Last year, then-Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law the Transportation Investment Act of 2010 that, if approved by Georgia residents in the summer of 2012, is expected to provide billions in funding of transportation projects throughout the state.
It was projected that in the first year of enactment that about $714.8 million could be designated for the Atlanta region and up to $8.7 billion over 10 years.
As mayor of Tyrone, a small but growing town in Fayette County, I am concerned that the Atlanta Regional Commission’s mass transit shopping list is going to waste critical transportation funding that could be used for valuable road projects in all 10 metro counties.
In July 2010, the publication Asphalt Stream reported that ridership of mass transit is at 1.5 percent of the population, and the fare box only covers 25 percent of operations.
It is estimated that providing light rail in metro Atlanta will cost between $25 million and $50 million per mile to build. That doesn’t include the operational costs once built: station and parking acquisition and upkeep, labor and lighting.
And on Nov. 17, the AJC reported, “In a coup for the city, the U.S. Department of Transportation has agreed to grant Atlanta $47 million for its proposed $72 million downtown east-west street car project, according to U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta and Mayor Kasim Reed.” Of course, taxpayers will be funding the $25 million shortfall.
Meanwhile, the AJC headlines, “Mass transit tops region’s wish list” with “new rail lines that could carry commuters from downtown Atlanta to Gwinnett, Cobb and Clayton counties.” And “MARTA was the biggest transit requester, asking for 43 projects.”
I question if these projects are sustainable.
In the April 25 edition of Bloomberg-Business Week, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing observed: “If we don’t make the hard decisions, someone else will make them for us. We are not fiscally sound. We had more than 900,000 people, and in the last census we had just over 713,000. We now have an infrastructure we can’t support. We can’t pay for buses all over the city.”
Atlanta is no different. Atlanta’s population went from 541,922 to 420,003, or a 22 percent reduction, and that reduction has the potential of causing a $242 million shortfall from federal funds.
An April 22 article from the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association said, “Metro mayors in Fulton and DeKalb counties have helped to build consensus around the region about the importance of a regional transit system that would run seamlessly at least through Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton and Cobb counties.”
I was under the impression that the Atlanta region consisted of 10 counties, not five. All 10 counties are interested in projects that are affordable, practical and of benefit to all 10 counties.
The former mayor of Charlotte, Pat McCrory, had this to say about next year’s transportation vote: “Convincing voters in metro Atlanta to approve a 1-cent sales tax to fund transportation will be one hell of a sale.”
I agree.
Don Rehwaldt is mayor of Tyrone.
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