T-SPLOST
Mass-transit focus undid the measure
A common theme I have observed in letters about transportation is that building additional roads will simply lead to greater congestion. I find this to be an unproven presumption.
For mass transit to function, you need dense developments ( like high-rises) and fairly compact areas. Looking at the landscape of Atlanta, we are spread far and wide, with no mountains or coastline to restrain us. The elite planners seem to think they can nudge us to abandon our homes and move into dense clusters around rail stations — and this will somehow be the answer to congestion. To me, this is the definition of congestion — not the solution.
MARTA already consumes a 1-cent tax in Atlanta, and it is never enough. T-SPLOST failed because more than 50 percent of the funds were going to build poorly conceived and utterly ineffective transit (currently used by less than 3 percent of commuters). Would there have been less traffic congestion if all the MARTA money over the years had been spent on roads? I believe so.
MICHAEL G. MITCHELL, MARIETTA
ELECTION 2012
Looks as if Obama’s stuck with Joltin’ Joe
You’ve got to hand it to the Republicans. With Vice President Joe Biden’s recent gaffes, high-profile Republicans like Sarah Palin have publicly said that President Barack Obama should consider replacing him on the ticket with Hillary Clinton. So far, no Democrats have publicly said the same thing — but I have to believe there are a lot of them who secretly agree.
Most Republicans would tell you that an Obama-Clinton ticket scares them to death. In a tight campaign, booting Biden in favor of Clinton would almost certainly tip the balance. However, there’s no way the president would stoop so low as to seem to take political advice from Palin, so he’s stuck with Joltin’ Joe. I can’t wait for the next time he sticks his foot in his mouth.
BURNETT HULL, COVINGTON
LEGISLATURE
Agreement to address ethics is grudging
According to House Speaker David Ralston and House Ethics Chairman Joe Wilkinson, they are committed to transparency and disclosure. Only after an unrelenting barrage of requests to cap lobbyist gifts are they now grudgingly acquiescing to public pressure on that point.
Even by their own standards of transparency and disclosure, our state’s laws are woeful. There are no laws requiring independent auditing of lobbyist disclosure statements. There are no laws requiring disclosure of non-lobbyist gifts to legislators. The European vacation that Ralston received could have gone unreported if the giver had decided that he was not a lobbyist.
Ralston and Wilkinson’s claims that our ethics systems are adequate are not only false — they further damage these lawmakers’ already tattered credibility.
DON MCADAM, SANDY SPRINGS
