Metro Atlanta voters now are facing a July 31 referendum on whether to pass a regional 1 percent TSPLOST for 10 years that, among other things, would result in a “premium” bus service in the I-75 corridor, or possibly a light rail line from the Midtown Atlanta MARTA station northward to Cumberland Mall.
The tax is projected to raise $6 billion for the region and around $1 billion for Cobb. No one doubts that a chunk of money that size could do wonders to improve local transportation. But there are ways of getting more road “bang” for Cobb’s tax dollars than the project list now on the table.
As with many SPLOST proposals, this one has awakened spirited opposition. Opponents of the tax warn the tax would not cover maintenance and operational costs of the bus and/or rail line, and that taxpayers would be on the hook for them essentially forever. They also point out that the corridor lacks the density to support a rail line, and note that even if passed, that the TSPLOST would have a negligible effect on commute times.
Meanwhile, the TSPLOST has metamorphosed from a transportation initiative into a stimulus program. Instead of congestion relief, the main reason to vote for the TSPLOST is that it would translate to more jobs and development, say the chamber of commerce types touting it.
With polls reportedly showing the TSPLOST in trouble, its increasingly desperate backers have amped up their overblown rhetoric, with Cobb Chamber CEO David Connell recently predicting that the failure to pass the TSPLOST would be “the worst thing that ever happened to Atlanta.” Really? Worse than when it was burned by Sherman? Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee was reported by another media outlet to have suggested that those who oppose the TSPLOST are racists, although he says the remark was taken out of context.
But such scare talk has hardly been in short supply from TSPLOSTers. Exhibit A is the caustic remarks at a Cumberland Community Improvement District forum July 12 by suburb-hating land-use planner Chris Leinberger of the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank. Leinberger said that metro Atlantans had “racialized” MARTA.
“The white suburban neighborhoods and places have completely ignored the economic development potential that MARTA could have been and will be in the future,” he added.
There’s no question the proposed rail line amounts to a “back-door” attempt by Cobb Chamber insiders, Lee and others to bring MARTA to Cobb. And there’s also no question that MARTA is a poorly run agency that Atlanta leaders could have fixed decades ago but instead gave a blind eye to.
TSPLOST backers could not possibly have found a less effective spokesman than Leinberger, whose tone-deaf comments boomeranged with the public and might have been the coup de gras for whatever chances the proposal still had here.
The vast majority of Cobb residents are not racists, no matter what D.C. liberals think. And people here don’t like being compared to members of the Flat Earth Society just because they don’t want to trade their car keys for a subway compartment or their spacious suburban house for a cramped urban flat.
THOSE PUSHING the TSPLOST have bungled the job despite their gargantuan $8 million war chest. They have muddled their message (is it congestion relief or a jobs program?) and even managed to fumble the project list. Cobb voters don’t know whether they’re voting for a rail line or a bus line. And even though the proposal now specifies the latter, the overwhelming suspicion is that if the TSPLOST passes they’ll be stuck paying and paying and paying for the former instead.
Better to vote down this TSPLOST and hope and pray that it also fails region-wide, than possibly come back in two years with an improved project list that can get the public’s buy-in. As it is, the bulk of the Cobb projects on the current list would likely be on a future local Cobb road SPLOST list if there were no such thing as a regional TSPLOST. Which begs another question: Why should Cobb abdicate control over its road program to the Atlanta Regional Commission or a regional roundtable in the first place? Who knows better than Cobb residents what our transportation needs are?
UNFORTUNATELY, Cobb has gotten little in the way of effective leadership on transportation issues from Lee, who for months and months declined to say what his top transportation priority for the county was, even when given multiple opportunities by this newspaper to do so. And the other commissioners (with the exception of Bob Ott, who strongly opposes the TSPLOST), have been just as absent as Lee, if not more so, when it comes to leadership.
Moreover, in a telling sign of the proposal’s lack of “legs,” many of the legislators who voted to put it on the ballot now say they will vote against it. That’s a good sign it might well be DOA come July 31.
If so, that won’t be “the worst thing that ever happened.” To the contrary. We could well wind up with a better project list next time around. And our crystal ball tells us there will be “a next time around,” and that metro Atlanta and Cobb, especially, will still be great places to live and do business even if this TSPLOST fails.
Moreover, it also tells us that metro leaders, and especially those in Cobb, will continue working to improve local transportation — even if this poorly conceived and sold TSPLOST fails.
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First, don not EVER call me a liar. I Lived In Boston Ma. Probably the finest Public Transportation in the country. You can traverse the entire state via the Green, blue, red, orange and Purple lines. You can go to Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Specifically I was referring to Somerville Ma. IF you look up Davis Square, you will notice it was a hell hole NOW, after Public transportation came in, it was and still is the HOTTEST neighborhood in the city. Property values are untouchable. A large amount of businesses have opened up and are hiring.
So please before you open your ignorant mouth understand facts. Your narrow mindednessis frightening. I hope you have not spawned any offspring
As for interstate (and distant intrastate) travel, I would imagine this means a ride on Amtrak -- the very same that needs $1.5 BILLION per year to stay in operation...paid for by all of us.
One more thing, Placido: Delta is ready when you are.
You sound like Pelosi. Don't read the bill. Pass it and see how it works out.
from Frogbreath
Over the past 6 months have posted on the MDJ, info about most of the light rail systems in America. None, read, NONE have come in on time, met budget and provided all the great things that are touted in the sales phase.Each has had a noticeable drop off in ridership after the novelty wore off. Each has had major deficits.
I am sure most pro "let's play trains" advocates have not read what I posted or choose to ignore it. In the long run, there are benefits to a few merchants which are offset by harm to the residents and a tax burden that grows yearly. Oh ye of Obama faith, vote it down and attack the problem by identifying the "BIG" problem, then look at the smaller problems that can be fixed without the big plan.
The reality is less impressive. After spending an extra $5 billion over the past quarter century, public transit's share of work trip travel in Portland is less than it was before. Moreover, the Portland has now become the 38th of the major metropolitan areas (over 1,000,000 population) in which more people work at home (such as telecommuting) than ride transit to work.
TriMet projects a shortfall of between $12 million and $17 million in its projected $458 million budget for the coming fiscal year. The agency blames the deficit on lower tax revenue, a cut in federal funding and unresolved contract talks with union workers.
There will not likely NOT be a next time when it comes to the T-SPLOST, nor should there be as this process of putting together a list was fatally-flawed and doomed from the start and there is no way that the Republican lawmakers who dominate the Georgia Legislature will want to put their political careers on the line again to back another version of this massive tax increase that would likely be rejected by the public yet again and might be much more politically costly next time around.
Governor Deal has even stated publicly that the Legislature most likely will not touch the issue of transportation again after the T-SPLOST is rejected by voters which means that not only will it likely be a very long time before the Legislature deals with the issue of transportation again, but it may also very well be a very long time before we see any meaningful roadbuilding in Cobb County and the metro area due to the poison pill that the Legislature slipped into the bill that triples the amount of local road expansion projects by requiring local governments to pay a 30% match to state funds instead of the 10% that they now provide.
This thing has been bad all the way around and the fallout of this horrendous piece of legislation may likely be felt for a very long time.
Thank you for finally telling the truth regarding what the Plan B folks are all about. They don't want to come back with another list, that is not their aim at all.
They, like you want to kill this and do nothing.
Congrats.
Secondly,
Localizing the inane comment by David Connell "The worst thing to ever happen to Cobb County is Tim Lee!!"
and continuing in that vein
The second worse thing to happen to Cobb County is Connell himself.
He has managed to turn the Cobb Chamber into his own personal propaganda machine and uses it's influence to promote his own brand of RINO-ism!!
Here in Cobb TSPLOT us as common as the sun rising. We are ALWAYS asked to support an increase for something because our elected officials don't have the guts to call it what it is...a tax.
I have previously lived in a community where mass transit greatly improved the area. Property prices skyrocketed, employment shot up and businesses flourished. Cobb seems to be under the impression that in order to relieve congestion, just build additional roads and or widen them. Nothing can be further from the truth.
Since a majority of Cobb people work OUTSIDE of the county, light rail is a realistic solution. I understand the questions about it being a boondoggle and expensive but in the long run it will be beneficial for all involved.
Finally, I am simply amazed at how Cobb seems to be living in a time warp! It's 2012 but in Cobb it feels like the 1950's!! I understand people want the old world charm but don't be afraid of progress.
One last thing. Understand as Atlanta goes so goes the state. If Atlanta "tanks" it will take the entire state with it. No county can survive without Atlanta. Atlanta is the Jewel of the state and it is important that it is able to compete with other Southern cities comparable to it, IE Charlotte.. Move forward!
The problem with this TSPLOST is: voters are not guaranteed that rail is what will be built with the money. For right now, bus rapid transit (BRT) is what will receive the bulk of this tax's money.
The trouble is, Atlanta and Cobb have population densities that don't support the cost of light rail. Other options are available, but the nincompoops at Cobb DOT, GRTA, the Cobb Board of Commissioners (mostly), and Georgia DOT don't have the sense or the courage to develop these ideas, ALL of which are much, much lower in cost and will have an impact on traffic.
But to do right thing, they just might have to think and work, not tax and spend, and run to the feds for more money.
I'm betting you just made that up to try to support your position.
No details or specifics = no credibility.
Name the city/community and see if it can stand up to the scrutiny.
Just to save you the trouble there is not one example in this entire country where recent built mass transit is financially sustainable without HUGE ongoing taxpayer subsidies.
The nature of these publicly financed and operated transit systems is to create a financial black hole.
No system in the world supports itself. There are 2 segments in the world, TGV Paris-Lyon and Tokyo-Osaka in Japan which are profitable, the rest of the systems are subsidized. But - no roads are financially sustainable w/o HUGE - think $2B in GA, most of the GA-DOT's budget - subsidies.
I said in THIS country.
The METRO system is one of the most heavily subsidized anywhere. I wonder why that is?
The ones in Miami and SF are also not financially sustainable without huge taxpayer subsidies.
and
I think if you bother to examine the Paris and Tokyo situations you cited more closely you will discover that the fares charged on those systems are substantial.
As far as roads be heavily subsidized you are correct, but, as opposed to rail transit, more than 5% of the population uses them.
Your analogy is flawed.
Then ask yourself,
"Is this what I want in Cobb County"?
Ride some of the MARTA EXPRESS bus routes between 7am and 10am on any business day.
Then ask yourself,
"Is this what I want in Cobb County"?
Ride MARTA ... Then VOTE !
Don't try to divert our attention away with your childish talk of race issues. there are none as far as the TSPLOST goes. Just common sense tell us to send this lead balloon down in flames.