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.
“A lot of things have to happen very quickly or else this tool in Clayton county’s toolbox goes away,” warned Lee Biola, chairman of Citizens for Progressive Transit.
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