The Southern Georgia Regional Transportation Roundtable has elected five of its representatives to serve as Executive Committee members.  The Executive Committee is made up of eight representatives; five from the Regional Transportation Roundtable, two from the Georgia House of Representatives, and one from the Georgia Senate.  The five members of the Executive Committee from the Regional Roundtable are:  Mayor Buddy Duke, City of Adel; Chairman Bill Slaughter, Lowndes County; Chairman Neal Bennett, Pierce County; Chairman Lace Futch, Atkinson County; Chairman Grady Thompson, Tift County.  The members of the Executive Committee from the House of Representative and Senate who represent this region have not yet been named and are non-voting members. The Roundtable also elected Mayor John Gayle of the City of Valdosta as the non-voting Chair of the Executive Committee. This committee will be responsible for reviewing transportation projects that are submitted from cities and counties throughout the region and developing a draft investment list for consideration by the Roundtable.

The next step is for the Roundtable to review and adopt a criteria for project investments. This criteria will be used by the Executive Committee to review and prioritize projects for the draft investment list that will be presented to the Roundtable for review before calling for a referendum.

The regional transportation sales tax process is a mechanism for voters in the region to enact a regional sales tax for transportation purposes.  The law allows a region to implement a one percent sales tax to fund transportation purposes, such as pavement maintenance, road construction, bridge, safety, transit, aviation, bicycle, and pedestrian projects. This process began in the Southern Georgia region in early 2017 when a majority of the Southern Georgia counties passed resolutions to initiate the process for a regional transportation sales tax. The Regional Transportation Roundtable consists of the County Commission Chair and a Mayor from each of the 18 counties.