No deal.
At least not this week. The mayors and county commissioners from across metro Atlanta who planned to approve the region's most important infrastructure plan in decades could not agree on it by Thursday, their scheduled deadline. Instead, with $400 million left to cut and a north-south regional divide roiling negotiations, they have put off their final vote until the last possible moment under state law, Monday afternoon.
Asked if there would be a decision Monday, the chairman of the group, Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson, laughed nervously and said, "Absolutely."
A law passed last year to address a lack of transportation funding calls for a 21-member "roundtable" of local elected officials to draft a final list of transportation projects, worth $6.1 billion, by Oct. 15. A five-member committee from the roundtable will vote on the first draft, due Monday. The final list will go to voters next year in a referendum, along with a 10-year, 1 percent sales tax to fund the projects.
It is intended to address what leaders say is a transportation funding crisis that threatens the region's growth. Opponents, on the other hand, fear a new tax would actually drag the region down.
The roundtable members now head toward a long weekend of negotiations with staff and each other, and what Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed called "shuttle diplomacy," working out possible cuts not only with each other but with people from the areas where the cuts may fall. And new options aren't out of the question.
Reed and other members of the roundtable said they would not violate the open meetings law, and there would be no meeting of a majority of the five voting members of the committee or the larger roundtable.
Concerns about what DeKalb County would get, as well as complaints about how the southern part of the region would fare, have come front and center in the divisions as the project list has been pared down.
Early this month, the committee tentatively approved a $3 billion list of mass transit projects, which included $500 million for MARTA repairs and $700 million for a MARTA extension to the Emory University area in the Clifton Corridor, in the northern part of DeKalb. The other expansion projects, likely rail, were from Midtown Atlanta to Cobb County, and the Atlanta Beltline.
The list upset DeKalb County activists and others, who felt that southern DeKalb was being left behind. DeKalb County has now pushed for the inclusion of $250 million for new bus stations and service that could turn into a future train line along eastern I-20.
"I will share with you that there was the feeling that DeKalb County’s concerns had been included when we addressed the Clifton Corridor," said Reed, a member of the committee. "We now know that there is more work to do in that area and we have to do it."
In additions this week to the project list under discussion, the $250 million for DeKalb's transit hopes along I-20 is the largest mass transit addition and a component pushing the dollar total over the $6.14 billion that the tax is likely to raise for regional projects. Another $100 million was added for MARTA repairs, and $40 million for Gwinnett County express buses.
It comes down to taking money out of the list to offset those projects, or finding a way to put money in.
Asked if cuts within the area were possible to offset the $250 million for the I-20 transit, DeKalb County CEO Burrell Ellis said, "That still remains to be seen, because we’ve got to get the numbers down." But it could come from somewhere besides DeKalb, he said. "I think it's important we address the needs of a historically underserved population on the southside of Atlanta," said Ellis, who is on the roundtable.
On the other hand, putting more money in may or may not be likely, but the roundtable is scrambling for any options.
For one thing, money would be left on the table if the 10-year tax raises more than the $7.2 billion that the state economist predicted, of which $6.1 billion is slated for the regional project list. According to the law, the tax stops once that amount has been collected, even if 10 years is not yet reached.
The roundtable voted Thursday to ask Gov. Nathan Deal to put that before the Legislature in the special session that is to begin Monday, so lawmakers could change it to collect additional money, and put that toward a backup list of projects. The session is already going to address whether to change the 2012 referendum's date from the July primary to the November election.
And this week, the state transportation planning director lowered the amount required to build a Ga. 400/I-285 interchange on the list, freeing up money for other projects. Federal funds will also contribute to that project and a few others on the list. While some additional projects on the list may be eligible for an addition of state or federal funding, he said in an e-mail Thursday, it could be difficult, and he was not proposing any "at this time."
Before the decision to adjourn, impassioned advocates, including MARTA CEO Beverly Scott, lined up at a microphone to plead for their projects. Several business, political and university leaders expressed deep concern at the exclusion of a commuter rail line south through Clayton County.
"I’ve heard all of you talk about regionalism, regionalism, regionalism," said Kay Pippin, a longtime supporter of the commuter rail line and president of the Henry County Chamber of Commerce. "We are about to do the biggest thing we’ve done ever in our history, and you are completely ignoring half the region," with transit projects concentrated north of I-20. "If we’re ever going to be the greatest city on Earth, we’re going to have to acknowledge that there is life beyond I-20."
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