North Fulton County mayors understand that selling voters on a tax increase will be tough in these economic times. But they plan to make the case to their residents anyway -- despite their own reservations.
The North Fulton Mayors Association announced a plan Thursday to join DeKalb County mayors in marketing their position on the transportation tax referendum slated for 2012.
The move marks a reversal of sorts for the group of mayors who last fall came within a hair's breadth of signing proclamations opposing the tax over concerns about regional transit.
Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos said Fulton and DeKalb each selected four mayors to make up the marketing committee.
"We want the people of Fulton and DeKalb to understand the issue," she said. "The second task of ours is to come up with a funding plan."
The first meeting will be Feb. 28.
Thus far, concerns over how much Fulton and DeKalb voters would be taxed under the plan has been a sticking point.
Legislation allowing for the 1-cent local transportation tax passed last year. Under its terms, the state is divided into 12 regions, with the 10 counties surrounding Atlanta comprising one region. Each region must develop its own list of transportation projects to be funded with revenue from the special tax.
Fulton and DeKalb officials argue that their residents are already paying a penny sales tax for regional transit in the form of MARTA. They said they want counties such as Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton, which benefit from MARTA, to also commit money for regional transit.
Any support for the new tax, the north Fulton mayors said Thursday, would be contingent upon that point. That would likely be pivotal to drumming up support among the voters, too, Galambos said.
"I think it's going to be easier to convince people to tax themselves if they know that other people are going to be contributing to the transit system," she said. "If we can improve the equity of the system, then I think we'll improve the chances of passage."
So far, 11 of Fulton County's 14 cities have endorsed a resolution favoring the sales tax so long as neighboring metro counties join Fulton and DeKalb to form a regional transit system.
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