Metro Atlantans head to the polls next summer to vote on a 1 percent sales tax to fund regional transportation improvements during the next decade. This referendum raises some big questions.
If it passes, how can we know the money will be spent fairly and for maximum impact? How much should we spend on roads? How much on transit? Who is responsible for ensuring the work gets done on time and on budget? If the referendum fails, what impact would chronic congestion have on our economy and quality of life? Are there other options for meeting the transportation needs of our fast-growing population?
One point largely absent from the many discussions already swirling around this referendum is that this will be the first time residents of all 10 counties in the Atlanta region are asked to vote together on a regional issue.
Regional decision-making goes on all the time among elected and appointed officials at the Atlanta Regional Commission, but everyday Atlantans are far removed from it.
We’ve never voted for candidates running on regional platforms. Few of us realize we have regional representatives; fewer still know who they are. Yet, we are at a crossroads. If we don’t find ways to move forward cooperatively, to resolve the big issues intertwined around transportation, water and education, we don’t move forward at all.
Each of our communities has something wonderful that makes it special to us and unique in the region. Peachtree City has its golf carts; Marietta, its Big Chicken. Suwanee created an amazing town square from scratch; Decatur transformed an historic square that had seen better days. Some places have small-town charm, others emanate bustle and energy — but we all share our identity as metro Atlantans.
Together, we were proud hosts to the world during the 1996 Olympics. Together, we’ve cheered on the Braves, watching them rise, fall — and rise again. Together, we enjoy the advantages of being able to hop on a plane to anywhere from the country’s busiest airport. We need to translate those same thoughts, pride and feelings into intentional involvement about crucial regional issues that affect all of us, regardless of where exactly in the region we live.
Transportation, air quality, water supply, growth and sustainability are issues too big and too complex to be solved piecemeal in our respective counties and municipalities. To their credit, many elected officials already are moving in this direction, through organizations like the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association, which brings together the mayors of 65 cities in our region to collaborate on shared issues.
The next step, though, is for those mayors, along with council members and county commissioners, to begin talking to their constituents about regional issues and potential measures for addressing them.
This past spring, the Civic League for Regional Atlanta visited communities to collect feedback on the ARC’s Plan 2040, a federally mandated plan for accommodating population and economic growth, sustainably. We also took the opportunity to field questions about the 2012 transportation sales tax referendum. At each stop on our five-county tour, we heard the same things: How do I know I’ll get my fair share? What guarantee is there my county would get a dollar-for-dollar return on the additional sales tax it would collect if this referendum passes?
If transportation were a local issue, we could see how one might reasonably ask that question. But it isn’t.
Transportation has an impact on the entire region’s economic well-being; air quality; public health; safety for drivers, riders and pedestrians; and quality of life for workers trying to spend less time on the road and more time with their families. All of these concerns reach far beyond county lines.
This is not an effort to persuade voters to vote for or against the referendum. This is an effort to urge the people who live in Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties to start looking at the big issues with a broader, metrowide frame of reference.
This weekend, the Civic League for Regional Atlanta launches a yearlong initiative called Get a Move On: A Civic Conversation on Transportation, Growth and the Future of Metro Atlanta. The people of Conyers, Smyrna, Lawrenceville and, yes, Atlanta, must come together with their regional neighbors to talk about shared issues, their priorities for their region and what trade-offs they could accept to move us forward.
Clair Muller is the Civic League’s board chairwoman and served as a member of the Atlanta City Council for 20 years.
Ellen Dozier Mayer is managing director for the Civic League and a former public policy consultant.
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