Senate committee advances substitute to consolidate ATL and GRETA into state transit authority; members add board‑composition fixes

The Georgia Senate Transportation Committee on a unanimous voice vote advanced a substitute bill (LC 395117S) that would consolidate the Atlanta Regional Transit authority and GRETA into a new state entity the proponents called the Georgia Transportation Efficiency Authority.

The bill, described by its presenter as a long effort to remove redundancy and restore local control, would reduce several statutory boards from 31 members to seven, move appointment power primarily to the governor (with slots for the lieutenant governor and the speaker), eliminate some in‑person meeting requirements and preserve GDOT’s engineering expertise. The sponsor said the reorganization would prevent the state from imposing transit mandates on counties and would limit dormant powers the committee described as potentially allowing eminent domain or forced local taxation.

Committee members questioned the makeup and voting power of the new board. Senators expressed concern that giving the governor multiple appointments could result in a majority of members who do not reside in the affected (Metro Atlanta/nonattainment) counties and sought guarantees that the majority of appointees would be from the impacted jurisdictions.

At members’ request, Senator Mallow offered an amendment to expand the governor’s appointments, require a minimum number of those appointees to reside in the compliance/nonattainment zone and to include the GDOT commissioner as a member; Senator Gooch seconded the amendment. Committee discussion included whether the GDOT commissioner should be a voting member or an ex‑officio non‑voting member due to federal oversight of funds. The committee accepted a version of the amendment and then voted to report the substitute with amendments to the Senate floor.

Jennifer LaRosa, MARTA’s senior director of government and community affairs, testified that MARTA had not had adequate time to review the bill text and urged transparency about formula federal funds, noting that the region’s designated recipient role and the low‑income set‑aside processes should remain transparent. She said she believed ATL has retained administrative fees and that regionally allocated funds should be distributed via a transparent, competitive process.

The committee reported the substitute favorably as amended and adjourned; transcript records a unanimous voice vote on the final due‑pass as substituted motion.