods. That didn’t happen by accident. On the contrary, for generations, Georgians have invested in the infrastructure necessary to facilitate our forward momentum. Recently, we have
This week’s Courier Herald column: The state legislature completed crossover day last Thursday, entering the home stretch towards a close of business on midnight March 29th. All that is certain between now and then is that a balanced budget will be passed by both chambers. That is, after all, the minimum requirement for their annual
As I’ve noted before, in my day job with PolicyBEST, I’ve once again been working with the Georgia Transportation Alliance in an effort that began in 2014 and resulted in the passage of HB170 in 2015 – the bill that provided for almost $1 Billion annually to fix Georgia’s roads & bridges. It also for
This week’s Courier Herald column: Several questions will be answered this week in the Georgia General Assembly that will have an impact on Georgia’s long term future. These will bleed into upcoming campaigns and, with most statewide offices up for election, will thus send an early signal of how Georgia will be governed as well
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston attended President Donald Trump’s announcement yesterday on his commitment to infrastructure improvements across America. As Charlie touches on in his column yesterday, Georgia is positioned to benefit from the President’s focus on state-centered infrastructure solutions. President Trump’s budget is a practice of federalism where states are responsible for creating their
This week’s Courier Herald column: President Donald Trump is scheduled to release his infrastructure plan in Washington this week. While the exact particulars weren’t available until after deadline, the Associated Press has released enough of an outline that shows what is in the plan, and what isn’t. There’s a very specific theme in the plan