Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2009 > January > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USGeorgia’s transportation crisis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After years of denial, much of Georgia’s leadership now acknowledges that the state’s transportation system is in crisis and that the situation in metro Atlanta is particularly dire.
It’s not just that we’ve failed to modernize infrastructure; we have also failed to modernize our transportation thinking, our bureaucracies and our sources of transportation revenue, and are now reaping the consequences of those failures.
However, the broad acknowledgement that real change is needed has come at an awkward time. Fixing Georgia’s transportation system and bureaucracies will require vision, courage, money and time, but most of all money, and we don’t have any. With revenue projections plummeting in a harsh economic climate, state legislators gathering for the 2009 session face the prospect of cutting $2 billion from the budget, which inevitably means painful cutbacks in areas such as education and health care. Nor is there likely to be much enthusiasm for raising taxes.
Nonetheless, the state Department of Transportation is asking legislators for more than $400 million in new money from a general fund that’s already overspent. MARTA, the only major rail-transit system in the country that survives without state support, is asking for more than $100 million.
In both cases, the requests are stop-gap measures designed to ease the funding crisis in the short term. Legislators are also being heavily lobbied by business groups and transportation agencies to create a more long-term mechanism that will significantly increase transportation funding.
Last year, legislators came close to approving a mechanism that would have allowed metro Atlanta to tax itself to help meet its transportation needs. The proposal failed at the last minute in the state Senate, which is led by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, and that failure became a serious political problem for Cagle. With his bid for governor on the line, Cagle is now an enthusiastic supporter of transportation reform and funding.
The situation is so critical that it has even aroused the current governor, Sonny Perdue, who may finally be ready to take a leadership role in transportation policy. A study by McKinsey & Co., undertaken at Perdue’s request, has documented in stark numbers just how little Georgia has been spending on transportation and how much economic growth it could generate with a more aggressive approach. Perdue himself has not responded to those findings, but he will probably do so in the next few days.
It’s hard to know what to expect. Even in more prosperous times, the governor wasn’t exactly a visionary. His biggest initiative to date has been his “Go Fish Georgia” program. The current economic climate gives him the perfect excuse to once again “go small,” even at a time when much bigger steps are required.
However, the roots of our transportation problems go deeper than mere money. For example, Georgia’s 13-member transportation board —- one member for each of the state’s congressional districts —- is archaic. It was designed as a means to distribute patronage around the state, and that’s exactly what it does. Traditionally, board members have seen their first responsibility as diverting as many transportation dollars as possible back to the home district; setting policy to create an efficient statewide transportation system was a distant second. That approach has even been written into law with a “congressional balancing” requirement that money be spent equally among the districts, without regard to where it’s most needed or would have the most impact.
Even in the face of a fiscal crisis, some DOT board members are still reluctant to abandon that mind-set. The governor and Legislature should prod them along by repealing the balancing requirement, a step that would cost no money but do a lot to help spend wisely.
To its credit, the DOT may already be rethinking its past opposition to mass transit spending. At a rare summit meeting of state transportation officials Wednesday, DOT board Chairman Bill Kuhlke Jr., a builder from Augusta, acknowledged that metro Atlanta’s transportation needs probably can’t be met by more highways.
“Transit is going to be the biggest part of the answer for this particular region,” Kuhlke said.
While that statement suggests a major change of attitude, it’s not reflected in state law. The main source of state funding for transportation is the gasoline tax, and the state constitution bars use of gas-tax revenue for anything but roads and bridges. If metro Atlanta’s transportation future lies with transit, that provision must be changed.
(MARTA is also asking the Legislature to repeal a law restricting how the agency spends its own sales-tax revenue, yet another archaic provision in need of change.)
At the summit, state transportation leaders talked frankly about tapping into the billions in federal money expected to flow as part of an economic stimulus plan. But Georgia will have to change how it does things if it is to compete for that.
The incoming Obama administration has made it clear that it will fund transportation projects that cut consumption of gasoline and other greenhouse gases and that reduce dependence on foreign oil. Transit, in other words, will play a major role, and Georgia isn’t ready to move quickly in that direction.
The administration says it will also insist that states choose projects based on their transportation and economic impact, not on patronage concerns. Again, that’s not the way Georgia law and political culture work, and so far they have proved stubbornly resistant to reform.
Of course, with billions of dollars becoming available at a time of great need, maybe that could change.
Comments
By TW
January 11, 2009 7:53 PM | Link to this
Georgia doesn’t want to pay for the America it professes to love.
Reap what you sow.
This recession will go down in the history books as ‘America’s Time-out.’ Like a child, the electorate was not to be reasoned with as it lived high off the hog on borrowed money.
Time to sit in a corner, child. Time to let the adults clean up the mess.
Let the red states change not a bit - your taxes are low, so quit yer whining :(
By AJC/DNC Management
January 11, 2009 7:59 PM | Link to this
ISSUE IN-DEPTH: TRANSPORTATION: Ga. laws, politics create bottleneck-Bookman
You know, surprisingly, I agree with Jay that transportation in the ATL sucks and sucks heavy, but I must digress from blaming Perdue for this quandary, after all, democrats built the current Bottleneck O Rama, did they not?
Jay, are you advocating that we need Republicans to clean up the messes created by democrats?
Someone please check hell to see if it might be frozen over, well, it could be “global warming” doing that.
To its credit, the DOT may already be rethinking its past opposition to mass transit spending
Yeah boy, that’s what we need, a system that nobody rides and gets paid for by people who don’t use it.
What’s their deficit now, even after gaining ridership because of fuel price increases?
Outer Perimeter, anyone?
Double decker 285?
Think big, infrastructure for the future.
~~~~~
24, finally.
By getalife
January 11, 2009 8:02 PM | Link to this
Sonny will hold a prayer vigil for the bailout me generation.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 11, 2009 8:05 PM | Link to this
Is that Suckie Face Waxman or what?
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 11, 2009 8:13 PM | Link to this
“The main source of state funding for transportation is the gasoline tax, and the state constitution bars use of gas-tax revenue for anything but roads and bridges.”
“MARTA (is) only major rail-transit system in the country that survives without state support”
These two facts of Georgia life need to change. I’ll vote for pretty much anyone with a means to accomplish this.
By DB, Gwinnettian
January 11, 2009 8:15 PM | Link to this
“Outer Perimeter, anyone?”
Actually, Sonny ran for gov. in opposition to the Northern Arc, so I doubt that’ll happen.
Later, all.
By Hillbilly Deluxe
January 11, 2009 8:32 PM | Link to this
An Outer Perimeter would bring another round of development farther out. That would bring more traffic not less.
By RW-(the original)
January 11, 2009 8:54 PM | Link to this
OFF TOPIC
It was amusing when the Georgia/Missouri basketball game of January 3rd was still being advertised on this blog on the 5th, but it’s really kind of sad that it’s still in the rotation here on the 11th. Are ad sales that bad or is UGA getting jobbed?
By GaLiberal
January 11, 2009 9:50 PM | Link to this
Well, the last six years of Rethuglicon rule are coming to roost. Instead of collecting the taxes necessary to run the state properly, these thugs and con men instead gave out specious tax cuts (a $100,000 one to The Laughing Fat Man no less) and wasted millions on pork barrel projects like Go Fish Georgia! They have milked the metro area like a cash cow to fund projects in their own districts. Take for example the downtown bypass project in Vidalia. Yea, traffic backs up in the afternoon. For about two hours! Instead of using traffic light timing, they got millions to split the road to separate east-west traffic flow. Now traffic only backs up in one direction. There are similar traffic projects throughout the state. In fact, one of the first things the Rethuglicons did when they lied their way into control was redo the road project funding formula. It took more money out of the metro area and used it in the RoG. Now the metro area has to beg for any road funding and guess what now there is none available.
The Rethuglicon-controlled legislature is run by the 140+ counties that are not part of the metro area. To them, we are just a source of revenue that will never run out. These people don’t see any connection to the survival of Atlanta and their own communities. Without Atlanta, Georgia would be a full of poor dirt farmers. For all the bad things you say about Tom Murphy, he recognized this fact and made sure Atlanta had a big chunk of money for roads and other infrastructure like rebuilding the water and sewer systems. But, the thugs and con-men that the suckers voted into office only see that Atlanta should solve these problems on their own. No help from the state even though the metro area significantly funds the entire state. But hey, just keep voting for these people and expecting things to change. Isn’t that the definition of insanity?
When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And the lack of funding for transportation in the metro are is living proof.
By GaLiberal
January 11, 2009 10:22 PM | Link to this
AJC/DNC Management:
You truly are one of the most ignorant Rethuglicons I have yet to find. Your posts are just so illogical and demonstrate your complete understanding for what’s being discussed. Take for example the following:
**To its credit, the DOT may already be rethinking its past opposition to mass transit spending
Yeah boy, that’s what we need, a system that nobody rides and gets paid for by people who don’t use it.**
The reason MARTA ridership is limited is because there isn’t adequate funding to expand operation. Operation and maintenance is by far a larger cost than laying track and building stations. I’m sure ridership would be much larger if MARTA was expanded, but that won’t happen with more money for O&M. There are only two counties that provide any form of funding for MARTA and that was probably ok when most people lived and shopped in those two counties. However, that is no longer the case. Yet, these other counties refuse to provide funding (for racist reasons) and so does the state. MARTA cannot expand so it continues to have low ridership. If you compare the metro in NYC and DC, the states and the counties all provide funding because they know things would be much worse without that option. These metro systems are wide spread and have a high ridership.
What’s their deficit now, even after gaining ridership because of fuel price increases?
Most of MARTA’s funds come from sales taxes so when the Rethuglicons ran the economy into the ground, sale tax income when down also. MARTA’s fare does not even come close to paying for the cost per passenger (which is something they need to fix) particularly when you have these free loaders from other counties using the system. When gas prices spiked, more people used MARTA putting more demand on the system. So if you want to point fingers, point them at the people that basically steal from MARTA by not paying their fare share.
When you vote Rethuglicon, you vote against your own best interests. And this Rethuglicon buttsniffer is living proof.
By Tank
January 11, 2009 11:27 PM | Link to this
To GaLiberal -
You are one angry person.
The reason citizens of metro counties don’t want MARTA is based on what follows MARTA. Look at Dekalb, Clayton and South Fulton counties. These areas have suffered significant increases in crime, poor education systems, and erosion of job opportunities (unless you want to cut hair, do nails, or open a pawn shop).
Call it racist, but it is what it is. Don’t need it or want it.
By jon
January 11, 2009 11:34 PM | Link to this
I’d love to save the State about a billion $ in transportation funds that GaDOT wastes.
Have you been down I-16 from Macon to Savannah? They have these railroad crossing gates up on the exit / entrance ramps for hurricane evacuations. In the very rare event of a coastal evacuation, couldn’t they just roust a local cop out of the Waffle House to block the ramps, or haul out some sawhorses?
Or drive around this state and marvel at the roads to nowhere. Highway 96 from Bonaire to Butler, for example. Big wide new highway with bike lanes. Hardly ever a car on it, much less a damn bicycle.
Or how about the brand new Barnesville bypass from Hwy 341 to Hwy 41? Now those Culloden to Forsyth commuters can bypass downtown Barnesville. Great for both of them.
And what about the damn high intensity lights they are putting up everywhere? We got headlights on our cars, for christsakes.
Or when they removed all the lead based paint from the steel of bridges? When you are traveling down the interstate, how often do you stop and chew paint off of the girders of the overpasses?
Do I need a sign at every bridge that says “Bridge May Ice in Winter”? Duh! That MF might melt in the summer heat but we don’t need signs to tell us that.
I could go on for billions if dollars. I don’t want to hear GaDOT crying about a lack of money.
By Chad Harris
January 11, 2009 11:43 PM | Link to this
When it comes to transportation, it’s clear that there are plenty of wild hogs left over after the second Sunday in January.
Purdue hasn’t done zip as to transportation and he’s not about to.
The whole point of the current proposed regional transportation bill that Cagle is backing this year is to bypass Purdue. It’s being presented as an amendment and they don’t need Purdue’s signature to get it passed or much backing from him. This is a good thing because they sure as hell won’t get it.
Purdue sandbaged the initiative for local taxes to go towards transportation and that’s why the Senate failed to pass it at the last minute. Purdue wanted it dead and he got it killed, because Purdue dances with the hicks what brung him and most of them are in ignorant rural Georgia. They want the Atlanta tax base to support their local goodies, but they don’t want anything constructive to happen in Atlanta.
Marta is between the 8th 9th largest public transportation system.In its 26 years of existence, it has only gotten $6 million from the state. The reason is simple. The vast majority of Marta riders, particular bus but including train are very low income people with very little means to lobby for anything.
The committees that oversee Marta under the Gold Dome are completely composed of white subrbanites who ride around in large black SUVs. They don’t give a flying f*ck about Marta—never have and never will.
They’re shortsighted on two major counts:
1) Many studies including the one mentioned aboe have shown Georgia is losing millions in Industry location because of the terrible public transportation system and because of the poor organization of traffic relief that is only going to get exponentially worse.
2) As Mr. Bookman said, the Obama initiatives are going to leave Georgia in the cold because they demand funding of the public transportation system which would be Marta, and the legislature pretends it doesn’t exist. They don’t ride it—they’re white people who to a person drive large black gas guzzling SUVs.
Welcome to people who helped Georgia to be 46th to 49th on SATs and what they do when they grow into adult bodies.
By Chad Harris
January 11, 2009 11:43 PM | Link to this
When it comes to transportation, it’s clear that there are plenty of wild hogs left over after the second Sunday in January.
Purdue hasn’t done zip as to transportation and he’s not about to.
The whole point of the current proposed regional transportation bill that Cagle is backing this year is to bypass Purdue. It’s being presented as an amendment and they don’t need Purdue’s signature to get it passed or much backing from him. This is a good thing because they sure as hell won’t get it.
Purdue sandbaged the initiative for local taxes to go towards transportation and that’s why the Senate failed to pass it at the last minute. Purdue wanted it dead and he got it killed, because Purdue dances with the hicks what brung him and most of them are in ignorant rural Georgia. They want the Atlanta tax base to support their local goodies, but they don’t want anything constructive to happen in Atlanta.
Marta is between the 8th 9th largest public transportation system.In its 26 years of existence, it has only gotten $6 million from the state. The reason is simple. The vast majority of Marta riders, particular bus but including train are very low income people with very little means to lobby for anything.
The committees that oversee Marta under the Gold Dome are completely composed of white subrbanites who ride around in large black SUVs. They don’t give a flying f*ck about Marta—never have and never will.
They’re shortsighted on two major counts:
1) Many studies including the one mentioned aboe have shown Georgia is losing millions in Industry location because of the terrible public transportation system and because of the poor organization of traffic relief that is only going to get exponentially worse.
2) As Mr. Bookman said, the Obama initiatives are going to leave Georgia in the cold because they demand funding of the public transportation system which would be Marta, and the legislature pretends it doesn’t exist. They don’t ride it—they’re white people who to a person drive large black gas guzzling SUVs.
Welcome to people who helped Georgia to be 46th to 49th on SATs and what they do when they grow into adult bodies.
By Chad Harris
January 11, 2009 11:58 PM | Link to this
Yo Tank—
Marta goes into (although in a limited way) Cobb and Gwinette. There are no stats whatsoever to correlated crime and Marta and a plethora of studies ahve been done.
The rail should have gone to Gwinette Place in the first place (Pleasant Hill Road) and now to extend it which will eventually happen is going to cost exponentially more.
The crime rate in Fulton south or north (and Marta buses and rail go into North Fulton but not extensively, Clayton and Dekalb have nothing to do with Marta. You ought to get out more. It seems you’ve discovered that much of South Fulton is not Garmon Road or Tuxedo drive.
What “is what it is” is that the anemic public transportation system here is going to make the commute considerably longer for most people choaking the main arteries out to the suburbs (400, 75 and 85 and into town in the mornings even more).
The organization of transportation(roads, rail, and buses here) is a perfect metaphor for what happens when the poor school system in Georgia’s kids become adults. It’s chaotic, poorly developed and its costing the state a colossal number of millions because companies don’t want any part of it and won’t locate here.
These companies have made presenttions to many meetings including the Chamber of Commerce, ACVB, and all of the ones continually mentioned in Atlanta Biz Chronicle contrasting cities like Houston who have done far more with their transportation system (both roads and transit) and are beating the hell out of Georgia in the contest for locating new industry.
I don’t expect any of the gridlock to change, and I don’t expect the legislature to lift a finger to change it.
By Cherokee
January 12, 2009 12:47 AM | Link to this
Tank do you actually think before you spout such nonsense? Marta also goes to Dunwoody and Buckhead - they seem to be doing okay…
By AJC/DNC Management
January 12, 2009 5:34 AM | Link to this
WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama signaled in an interview broadcast Sunday that he was unlikely to authorize a broad inquiry into Bush administration programs like domestic eavesdropping or the treatment of terrorism suspects.-Urinal/Treason Times
Comfort food for the mindless^^, what they don’t tell you and know that you are too stupid to be aware of it, the democrats in Congress signed off on whole lot of these programs.
Sputter all you want, pinkos, cause you ain’t got the courage to go there.
By AJC/DNC Management
January 12, 2009 5:43 AM | Link to this
In a column for InsiderAdvantage.com, University of Georgia professor Charles Bullock III points out that in the ‘08 election, the dominance of the Republican Party in Georgia began showing some pretty large cracks. The party’s success has been built on drawing overwhelming support among white voters, he says, but that demographic group is shrinking pretty quickly, at least in relative terms.-Bookman
Huh, I must have missed that one.
Anybody want to bet that Republicans dominate Georgia in 2009, 2010 and 2012?
NoPopStar.Blah
By GodHatesTrash
January 12, 2009 5:58 AM | Link to this
The GOP will dominate Georgia for a looooooong time.
Wimps, whiners, weasels, and welchers vote for wimps, whiners, weasels, and welchers.
(Sorry - I don’t bet with welchers).
By S Franklin
January 12, 2009 6:05 AM | Link to this
Jay, I appreciate your effort to bring the critical transportation needs of the region into focus. While you are at it, please do the same for the trauma network, public education, business development, water infrastrucure, mental healthcare… GA is lagging in investment in all these areas and our children and tehir children will pay a big price in years to come.
By S Franklin
January 12, 2009 6:06 AM | Link to this
Jay, I appreciate your effort to bring the critical transportation needs of the region into focus. While you are at it, please do the same for the trauma network, public education, business development, water infrastrucure, mental healthcare… GA is lagging in investment in all these areas and our children and their children will pay a big price in years to come.
By Andy the Welcher
January 12, 2009 7:48 AM | Link to this
Andy is like those moles in Luckovic’s cartoon:
“Anybody want to bet that Republicans dominate Georgia in 2009, 2010 and 2012?”
Look at the sad state of affairs that GA finds itself in, and who got us here, yet Andy’s standing right here hopping up and down cheering on Sonny and crew.
The only reason Sonny the Dunce is even up there under the gold dome is because of Flaggers, and they’ve already vowed to take him down.
Andy is most certainly correct on this one, GA is at the bottom of the trash heap in education and if you look at the lists, the only states stupider than GA are all Red states, there is a direct correlation there.
And I won’t touch that bet, mainly because Andy has proven hisself to be a welcher so betting with Andy is like voting for a Republican.
Claim victory all you want mole… er maybe that should be troll…
ew
By Joey
January 12, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this
The MARTA Board of Director’s intention to make decisions that ignore what is best for the metro area in favor of what is best for the power structure of the IP crowd, first came to public light when they announced the location of Routes and the locations of MARTA Stations.
The AJC, and the leaders of Atlanta, DeKalb and Fulton did not fight the MARTA Board then and has chosen not to openly oppose them sense.
Jay was not here then, but since his arrival he has not seriously taken on the MARTA Board for their many abuses of power.
State Government cannot agree to support the MARTA Board as it currently exist. Ideally the MARTA Board would cease to exist and MARTA would be run by DOT. Short of that major changes to the Board’s membership and intense oversite of their decisions is absolutely manditory, before state monies are committed.
By jewcowboy
January 12, 2009 11:02 AM | Link to this
MARTA runs everywhere I need to go, but then I decided to live within the city, not 20 miles out in a burb. They are called buses and they work quite well.
In November my car was stolen, and I started really riding MARTA until the insurance settled. Since then I’ve found between MARTA and Zipcar, I do not need to pour $500 a month into a shiny piece of metal with a pretty chrome cat on the hood that sits in my driveway most of the time.
By RealityKing
January 12, 2009 11:58 AM | Link to this
We should send Obama a plan to put marta and affordable housing through out Georgia. Not that we really need it, or won’t shut them down soon after the federal dollars run out.., just that we want to make sure we get our fair share of our grandchildrens futures now being sold by Obama and his drunken band of congressional liberals..
By professional skeptic
January 12, 2009 3:13 PM | Link to this
Jay, I would like to know more about what the MARTA Oversight Committee in the GA legislature actually DOES. From what I’ve read about their hearings and what little gets printed in the AJC and other news sources, they really don’t seem to be accomplishing much by way of strengthening MARTA or improving its ablity to serve the public.
In 10 years of living in Atlanta, I cannot tell that MARTA has improved all that much— with the sole exceptions of adding SS and NS stations to the north line and installing the Breeze fare system.
To be sure, the Oversight Committee make srequests for detailed financial statements and support for expenditures, but what have they done to transform the system? My observations tell me they have done nothing.
Year after year, the MARTA oversight Committee seem content to allow the public to believe that MARTA is mismanaged and inefficient… yet they do nothing to change this perception.
Oversight can be good, but if it does nothing to effect positive change or allows a poorly managed system to “stay the course” year after year, then overseers are part of the problem.
So, do they really do anything? Or are these committee members just another example of guvmint officials that just sit around and collect paychecks?