Just days away from a state-mandated deadline to finish a list of transportation projects for voters next year, regional leaders on Tuesday put off key decisions on road projects while counties lobbied to keep their favorite projects alive.
The continuing disagreement over what to include on the list has left leaders scrambling over how to divide the potential tax dollars between roads and transit in the metro's five inner counties – Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton. They said they need more time on the issue, but a draft list needs to be completed by Monday to comply with a schedule set by the state. The group’s last scheduled meeting is Thursday, but by law they can schedule other meetings up until Monday.
The projects included on the list will be funded by money raised by a 10-year, 1-cent sales tax if voters in the 10-county region approve.
Tuesday, the regional leaders allocated about $715 million for road projects in the outer five counties, according to Atlanta Regional Commission figures, and called that an important step that would clear the way to the harder decisions in the core counties.
The move comes as DeKalb County officials and other advocates for mass transit projects -- extending MARTA in the eastern I-20 corridor and putting some form of transit along northern I-285 from Doraville to Perimeter Center -- made impassioned pleas not to be left in the cold. A divided group of the regional officials last week tentatively approved a half-dozen mass transit projects worth $3 billion, and those two projects were among those left off.
DeKalb County’s commission voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the roundtable of elected officials to include the I-20 project -- a MARTA extension to Wesley Chapel Road -- on the project list. Three commissioners said they would oppose the referendum if the project was not on the list, but other county officials said they would not go that far now.
Although a Clifton Corridor project in DeKalb County was included on the list along with major funding for MARTA repair projects, that is not enough after decades of paying an extra penny for MARTA, some said. The Clifton Corridor line would be from MARTA's Lindbergh or Lenox station to the Emory University area.
"To think that DeKalb would be ignored after being a leader in this kind of transit investment, it’s inconceivable,” said Commissioner Elaine Boyer, who represents the northern part of the county.
Difficulties are not limited to the roundtable picking the list. Last week, the lead political consultant hired by private groups to strategize the campaign for the referendum left.
The road projects tentatively approved Tuesday included some well-known suburban bottlenecks, including widening Ga. 140 in Cherokee County, fixing the interchange at I-285 and I-20 in Douglas County, widening North McDonough Road in Henry County, widening Sigman Road in Rockdale County, and an East Fayetteville Bypass.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said pausing after Tuesday's 5-0 decision "was the right thing to do" to give the outer counties a clear win and assuage their "anxiety." Last week, the Henry and Douglas county members of the roundtable's executive committee, which is working on the draft list, voted against the transit recommendation.
"When you push it, you risk fracturing the coalitions that are going to make the final vote possible," Reed said. "Some folks are saying you could have done it all in one meeting. My position is you couldn't have done it all in one meeting and left with a unified coalition."
The list is meant to go to voters in a referendum next year, along with a 1 percent sales tax to fund the projects over 10 years. It is expected to raise $7.2 billion, $6.1 billion of which is to be spent on the list of projects of regional significance.
At the same time that advocates are asking to add to the list, state officials have expressed deep unease to the roundtable about the low level of funding earmarked for some of the chosen transit projects, compared to how much it could cost to be sure they get built.
Solving those issues by putting more into transit than into roads is not off the table, some roundtable members said. In such a case, the local jurisdiction might decide whether it wanted to take money from roads in that area and put it into transit instead.
The DeKalb residents arguing for I-20 pointed out that the transit expansion projects picked so far center on the northern half of the region. The tentative list would also put $500 million into MARTA repair projects that could benefit southern areas, but that would not expand service.
The mass transit projects tentatively approved so far include a line from MARTA to the Cumberland area in Cobb County, parts of the Beltline -- which parts is still under discussion, said Reed -- and the Clifton Corridor line. Along with $500 million for MARTA repair projects, $180 million for regional Xpress commuter bus service, $100 million for preliminary work on a Gwinnett transit line, and $100 million to restore Clayton County's bus system, they add up to $3.05 billion, though those allocations can be changed.
DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis said one staff proposal under discussion now could put $300 million toward the I-20 East line. That is less than half the project’s total cost of $790 million, according to state figures.
But the chairman of the 21-member roundtable, Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson, did not seem hopeful. "I feel for you, but I don't know," he told Ellis. Later, he said, "People have a lot of needs and $6.1 billion won't fill all those needs."
The advocates were not backing down. “This can only be considered transportation treason,” Benita West, who heads the MARTA union, told the group. “We want the I-20 corridor. Anything less and you rule out equity and balance.”
Road to referendum
A regional sales tax for transportation is expected to raise $7.2 billion over 10 years. Of that, $1 billion goes back to the counties and cities where it was raised for local transportation projects of their choosing. The regional roundtable is choosing projects of regional significance for the other $6.1 billion.
By Aug. 15: According to the state law that set up the transportation referendum, the five-member committee of local elected officials who are working on the draft must vote to approve a complete $6.1 billion draft list of transit, road and pedestrian projects. This group is the roundtable’s executive committee.
By Oct. 15: The regional roundtable of 21 local elected officials will approve the final project list for the referendum.
July 31, 2012, unless rescheduled by the Legislature: People in the 10-county region will vote on the project list and a 1 percent sales tax
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