Atlanta’s big push to obtain transportation funding might have hit a roadblock.
On Monday, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed presented 20 transportation projects and city council members balked, claiming the list does not address key issues for the city and they had no input.
Creating more friction, Reed was expected to whittle the 20 projects, which would cost an estimated $6.9 billion obtained from 2012 referendum tax money set aside for transportation needs, to a workable number himself by Wednesday to submit to the state.
“Whoever had the bright idea to circumvent the council may have doomed the council’s support for this; it is just a matter of good form that you would want to have the buy-in of the council,” council president Ceasar C. Mitchell said. “The political risk here is members of the council being more aloof on this project. There has to be a strong push to get people to vote on this. This doesn’t help me in wanting to support this.”
Reed, who was not initially at the council work session, made a surprise visit after the council started criticizing the process to mayoral staff making the initial presentation.
The mayor said he was working under a tight deadline in consideration of a timeline that was recently established, and there has been turnover in his office.
“I was not briefed on this until Friday,” Reed said. “You should not feel disrespected.”
Among the items under consideration on Reed’s list are: $920 million to repair roads, bridges and sidewalks throughout the city, $1.9 billion to create at least three light rail lines and $740 million to build and improve bicycle and pedestrian access to existing and planned transit stations.
Reed’s list also included more than $1 billion in capital investments to bring MARTA “into a state of good repair.”
Council member C.T. Martin, who chairs the council’s transportation committee, said just one of the mayor’s 20 recommendations -- funding for roads and bridges -- directly benefits Atlanta. The others, he said, were too regional, such as $25 million to connect the Silver Comet Trail in Cobb County to Centennial Olympic Park.
Councilwoman Felicia Moore said it would be virtually impossible for council members to have any kind of meaningful input in the city’s transportation future.
“If we hadn’t called this meeting, we wouldn’t know anything,” Moore said.
Councilman Michael Julian Bond pointed out that Sandy Springs and DeKalb County have full government participation and the continual council snubs are “almost getting to the point where it is beginning to be offensive.”
“This is a huge problem to not have the city council involved earlier,” Bond said. “Get us involved in the beginning, because we’re on the hook for this thing, too.”
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