In 2010, Georgia lawmakers passed House Bill 277, the Transportation “Investment” Act of 2010 — where have we heard that term before? It created 12 regional taxing districts to finance regional transportation projects.
I believe metro Atlanta voters must defeat this proposal.
If approved, the T-SPLOST will raise the sales tax by 1 percent for 10 years in the middle of a “double-dip” recession, with a 16 percent “real unemployment rate” in Cobb County and foreclosures up by 11 percent from this time last year.
The T-SPLOST is a regional vote, not a county vote. If Cobb’s voters reject the T-SPLOST vote and a majority of the region’s voters approve the T-SPLOST, then Cobb County will be forced to pay an increase in the sales tax that they rejected at the polls for projects they don’t want.
On Oct. 13, metro Atlanta mayors and county commission chairmen finalized the T-SPLOST project list, carving out $984 million for transportation projects in Cobb County.
The projects break down into $689 million for a yet-to-be-defined “enhanced premium transit service” — that means we don’t know what we are doing yet — and will require a $300 million federal grant to complete a proposed rail line from the MARTA Arts Center to Cumberland Mall.
Sen. Johnny Isakson and Rep. Tom Price have already said this grant request will not be approved. If the T-SPLOST is passed, Cobb will receive an additional $178 million for unknown projects at this time. The battle cry has become: “We don’t know what we’re going to do with the money, but we’re going to do it anyway!”
The proposed rail line is underfunded by $300 million, and the hope for a federal grant has been dispelled. Chairman Tim Lee has said Cobb will use $110 million of the transit money for an upgraded Acworth-to-Midtown bus service, while the remaining $579 million would go toward “whatever transit the county’s transit study recommends in February of 2013. GRTA already operates a regional bus route in this corridor ...”
Are you serious?
In summary, proposing a “10-year tax increase” for transportation projects, managed by an unelected regional bureaucracy, in a county with foreclosures up by 11 percent and unemployment at 16 percent is an outrage.
I urge voters in Cobb County and metro Atlanta to reject this tax increase proposal next year.
Bill Byrne was Cobb County Commission chairman from 1992 to 2002.
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