One shouldn't pick on one's state senator I guess, but two recent items concerning Rick Price, R-28, rub me the wrong way.

The first was the quickie vote in favor of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) without much apparent consultation with the voters with the hope of gaining "federal highway funds," and second was the article in The Citizen ("Price: Partisanship reigns in the Senate," on Wednesday, Feb 24) indicating that the lieutenant governor "...is going to punish Republican senators," and that Republicans "have been stripped of a lot of committee assignments."

No kidding. One wonders if the vote for GPTA wasn't to get back in the good graces of the lieutenant governor.

Maybe that's too harsh, but Mr. Price just doesn't seem to get it. He is experiencing the treatment that Republicans have endured for years in the minority. However, if he keeps voting with the Democrats he will be perceived as "growing" or "maturing" in his position, or better yet, "nonpartisan," and might be tossed a minor plum now and then.

Nuts! Republicans must revel in their role as the opposition and challenge all big government power grabs and initiatives that would increase taxes for unsound reasons.

They should, on principle, reject federal funds for local projects as contributing to pork barrel spending and inflating the federal budget.

The GPTA is a blatant attempt to centralize power and assume authority not specifically delegated at the local level. It is based on arbitrary findings on clean air by a run-amok agency, the EPA, whose Clinton-Gore budget was increased by $800 million this year. These findings are not scientifically sound and have not been reviewed, as required, by the people's representatives in the congress.

If the GPTA is allowed to run roughshod over local authorities you can look for hefty new taxes on gasoline, licensing surcharges on SUVs and a $50 emmissions test.

Sen. Rick Price has a grand opportunity here to demand that the EPA requirements that triggered this "crisis" be reviewed by the Congress of the United States before they are cited as justification for far-reaching and unnecessary action at the state level.