You’d think the opponents of overreaching, department-of-central-planning-type government who control the Georgia General Assembly would be overjoyed at the chance to cede control of mass transit in the Atlanta region. Especially given the state pays precious little of the cost anyway.
Think again. The final report of the latest task force studying transit governance reaches the same old, tired, Big Brotherish conclusion that the elected leaders and planning professionals of the nation’s ninth-largest metropolis really can’t be trusted to oversee a public transportation system that’s heavily funded by locally raised tax dollars. Nope, the state warrants final say in these matters.
If that conclusion sounds strange, and unacceptable in its current form, it should. For it’s no way to run a railroad or bus line.
There’s a better way, one that will minimize the heavy hand of government intrusiveness while maximizing the chances that this metro’s taxpayers will get the most efficient transportation services possible for each dollar spent.
There’s a logical elegance and equity in the concept that the amount of say in how a given investment is governed should be pretty much proportional to the amount of hard cash tossed in by investors. That’s an acknowledgment that those with the most skin in the game will act with their best interests top of mind. It makes sense. More importantly, it usually works.
Now let’s apply that core notion of financial practice to the matter of improving transit governance in the Atlanta area. The issue of better coordinating the multiple operators of trains and buses in this region is overshadowed, for now, by the upcoming vote on the transportation special purpose local option sales tax (T-SPLOST). But that doesn’t diminish the importance of a governance agency.
Voters deserve to know what sort of agency would have the critical job of ensuring that T-SPLOST proceeds and other funds are used well.
After dithering in 2011 on this matter, the General Assembly should act before adjournment. This work would have been easier had task force members hewed more closely to a reasonable governance model submitted last year as draft legislation by the Atlanta Regional Commission.
The ARC’s concept linked several common-sense concepts that the Legislature should now, belatedly, heed. Key among them is that those who are paying the bills should have the decisive say in running things. That’s called representative, responsible local government.
The conceptual legislation submitted more than a year ago put this and other sound tenets into place in calling for a transit authority made up of county executives or commission chairmen and mayors from each participating county. Three members would also be appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House, respectively. That makes sense.
But what came out of the task force’s proposal was a 35-member Transit Governance Council, composed of a similar mix of elected officials and five Gold Dome appointees. While a 35-person body might be workable, if unwieldy, the deal-killer is that the council wouldn’t have the final say on transit matters.
That’s because the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority board would have the right to override the council’s actions.
No thanks. The state was only too eager to push onto our region the political risk-taking and complicated legwork of developing a controversial project list and calling for this July’s T-SPLOST vote. That’s called washing your hands of responsibility.
To their credit, elected leaders across our far-flung metro stepped up. They took considerable political risk in embracing this tough, necessary job and getting it done. Their action, in the face of state inaction, showed courage, sound stewardship and vision in acting for the good of the region as a whole.
That proves metro Atlantans can act in our best interests without the threat of nanny-state second-guessing by a GRTA board composed solely of state political appointees.
Doing otherwise flies in the face of the small-government slogans that will be repeated often in this election year.
It’s up to Atlanta-area voters to remind politicians of that.
Andre Jackson, for the Editorial Board
