Big questions on Clayton transit vote

Few people expected the Legislature to approve a transit referendum for Clayton County, but legislators did just that during their session that ended last month. “I was so surprised, it was as if they gave me a boyfriend,” quipped Riverdale Mayor Evelyn Winn Dixon.

But now there’s disagreement about what such a referendum would say: would it call for a MARTA expansion or for a new transit authority run by the county? Would it create a one-cent sales tax to support the system, or a half-cent tax, or a quarter-cent?

And the county needs to decide all that quite soon, because the referendum must be firmed up and set on the ballot 120 days before the general election in November.