Like lunches, there's no such thing as a free bike lane.

Georgia legislators woke up to that fact in 2010 when, to address woefully inadequate funding for roads, trains, buses and airports, they put a 1 percent sales tax devoted specifically to transportation on this month's ballot. Now it's up to voters to decide whether they want to pay the extra pennies for a goodie bag of regional projects that should make it easier to get there from here.

The Transportation Investment Act, commonly known as TIA or T-SPLOST, divided the state into 12 regions, each with its own set of proposed projects and its own referendum. The Northeast Georgia region includes Clarke and 11 surrounding counties. Athens-Clarke mayors Heidi Davison and Nancy Denson, Commissioner Alice Kinman and 22 of their counterparts in other counties chose 70 shovel-ready but unfunded projects for Northeast Georgia with a combined price tag of $750 million over 10 years. Another $250 million will be split among cities and counties, with Athens-Clarke County getting about $2 million per year to spend how it wants.

Even supporters acknowledge the law is flawed. "It's not ideal legislation, by any means," says Athens Area Chamber of Commerce President Doc Eldridge. "It's not what I would have passed. But it's the best option for improving transit and transportation in our region. Failure to pass it is very punitive for our local government."

Some critics, such as Athens-Clarke Commissioner Ed Robinson, have called T-SPLOST blackmail. Local governments usually use property taxes to fund about a fifth of state road projects, with state and federal gas taxes making up most of the rest. In regions where T-SPLOST fails, that share will rise to 30 percent. It drops to 10 percent if the tax passes. Nevertheless, whether it's through state sales taxes or local property taxes, Athens taxpayers will pay more or roads won't get repaved.

The plan has come under fire from both the left and right. Liberal groups like the Sierra Club and the NAACP oppose it because they say the project list includes too many sprawl-inducing roads and not enough transit. Locally, though, it's won the support of the alternative transportation group Bike Athens. President Amy Johnson says she wishes the list included more bicycle and pedestrian projects, but it's still worth a "yes" vote. "There are some good projects specifically related to bicycle infrastructure on the regional list," she says. "We are hopeful that the 25 percent local funds will be used for sidewalks. That's more money than we've had in the past and a reason to support T-SPLOST."

Tea party groups in metro Atlanta oppose the tax but for opposite reasons, because the project lists don't include enough roads that they believe will ease congestion more than buses or trains, although most engineers say it's impossible to pave your way out of traffic. Many Republican candidates—even incumbents who voted to put the tax on the ballot—are running away from it now. State Rep. Doug McKillip, R-Athens, and Republican challenger Regina Quick, for example, are both urging voters to reject it. Quick has compared T-SPLOST to The Hunger Games for the way it pits regions against each other. If a region passes it and neighboring ones don't, that region gets the economic development benefits, but retailers might lose business because taxes are higher than competitors'.

Economic development is the main selling point for supporters. In Northeast Georgia, the tax will support 26,000 jobs at construction companies, new businesses moving to the region, and stores and restaurants where those workers spend their paychecks, according to Connect Georgia, a chamber-sponsored group created to advocate for T-SPLOST. Caterpillar executives cited one T-SPLOST project, widening part of U.S. Highway 441 in Morgan County, as a reason why they chose to build a new plant in Bogart. The company has contributed to the Georgia Transportation Alliance and Citizens for Transportation Mobility, two other groups promoting T-SPLOST, spokeswoman Bridget Young says.

"We are also working to communicate with our Georgia-based employees about the upcoming vote," she said in an email.  "Our dealer in the area, Yancey Brothers, has also been very active in supporting its passage and has contributed to both the organizations I mentioned above."

Supporters are fond of saying there's no Plan B if T-SPLOST fails. As House Speaker David Ralston noted during a recent visit to Oconee County, it took lawmakers years to come up with that plan, and it will take years to come up with another.

In the meantime, traffic would grow worse and transportation projects would continue to go unfunded because, at 7.5 cents per gallon, Georgia's gas tax is the third-lowest in the country, and it spends the second-least per person of any state on transportation. Most projects slated for T-SPLOST funding would otherwise take at least 10 or 15 years to build and more likely 30 or 40, says Teri Pope, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. "That's why they were put on the list—because there's no money otherwise," she says.