ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
With one week to go before voters head to the polls for Georgia's primary election, supporters and opponents of a transportation sales tax are fighting for every last vote.
Two rallies are scheduled for Tuesday, seven days before the July 31 vote.
At 10 a.m., State Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Canton, will hold an anti-TPLOST press conference on the south steps inside the state Capitol. He will be joined by other legislators who will encourage Georgians to vote against the measure.
In Smyrna, a pro-TSPLOST rally is scheduled from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the community center on Village Green Parkway. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed will be attendance, along with Cobb County Chairman Tim Lee, Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon and former Governor Roy Barnes.
If approved, the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, known as TSPLOST, would increase the sales tax by one-penny on the dollar in metro Atlanta's ten-county region. It would raise an estimated $6 billion to pay for transportation improvements including roads, bridges, mass transit, ports, airports and bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
State records show that some of Georgia's biggest businesses are the main supporters.
Companies like Georgia Power, Coca-Cola, Delta, UPS, and Home Depot have contributed big bucks toward a political action committee called Citizens for Transportation Mobility. That organization has raised $6.5 million from the spring of 2011 through July 16. The money is being spent on television and radio ads, along with billboards and yard signs with the slogan "Untie Atlanta."
So is it working?
"I'm still not totally convinced, only because I think the timeframe it's going to take to get some of these things done is 10-15 years," said Roy Blackstone of Woodstock.
"When you think about it overall, it would really help us out because everything is so congested in Atlanta right now," said commuter Kimberlynn Barnett.
Records show that the political action committee formed to defeat TSPLOST, the Transportation Leadership Coalition, raised only $14,418.
Stay with www.CBSAtlanta.com for updates.
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