COMING MONDAY: According to the AJC’s poll, Metro Atlanta residents’ distrust of government stands in the way of major progress. Do government leaders hear the message? What, if anything, are they doing to turn it around?
The AJC covered the T-SPLOST for two years with more depth, context and breaking news than anywhere else. In the wake of its failure, the AJC takes an exclusive look at the path forward for transportation and other major regional initiatives.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution commissioned New Yorked-based Abt SRBI to poll the 10-county Atlanta region on its attitudes. SRBI interviewed 811 adults in Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties from Nov. 15-20. Some respondents had cell phones, some had land lines. The margin of error was +/- 4.9 percentage points.
Metro Atlanta residents want to tackle the region’s mobility crisis — and they’re willing to pay to do it, a new poll commissioned by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows.
The problem is they don’t trust elected officials and bureaucrats to come up with efficient solutions. Majorities of respondents said government wastes their money or is unresponsive, and they regard most politicians as dishonest.
The results help explain why this summer’s $7.2 billion transportation referendum failed, though it was touted as critical for the region’s future. And they suggest metro leaders face a daunting challenge solving not just bad commutes, but regional problems of any magnitude.
Yet, while the TSPOST drubbing left backers disheartened, residents of the 10-county region don’t want them to retreat to purely local issues and give up on regional fixes. And they believe trust can be improved.
Divisions over transit vs. roads, taxes and other issues remain. But:
** More than two-thirds would pay a new fee or tax of some kind to help reduce traffic congestion in the region overall, if a program is well designed. More than two-thirds would do so to improve their own streets.
** Nearly two-thirds, 64 percent, would pay a new fee or tax to create well designed public transit options that would benefit the region.
** Sixty-eight percent believe limited transit options are a problem, and more 76 percent believe traffic congestion is a “major” problem.
** There is no clear preference for what level of government should be in charge; city, state and regional government scored within a few points of each other, each garnering more than 40 percent support. By a thin edge people preferred small groups of counties voluntarily working together. They’re not so hot on individual counties being in charge, and they want federal involvement least of all.
** Well over half would also pay more to redevelop run-down public areas, or to improve education.
Bill Williams, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot who lives in Marietta, was one of those polled. Sure he’ll pay, he said, though he prefers a gas tax instead of a broader sales tax as proposed in the failed referendum.
“What we need is an integrated rail and bus system, perhaps with some high-speed lanes,” he said. “And people need to quit dumping on roads because we’re going to need more roads; we’re not a centralized area.”
But he doesn’t trust a metro-wide plan that doesn’t have direct voter input. “Uh-uh,” he said. “I’ve got to trust them first before I’ll vote for [their plan].”
Willing and able
For the survey, New York-based SRBI polled residents — the people who live, pay taxes, and suffer the problems — in the 10-county Atlanta area.
They’re not fans of new taxes, and many said they voted against the T-SPLOST because of that. But in interviews some said their feelings about taxes have a lot to do with trust in government’s ability to spend money wisely.
“I just really don’t trust the politicians right now to give them this kind of money,” said Bill Phillips, 60, an out-of-work computer programmer in South DeKalb county who believes more rapid transit is inevitable and “essential” for continued growth.
“The most important message,” said SRBI chief executive Mark Schulman, “is the need to pull together and to overcome the distrust that is evident in the poll – distrust in the entire area; distrust of government, distrust of the ability of government to make a real difference in a very real, acknowledged, major problem.”
The poll contradicts some long-held assumptions - for instance, that suburbanites oppose rail while intowners loathe road spending.
Sixty-eight percent of Cobb and Gwinnett respondents supported “strongly or somewhat” expanding train service beyond Fulton and DeKalb; 39 percent supported it strongly. Only 22 percent in Cobb and Gwinnett opposed it strongly.
And more than 70 percent of Fulton and DeKalb respondents would pay more for roads.
Underlying that support is at least something of a regional bond. Seventy-nine percent of the respondents said they felt at least some connection, some even a strong connection, to the region as a whole.
Reginald Carr, an engineer who lives in Snellville and drives to Dunwoody for work, said the region needs mass transit. He’ll support a plan, but it has to have the right projects, and not be pitched with “misleading” advertising, he said.
“I just don’t like the smoke and mirrors in national and local politics. It’s across the board.”
Not everyone is so turned off. Hollie Shafer moved to Riverdale six months ago from Tennessee. She says she hasn’t registered to vote yet but she would probably vote for a plan “whether I believed they would actually do it or not,” to give it a chance.
“I’ve lived in places where they would actually go through on fixing the roads and doing better with the public transit. So honestly I think it depends on who’s kind of in charge,” she said.
Overall, a plan favored in the poll includes: a combination of mass transit, roads and development that doesn’t require as much driving.
The poll asked about various methods of funding, listing sales or gas taxes, tolls, general funds among options. All drew support, but the method mentioned as the top choice by the most respondents - 39 percent - was a tax on liquor and tobacco.
The trust bust
Distrust exists at every level of government, though some poll respondents said they can keep a sharper eye on county or city officials.
Sixty percent believe that government wastes “a lot” of money; that “not many” or “hardly any” of the people running the government are honest; and that public officials don’t care much what people like them think.
Just 50 percent think government involvement in their lives is useful.
Richard Charles, a high speed camera salesman in Peachtree City, travels the region in his job. He would pay to fund both transit and roads. He believes political polarization is growing, “and I think that’s a thing playing into the distrust.”
The results show no reverence for elite institutions.
Just fewer than half believe the Georgia Legislature is helpful to progress in the region. The same goes for business leaders such as the Metro Atlanta Chamber, a group that often drives policy in the Atlanta area, and which led the fight to conceive and pass the T-SPLOST.
In interviews, residents cited various grievances that eroded trust: breaking the promise to end the Ga. 400 toll on schedule; converting the I-85 HOV lane to a toll lane; building projects, such as MARTA, in places they felt were chosen politically rather than practically; self-dealing by elected officials; periodic scandals; and simply not getting results.
Those polled had answers when asked what it would take to restore their trust - only 1 percent said it is impossible - but they tended to offer general concepts.
The top suggestions: More honesty, transparency and accountability in government. Less waste. Projects done on time and within budget.
Some were more personal, asking decisionmakers to align with their own political party or religion.
“Frankly, I don’t think there’s a single thing that is going to all of a sudden improve trust,” said Lou Byfield, a technology senior project manager who lives in Peachtree Corners.
“But it’s showing success at some level. Like anything else, you’re going to have more confidence in your company, in your government, in your schools – when you see some level of success,” he said.
“I think government for many things does have the resources, and may need to do more with less. If they can show, even at a smaller level, some small wins and improvements in some things, that would be something they could build on and eventually start to improve confidence.”
But some want government to solve the big problems with the money at hand, not ask for more. Others want government to propose complete transportation systems, not patchwork pieces.
Government leaders say there’s simply not enough money to build all the transportation projects needed.
Keith Golden, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, said the agency has taken the referendum defeat and public distrust to heart and that turning around popular distrust is “something we struggle with as a staff on a regular basis.” DOT’s board held a meeting in Macon to discuss how to deal with it, and will work to burnish its image with timely and quality projects.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed agreed distrust is “a valid issue” but cautioned that there’s “a little bit of oversimplification” in the alarm about distrust.
The road ahead
Atlanta is not the first big region to wrestle with issues of regional governance and trust. In 1997, a transportation referendum failed in Denver. People distrusted the vague plan. Board members at the agency in charge assailed each other and their own staff, and one campaigned against it.
Then the agency helped deliver a couple of big projects ahead of schedule and on budget. In 2004, with a more specific and comprehensive plan, voters approved a major transit tax referendum.
But that program went over budget and behind schedule, and Denver has again been afraid to ask voters for more money, especially in a down economy.
Golden and others cite efforts at openness in other areas that can be adopted here. For instance, Georgia is considering posting project progress online, as is done by the Washington state DOT.
The T-SPLOST was metro Atlanta’s first attempt at voting together on a regional plan. Now some seem at a loss as to the region’s future.
At a speech to 1,000 metro Atlanta political, civic and business officials this fall, Atlanta Regional Commission Chairman Tad Leithead asked if the region were now “doomed” to mediocrity — four times.
The answer, he concluded, was no. But he didn’t offer a specific solution, beyond committing to work together on a regional vision.
Poll respondent Kathy Cole isn’t sure she has one, either. But she suggests where to start: honesty, action, accountability.
“There’s always hope if you want to work on it,” she said. “But you have to be willing and able.”
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