The AJC has some secret details of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s transportation plan, and the timing alone is almost sure to kill the idea.

Perdue, according to the leaked documents, is planning votes on a 1 percent sales tax devoted to transportation improvements in 12 regions across the state to coincide with the 2012 presidential preference primary.

In 2008, Democratic presidential primary voters outnumbered Republicans by 100,000. But the last time an incumbent Democrat was running, in 1996, only 95,000 voters cast ballots for Bill Clinton in the Democratic primary, while 654,000 voted in the contested Republican primary.

Lawmakers, especially on the GOP side, are already predicting that the T-SPLOST will fail everywhere but metro Atlanta, where traffic gridlock is worst, and that’s assuming the question comes at the November 2012, when voters will be split probably 60/40 in favor of the GOP and plenty of suburban Republicans will opt to tax themselves if they think it will ease their two-hour commutes.

But given the current Tea Party political environment, if the vote is held in February 2012 and Republican presidential primary voters outnumber Democrats seven-to-one, the transportation tax is probably going down in flames.

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