Residents in transit-starved Clayton County could get a chance - possibly this fall - to decide whether their wallet matches their wishes for public transportation.
State lawmakers cleared the way last week for Clayton to begin exploring what type of public transit system might best fit its needs. Paying a penny tax to join MARTA is one of those options but the county also is looking at others such as public-private ventures or a totally-funded county transit system, Clayton’s top elected official told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Monday.
“We want a best-fit transportation system for Clayton. We don’t want a system for the sake of having one,” Commission Chairman Jeff Turner said. Turner said last week’s passage of House Bill 1009 is a “tool in the county’s toolbox.”
“They just paved the way for us to take it under consideration should we decide to go forward with transit in MARTA.”
While a few other metro counties are tweaking their transit systems, Clayton’s push for public transit is the most aggressive so far in the two years since voters across the region resoundingly defeated a regional transportation sales tax that would have created a unified regional transit plan.
As it stands now, only Fulton, DeKalb and the city of Atlanta are financing MARTA. A penny sales tax in Clayton could raise $49 million a year for Clayton transit, according to the Sierra Club’s Regional Action to Improve Livability campaign.
Turner indicated Monday that he’ll push for a nonbinding referendum similar to the one in 2010 in which voters overwhelmingly favored joining MARTA. The county is waiting on the results of a feasibility study that’s looking at the best transit system options for the county. A binding referendum, Turner said, would lock the county into a system that may not concur with the study’s findings, which aren’t expected until some time in the fall.
Clayton is the only metro Atlanta county without local public transit. County commissioners discontinued the C-Tran bus system four years ago this month because there was no money in the budget for it.
“What’s important to me is input from citizens (about what kind of transit system they want) and having a system that adequately addresses the needs of Clayton County,” Turner said. “I’m not saying MARTA couldn’t meet the needs but we want to look at all options.”
A higher percentage of Clayton residents don’t have cars or other transportation options. MARTA, which runs buses and commuter trains throughout the region, operated C-Tran for Clayton during its nine-year existence.
Earlier this month during his State of the County address, Turner said restoring transit was vital to improving economic development in Clayton.
“People in Clayton really want transit,” said Sen. Gail Davenport, chairperson of the Clayton County Legislative Delegation. “The citizens really need it for jobs and schools and (getting to the) health care system.”
The MARTA referendum is one of two possible taxes being considered this year. In addition to reviving local transportation, the county also is trying to figure out a way to save its financially-strapped hospital.
But renewed furvor over transit in Clayton is tempered by some stark realities. Clayton is still trying to emerge from its recessionary ills: a struggling local economy, higher-than-average foreclosures, residents who’ve lost jobs, and other pressing problems. One of the most pressing: its financially ailing hospital.
In fact, voters in Clayton County and its seven municipalities are slated to vote in May whether to approve a special-tax plan that would raise $273 million for roads and other needs, including saving the hospital. If passed, a 1-cent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax would be extended over six years, beginning in 2015.
But can Clayton afford to juggle two tax-boosting plans? Officials stopped short of making the prediction.
“Because of the high foreclosures and (struggling) economy, people having lost their jobs, citizens will look at whether they can afford to pay additional taxes,” Davenport conceded Monday. Davenport and other members of the Clayton delegation envisioned bus service being the initial offering followed later by rail service. But it’s unclear when that could happen.
For now, Clayton residents rely on a knitted-together system of transportation. Since C-Tran died, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Xpress bus service is the only public transit in the county. It carries people from park-and-ride spots in Jonesboro and Riverdale to downtown and Midtown Atlanta. It doesn’t run within the county or take people to the airport.
Staff writer Andria Simmons contributed to this article
About the Author
