Poll after poll has shown us that attitudes toward gay marriage and race have a deep generational aspect – youth breeds acceptance.
It may be time to add transit to that list of age-shifting issues. The following paragraphs are lifted from an op-ed in today’s AJC by Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, who last week lost the firm World Pay to the city of Atlanta. Transit was cited by the company as a reason. The company was renting space too far from the MARTA rail line.
State Farm also needs these techno-wizards, so it is building a major facility on our border, a stone's throw from Dunwoody's MARTA station. In fact, World Pay is one of our few technology firms located outside the MARTA rail corridor.
MARTA is a key factor in attracting these urban technology workers to Sandy Springs. Unlike their parents, who hoped other people would ride MARTA so their drive to work would be easier, many millennials prefer transit.
Our challenge is getting developers to rethink their projects to seriously embrace transit within the rail corridor. This isn't social engineering; it's smart economics. No one wants to build empty monuments to lack of foresight.
Most businesses in this corridor don't own their buildings, they lease. When mobility issues significantly affect employee morale and productivity, businesses like World Pay can exit as quickly as they arrive.
Paul's op-ed brought to mind last week's interview of Tim Echols, the state Public Service Commissioner, with Tim Bryant of WGAU (1340AM). Echols spoke in defense of state tax credits now heaped on electric cars in Georgia.
Echols spoke of an encounter he had with Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed:
"I asked the mayor – I said, 'Mayor, we spent $15 million on tax credits. What do you think we're getting for that? What's the best thing that we've gotten from that?"
Echols said he thought Reed would point to a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, or the consumer cash that is saved and spent elsewhere. But no:
"The mayor said what the most valuable thing for Atlanta is that these cars and these chargers attract millennials. These kids. These millennials are flocking to Atlanta. They're living there. Companies are following them. They're selling things to them. They're building condos down there."
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The center of gravity in state politics has shifted to Athens today, as lawmakers gather for the third of a three-day ice-breaker gathering for those just elected.
The highlight is a speech this afternoon, at which Gov. Nathan Deal could drop a few hints about transportation – and whether he would support a hike in the gas tax now being considered by a special House-Senate committee. The goal would be to raise an additional $1 billion or more each year to meet the state’s current repair needs for 48,580 miles of roads and nearly 15,000 bridges.
Monday saw a few hints dropped at a preliminary discussion – absent the governor. Keith Golden, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, made what could become a states’ rights argument aimed at hardcore conservative Republicans.
The federal highway trust fund, fueled with a federal gas tax, is the Georgia DOT’s biggest source of revenue for road-building. And it’s drying up. “We are much too dependent in Georgia on the federal government and that gas tax program,” Golden said.
State Rep. Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, co-chairman of the so-called Plan B committee, dropped this on his colleagues:
"We're trying to find revenue of about a billion dollars. And I had somebody say, all right, that's a one-time fix. No. We're talking a billion dollars a year in additional revenue. We're not looking for a two-year, three-year plan. We're trying to come up with a solution for 20 years down the road."
Roberts said the Plan B report was supposed to be available Nov. 30, but has been delayed until the end of this year. And when it is released, it will contain not just a single recommendation, but a cafeteria of options that would allow GOP leaders in the state Capitol to keep any opposition guessing.
“It’s going to be something that gives some people some heartburn,” Roberts said.
Said Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, the Senate co-chair of the Plan B committee, told newbies that the upcoming vote on transportation funding is likely to be the biggest issue they’ll face in their first two-year term:
"We're going to look long and hard for the funding we're talking about. A billion dollars is a lot of money. And we've got to start looking under every rock until we find the money to do what we need to do in this state."
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Opposition to any hike in the gas tax has already surfaced. The group calling itself Georgia Taxpayers United has launched an online petition that begins thusly:
Whereas: Much of Georgia's existing gasoline tax revenues are squandered on government boondoggles not related to transportation....
Just a thought: Georgia may be one of the most expensive places to own a car because of the excessive amount of time we spend sitting in traffic, idling.
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U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, is no fan of Ben Carson, the conservative African-American neurosurgeon pondering a Republican run for the presidency. Appearing on the Michael Smerconish radio show, Johnson compared Carson's supporters to "a lynch mob."
Guest host Pete Dominick asked Johnson his opinion of President Barack Obama on racial issues, given Carson's claims that Obama has made things worse. From Johnson's reply, as first picked up by Buzzfeed:
"So to the extent that we have African-Americans trying to tap into that vein of ignorance -- African-Americans like Ben Carson, who is a very smart, well-educated man and knows exactly what he's doing. when we have blacks like that try to tap into the ignorance of people who have been whipped into a frenzy like a lynch mob and go to try to garner support from those folks, I think it's very disappointing that we would have that kind of political discourse going on in this country, appealing to the lowest common denominator."
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Incoming U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Monroe, has hired David Sours to be his chief of staff. Sours served as chief for outgoing U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta -- and is the son of longtime GOP activist John Sours of Cobb County.
That means Georgia House Republicans' freshman quartet each has hired a top aide, and three of the four are veteran Capitol Hill staffers. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, brought in longtime Jack Kingston staffer Chris Crawford, Rick Allen, R-Evans, hired former Tom Graves chief of staff Tim Baker and Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, hired his campaign manager, Rob Adkerson.
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