Support for the regional transportation tax referendum appears shaky among some key leaders in northern suburbs, with the Atlanta Beltline’s presence on the project generating much of their resistance.
Mayors from those communities say much of the $6.14 billion pool of money that the tax would likely raise for regional proposals is devoted to expensive territorial projects, including about 10 percent for the Beltline, that they see offering little if any benefit to the overall region while leaving many of their own transportation plans unfunded.
"I think [the Beltline is] a good project, but it's inside one jurisdiction," said Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker, who represented the North Fulton Mayors Association on the Atlanta Regional Roundtable, which is responsible for producing the project list. "What you've got to assume is that to the extent that Atlanta is getting more than its fair share of money -- with $600 million going to the Beltline -- then it came out of our hide."
The current breakdown of proposals on the regional list – with nearly 56 percent of the pot raised by the 1-penny sales tax going to transit projects – is also drawing some opposition to the referendum, which will go before voters next year. Opponents are focusing much of their attention on $856 million that would go toward extending a rail line from Cobb County to Midtown Atlanta.
Only days after the draft list of projects was passed Aug. 15 by the roundtable’s executive committee, north Fulton County mayors took aim at the Beltline for absorbing $601 million of the estimated payout that will be spread to the region's 10 counties. That makes it the third-most-expensive project on the list behind the Cobb transit line and one in DeKalb County.
The overall cost of the Beltline – a 22-mile circuit of transit service, bike trails and new parkland traversing 46 urban neighborhoods – is expected to be $2.8 billion.
Leaders in Johns Creek had hoped the projects list might do more for the city, which wanted to address major commuter choke points along State Bridge and Medlock Bridge roads, which carry a lot traffic from neighboring counties. The city ended up getting only one project on the draft list, widening about 1.5 miles of Kimball Bridge Road.
Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos and Roswell Mayor Jere Wood say the Beltline is not eligible for regional status.
"I think it's a good project for Atlanta, and I hope they move forward with it," Wood said. "But I don't think it's something that ought to be financed with a regional tax."
But Tom Weyandt, a senior transportation policy adviser to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, says the Beltline calls for streetcar connections into Midtown and downtown, which are regional employment areas by any definition.
"The Beltline itself was recognized in the early 2000s as a regional project by the Atlanta Regional Commission when they adopted the Regional Transportation Plan," he said. "So it's been part of a regional transportation plan for almost a decade."
North Fulton mayors also pointed out that the Beltline already has funding in place.
Weyandt sees that as a plus because all these transportation corridors must have some way to provide local resources of support.
"I don't think anyone ever contended that the TAD was going to generate sufficient funds to construct the whole of the transit facilities," he said.
Bernie Tokarz, north Fulton’s representative on the Beltline TAD’s advisory committee, said advocates haven't done a good enough job marketing and explaining the project’s benefits to the rest of the region. Advocates predict it will generate billions in economic development and catapult Atlanta into a regional hub of commerce and tourism.
"You look at cities like Washington, D.C., and Boston who have done similar projects, who have paid attention to blighted areas, industrial areas, they really serve as a core for a huge metro region," Tokarz said.
In Cobb County, referendum opponents are saying economic development should not be the primary motive for a project. They have targeted a $1.2 billion proposed transit line, possibly light rail, that would run from the Cumberland area to the Arts Center MARTA station in Atlanta. It would consume $856 million, or 85 percent, of the county’s $1 billion in projected funding from the referendum.
The [Cumberland] project, as it exists, is not about traffic relief; it’s about economic development,” said Rep. Ed Setzler, a Republican from Acworth and head of the county’s legislative delegation. “The [regional transportation tax] was sold as traffic relief, and we have committed to that, not projects that promote the image of Cobb County.”
Residents like Carol Robertson of Kennesaw agree.
“I sit behind empty buses, so what makes you think that people will get on trains?” said Robertson, who owns a limousine service. “It’s a waste of tax dollars. Me having to subsidize trains doesn’t make sense, and it’s not fair.”
As an alternative, Setzler is pushing a mix of commuter rail and road improvements that he says will be less expensive, affect more county residents and alleviate traffic congestion.
But Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee, a member of the roundtable, remains a transit supporter and says he’s willing to stake his job on it. His challenger for re-election next years is former Commission Chairman Bill Byrne, a transportation tax opponent.
“Transit," Lee said, "is a good shot in the arm for what the county and region needs to jump-start us beyond other regions in terms of recovering from these economic times that we find ourselves in.”
The transit opposition by Cobb’s local and state leaders is “deeply concerning,” said Joe Howard an executive with Manhattan Associates, a global technology solutions provider with offices in Cobb County.
“The absence of rail is one of Cobb’s greatest unfulfilled needs and puts Cobb and it businesses, at an extreme disadvantage, not only in comparison to our nearest counties, but nationally as well,” Howard wrote to Cobb leaders in a letter also shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “[Rail access] is a necessity for today’s corporations and a necessity in today’s competitive business environment.”
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