ATLANTA: GOP legislators use power to control local affairs | State News | Macon.com

By BILL BARROW — Associated Press

ATLANTA — Even with Republicans holding unprecedented political power across the South, Democrats remain mostly in charge of urban centers in otherwise conservative states. Yet increasingly that control is threatened, not at the ballot box, but by Republican-led legislatures reaching into local governing decisions, often over objections.

In Georgia and North Carolina, GOP efforts range from regionalizing the Charlotte airport, the Atlanta metro transit system and the Asheville water system to redrawing district lines for local offices to benefit Republican candidates.

Republicans insist there’s no power play at work as they do battle with Democrats such as Charlotte Mayor Antony Foxx, who is now President Barack Obama’s nominee to be U.S. transportation secretary, and the board of commissioners in Georgia’s most populous county, which includes most of Atlanta. Georgia state Rep. Edward Lindsey, a key GOP floor leader and a candidate for Congress, said the ideas are intended to make government more responsive and efficient.

Some Republicans also note that a few pursuits – like a North Carolina bill that would bar local governments from issuing environmental regulations more stringent than the state’s – apply regardless of who runs a county or municipality.

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