The Georgia General Assembly is considering giving developers the right to tax home buyers in massive new subdivisions to pay for roads, sewers, schools, parks and environmental cleanups.

The sponsors of two bills say that such "improvement districts" will be a boon for rural areas, pointing out that they have worked in Florida.

They say the law would give Georgia's poorer communities that can't afford to build infrastructure the chance to attract residential growth and the jobs that follow.

"This, to me, is one of the biggest no-brainers in the history of building infrastructure for growing counties and cities or counties and cities that need to grow," said Sen. Cecil Staton (R-Macon), the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 414. "The infrastructure gets paid for by the people who use it, and counties and cities ultimately get this for nothing."