Reed: Transportation bill will help city, Beltline

By Eric Stirgus

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said Thursday that money generated from the transportation bill passed by state lawmakers late Wednesday will help the city pay for some infrastructure projects and speed up work on the Atlanta Beltline.

Reed said he didn't have a specific list of projects yet, but he envisions using funds for work on infrastructure in Buckhead and southwest Atlanta, two of the city's most influential areas. Business and civic leaders in both communities have pressed city leaders for years for more and better sidewalks, as well as paving roads in disrepair. The city approved its first transportation plan in 2008, which identifies such problems, but it had few funding streams.

The bill passed Wednesday would divide the state into 12 regions and allow them to create a list of transportation projects that would be funded by a 1 percent sales tax if approved by voters in a referendum. The Atlanta region's tax is projected to raise at least $750 million a year. The bill also would allow MARTA to use more money for operations, which the mayor said will help the city.

Reed, a former state senator who spent hours at the state Capitol on Wednesday urging his former colleagues to pass the bill, said the legislation is "huge" for the city and state.

"It's the biggest capital investment in the last 50 years in the state of Georgia," a weary Reed said Thursday.

The mayor was at an event near Turner Field, where federal officials gave the city $400,000 for environmental assessment and cleanup efforts near the Beltline and other redevelopment corridors.

The mayor has said he wants to speed up the Beltline project, a plan to put more homes, green space and business along a 22-mile loop in the city's core. City leaders have said the Beltline could take about two decades to fully develop.

Reed said he would have preferred that the bill allowed for a referendum as soon as this year. The mayor also wished the bill had no restrictions on MARTA spending.

In the end, Reed said, "we could not let the perfect be the enemy of the good."