In order to have any proposal ready for a vote in November, city and county leaders must work quickly to come to an agreement about what, exactly, residents will vote on.
- February: The stakeholders will meet to adopt criteria for the project.
- February through May: Cities and Fulton County will develop their project lists.
- May 30: Project lists are due.
- June 15: A master list of projects will be sent to all jurisdictions.
- June 30: A stakeholder meeting will be held to discuss the master list and an intergovernmental agreement.
- Aug. 15: Leaders will vote on and sign an agreement, and will sign a resolution calling for a referendum.
- August to November: Information about the proposal will be shared with voters.
- November: The referendum comes to a vote.
SOURCE: Fulton County
Elected officials in Fulton County agree on one thing: their region’s traffic-choked transportation network needs help.
But how they will fix it and who will benefit most is a point of contention. And consensus on how to raise money to upgrade area bridges and roads, and possibly expand transit, has been elusive.
On Monday, county commissioners and the mayors of Fulton’s cities met to discuss a planned November referendum that would seek a sales tax of as much as 1 percent to fund those projects. They debated how to divvy up the money — by population, by how many workers might be in each jurisdiction, or perhaps by the miles of road in each locality.
Leaders were left with more questions than answers. And there isn’t much time to waste.
“If we don’t get on the same page, chances are the whole thing is going to blow up,” said Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis.
If all the parties agree, they can ask Fulton County voters for a sales tax increase of as much as a full penny on every dollar. If they don’t, they will be forced to collect no more than three-quarters of a cent. The proceeds would then be distributed based on how much was spent by each jurisdiction on transportation over the past three years.
How much money might go to MARTA is a sticking point.
Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker was vocal about his city's unwillingness to pay for a transit system he said doesn't benefit residents.
He advocated for a full 1 percent going toward roads, or other local transit projects unrelated to MARTA. Bodker said he wasn’t anti-transit or anti-MARTA. But he wanted to see a more comprehensive, regional transit plan formulated that all the metro Atlanta counties would support.
Union City Mayor Vince Williams and College Park Mayor Jack Longino were among the leaders who said they do want transit to be part of Fulton's referendum. However, they worried voters would not support giving money to MARTA if they didn't benefit directly from a MARTA expansion in that part of the county.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was absent from the meeting and has not indicated yet which option he supports.
Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves has suggested that some money raised by the tax could be apportioned to the streetcar to expand service along the Beltline, which would benefit the city of Atlanta.
So far, the only expansion project cited by MARTA in Fulton County has been an extension of its current heavy rail line along Ga. 400 from the North Springs Station to Windward Parkway in Alpharetta.
If Fulton leaders are to put forth an option for voters, the timeline is tight. An intergovernmental agreement with a list of projects would have to be approved by August, leaving just three months to educate voters before the November election.
The county can vote to impose up to a 1-percent tax that would raise up to $1.4 billion over five years, according to estimates from the Georgia State University Fiscal Research Center.
Eaves said the best option is a three-quarters of a percent tax, with one-quarter going to MARTA and the rest going toward roads. He asked MARTA Chairman Robbie Ashe and MARTA CEO Keith Parker to return to the next meeting of Fulton County elected officials in January with information about projects it could accomplish with that level of funding.
Roswell Mayor Jere Wood suggested a potential compromise of a half-percent tax for roads only. Then, he said, MARTA can pursue a half-percent sales tax separately in its own ballot measure.
MARTA officials have said the transit agency will seek approval from state lawmakers in the coming legislative session to let voters in its member jurisdictions of DeKalb, Fulton and Clayton counties decide whether to pay a half-penny sales tax to fund at least three major expansion projects. If approved, the life span for that tax would be for the life of the existing MARTA tax through 2057.
The last time Fulton County voters were given the option to approve a transportation sales tax was in 2012. The transportation special purpose local option sales tax, or T-SPLOST, was soundly defeated at the regional level and included 10 counties.
However, 49.5 percent of Fulton residents passed the measure.
The General Assembly earlier this year passed a law allowing counties that did not pass the T-SPLOST to impose up to a 1-cent tax hike to fix transportation issues specific to their area.
Eaves said he was optimistic that voters would greenlight a more locally focused tax. However, Wood, in Roswell, said he wanted to make sure voters were on board.
“If voters don’t support this, we’re wasting our time,” he said.
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