Voters overwhelmingly pass $250 million infrastructure fix

In the end, it was an easy sell for a city sick of wacky traffic lights, decrepit sidewalks and potholes.

A small but certain group of Atlanta voters overwhelmingly approved Mayor Kasim Reed’s $250 million bond initiative on Tuesday, a move that allows the city to begin repairing and rebuilding long-overlooked roads, bridges, sidewalks and buildings.

Nearly 21,000 voters — less than 10 percent of Atlanta’s electorate — turned out to the polls Tuesday. The effort passed by a whopping 9 to 1 margin, support that far exceeded even the mayor’s own polling predictions.

Their message was clear: Yes to two separate bonds that will chip away at the city’s billion-dollar infrastructure backlog.

“Tonight’s results demonstrate that Atlanta residents are ready to improve the look, feel and experience of our city above the ground,” Reed said in a statement released late Tuesday. “…Today, for the first time in nearly twenty years, we have decided that we will do the hard things necessary to be first to the future.”

Reed said construction crews could get to work by late June on the most urgent and widely supported projects: traffic light synchronization and bridge repair.

That’s good news to residents like Earl Leonard, of Buckhead, who said traffic light woes alone sold him on the bond issue.

“Anyone who says we have free-flowing, fast-moving access to streets and bridges plainly has not driven in Atlanta in 20 years,” said Leonard, a retired Coca-Cola executive. “I believe it’s long overdue.”

Darwin Womack, who with his wife Mary voted in favor of the bonds on Tuesday, agreed. “Our roads and bridges are deteriorating and falling behind.”

Levert Marchman, who cast a vote soon after Reed in Southwest Atlanta, said he’s expecting the millions to bring significant change to his community in the form of better sidewalks and improved streets. “I think that will bring a safer environment,” he said.

The first bond, worth $188 million, will fund transportation efforts such as bike lanes and street improvements. The second bond, about $64 million, will fund municipal buildings and recreation centers.

Even some of the most ardent government skeptics said it would be hard to vote no. The funds are the city’s largest investment in major infrastructure, outside of its water and sewer system, since around 2000.

Bill Bozarth, former head of Common Cause Georgia, said he’d prefer city leaders opt to raise taxes — the equivalent for many of political suicide — in order to address larger portions of the backlog. He believes paying for infrastructure fixes through bonds, which come with millions in debt service payments, isn’t enough to fix the behemoth problem.

“I think that’s bad governance and policy, but on the other hand … I’ll probably vote for it because I think we need to fix the bridges,” he said. “But we need to hold the people accountable who brought us to the point of collapsing.”

Reed, who hasn’t raised taxes during his time as mayor, has overseen efforts in the past year to identify ways the city can slash and save in order to fund between $16 million and $20 million in debt service payments. The mayor was aided by many members of Atlanta’s business community, many of whom also supported a nearly half-million dollar campaign effort in recent weeks.

Reed believes Atlanta will be financially able to address another quarter-billion of needed repairs within four years, he said Tuesday.

The city set an ambitious five-year deadline for completing more than 200 proposed projects. City leaders have faced criticism in recent weeks, however, for not finalizing the project list ahead of the vote, something Atlanta councilmembers must do before the city heads to the bond markets.

Reed said Tuesday that nearly 90 percent of the list is complete, adding it’s now up to councilmembers to cement how to spend $5.6 million allotted to each of their districts. Council will vote on the final list in April, he said.

This week, the council approved plans to create an oversight committee, as well as to hire an internal auditor, to review how the funds will be awarded.

Despite what appears to be a clear and certain victory, Reed’s measure — which gained unanimous support from councilmembers earlier this year — had a few detractors.

Among them is Molly Reed Woo, a city hall regular who said she didn’t support the referendum because she opposes Atlanta’s plans to contribute potentially hundreds of millions more to the new $1.4 billion Falcons stadium.

Reed has said the project will boost tourism and economic development, bringing as much as $155 million in annual revenue to the city. But Woo noted Atlantans did not have the opportunity to vote on the stadium issue.