With just a few days left to sway undecided voters — and to remind those who've decided to hit the polls — both the pro- and anti-transportation tax campaigns took to the streets Saturday.
The 10-county, 1-cent sales tax, commonly referred to as T-SPLOST, would raise $6.14 billion over a decade for regional transportation projects across metro Atlanta, with another $1 billion going to smaller, local projects by county and city governments.
Heavy hitters on both sides are stepping up their rhetoric, with detractors warning residents not to be duped into raising the price of everything they buy by 1 percent and supporters telling voters not to let their generation be remembered as a failure if the tax fails.
For the latter group, its $8 million Untie Atlanta campaign is poised to go down in flames if the latest polling is accurate. A WSB-TV/Stone Communications poll showed only 35 percent of voters approving the measure, with 55 percent opposed and the rest undecided.
"Don't you ever worry about polls," Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed told some 150 people at a rally Saturday in Centennial Olympic Park. "Our job isn't to read the polls. Our job is to change the polls."
The rally featured speeches from U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves, DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis, Norcross Mayor and transportation regional roundtable Chairman Bucky Johnson, each of whom stressed that the passage of the tax would be as important to the city's future as the moment Atlanta won the 1996 Olympic games.
Realizing they were preaching to the converted — many in the crowd were campaign volunteers wearing Untie Atlanta t-shirts — the speakers urged them to rally their friends, neighbors and relatives to get out and vote yes.
"Do it for the future," Lewis said. "Make this region the capitol for the 21st century."
Meanwhile, state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, led one of about 20 teams taking their anti-T-SPLOST message door to door in south Fulton and south DeKalb. The fracturing of the black vote is considered a major obstacle to passing the measure.
Fort reminded voters that Fulton and DeKalb counties already pay a penny sales tax for MARTA, unlike Gwinnett, Cobb and others. And he said black contractors don't receive a fair shake from the state Department of Transportation.
"They got $8 million," Fort told patrons in a Subway restaurant, among his stops in West End. "Guess how much we got — $800, and we're going to beat them. David is going to beat Goliath."
West End resident Tonya Smith said she had already decided to vote no before encountering Fort in a Family Dollar store.
"I don't think it's fair," she said. "They want us to keep spending money."
Willie Watson, of Riverdale, said he remains undecided.
"Once I get all the facts, then I'm going to make my decision," Watson said. "Will it create jobs like they say it's going to create jobs? Will it benefit everyone in general — black, white, Hispanic, Asian?"
Michael Hadden, a Roswell resident who attended the Centennial Olympic Park rally, said it should have been held in north Fulton, where he believes pro-tax residents like himself are in a minority. He came to pick up a yard sign, he said, after a vote-no sign went up in front of his apartment complex.
"There's just such an anti-tax sentiment right now," he said. "It's going to be hard to get past that in the suburbs."
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