ATLANTA — A push for the state to take over Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was thwarted, Thursday night.
Lawmakers rewrote the bill - essentially gutting it. And, they had the support they needed to push it through after one of the most bitter fights of the legislative session. The House voted 104 to 70 to pass the watered down bill, with Democrats mostly voting no.
It's a major switcheroo that surfaced in the last 24 hours or so.
RELATED: Georgia House, FAA could ground state’s effort to take over Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport
Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport has been run by the city for decades. But some rural lawmakers had pushed a bill through the Senate that would have had operations taken over by the state. After the bill passed the State Senate, members of both parties rewrote the bill making it a more sweeping transportation bill that would extend the jet fuel tax and create a state advisory panel.
That panel would not run Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, but would nonetheless weigh in on the operations there and at nine of the other largest airports in the state.
The bill's future is uncertain but the headline is that the proposal for a state takeover appears to have no future - at least between now and adjournment on Tuesday.
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