The AJC recently reported…
A bold plan that would put high-impact transportation projects such as tunnels, optional toll lanes, interstate truck lanes and a relocated Northern Arc in metro Atlanta and across the state met with mixed reactions Thursday, when a powerful House Republican filed a resolution to make it happen.
If approved by voters statewide, the measure would add 1 cent to the state sales tax for 10 years and would bypass the staff of the state Department of Transportation, creating a new, far smaller organization that would manage the $2 billion a year estimated to come from the tax.
The measure for an amendment to the state Constitution, HR 509, was filed by House Transportation Committee Chairman Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain) and Rep. Johnny Floyd (R-Cordele), vice chairman of the committee.
Transit advocates reacted strongly to the plan, both for and against it. It snubs commuter rail, which elicited the condemnation of some transit groups. But it would put $500 million into building costs for the Peachtree streetcar and pay the part of MARTA’s operating costs not covered by ticket sales. Fulton County, DeKalb County and Atlanta residents now pay a 1 percent MARTA tax.
MARTA chairman Ed Wall called the proposal "awesome."
"I thoroughly support it and love it," Wall said. "I’ve got zero on one hand and this amount on the other. How could I be against it? It’s better than anything I’ve got now."
State Transportation Board member David Doss has suggested MARTA could use the freed-up money to pay down its debt, or let the counties lift the MARTA tax for the 10 years the program runs, or use it on any transportation project it wanted, such as the Beltline or commuter rail.
DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones said he hadn’t seen the legislation yet, but his initial reaction was praise for the General Assembly "in its wisdom to bring some relief to the citizens of Dekalb, Fulton and the city of Atlanta." He thought the freed-up money might help MARTA expand its lines, either east to Stonecrest in DeKalb or in other directions.
Tad Leithead, chairman of the Cumberland community improvement district and involved in the Atlanta Streetcar through his work at Cousins Properties, also applauded the idea given the state’s and metro Atlanta’s huge transportation funding shortfall. That said, the plan raised questions that "need to be answered with optimism and a can-do attitude, but answered nonetheless," he said. Leithead, an official at the Atlanta Regional Commission, noted that the projects would have to keep Atlanta in conformity with pollution regulations. Also, the Atlanta road projects depend heavily on toll revenue and private investment, neither of which is a certainty.
Another significant project missing from the first 10 years of the plan is the top end of I-285. Doss said the "East-West Connector" through Forsyth and Cherokee counties and the truck lanes on other parts of I-285 would take the pressure off the top end, which would be enormously expensive to change.
That met with a mixed reaction from Yvonne Williams, president of the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts. She supported attacking the funding problem statewide. She added, "I’m all for all the east-west connections we can get because we don’t have them now. But I would have to say I think we still need to address I-285."
