Staff writer Katie Leslie contributed to this story.
As decision-day grows closer, Fulton County commissioners will push Wednesday for their city leaders to agree on the way money for a potential transportation tax is distributed, even if all are not ready to agree that they're on board.
Commissioners agreed last week to encourage Fulton County mayors to divide a proposed 1 percent transportation sales tax based on the population of each area rather than by employees, road miles or some combination thereof, as had also been suggested.
They hope to come to the agreement before they even know if all cities plan to participate in the tax. If some cities opt out or concensus is not reached, the state dictates that the distribution is tied to how much money each spent on transportation from their general funds over the past three years.
“Obviously, this is complicated,” Fulton Vice Chairman Liz Hausmann said. “There are a lot of moving parts.”
The mayors will meet Wednesday in Atlanta to further hash out whether they want to move forward with the tax proposal. In addition to the division of revenues if the plan is approved, they also must consider whether to leave room for MARTA spending in their own plans and whether to ask residents to tax themselves at a full penny, or less than that, if they move forward.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, whose absence at the meetings has been a point of contention, said in December that he stayed away intentionally, he said, to allow other mayors to discuss their own positions. Reed said he is in favor of the cities taking half a penny, and leaving the other half for MARTA.
“If the conversations continue to go in that direction, I plan to actually engage and start doing work on the issue,” he said.
The county can vote to impose up to a 1 percent tax, which according to according to estimates from the Georgia State University Fiscal Research Center would raise up to $1.4 billion over five years.
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