Don McKee
“We have to get our people and goods moving again,” Deal said at Tuesday’s Eggs and Issues breakfast sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, a friendly audience for his transportation and business-tax-cut agenda.
“Georgia can either go forward with this wise investment or our transportation system will be stuck in the past while we’re stuck in traffic.”
Unfortunately, the proposed TSPLOST deal for Cobb County would not do much to get the traffic unstuck. The tax would raise an estimated $6.1 billion in the 10-county metro Atlanta region including Cobb which would get $689 million for “enhanced premium transit service,” not otherwise identified, plus money for road improvements and a new tower and runway lights at McCollum Airport among other things.
A half-dozen members of the Cobb legislative delegation visited the Journal last week and offered their views on spending the tax money and re-engineering the state law setting up the tax vote. Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) talked about changing the Cobb project list to build toll lanes on I-75 and I-575, a surprising suggestion considering the opposition the “Lexus lanes” have encountered in Gwinnett County.
Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth) hit the nail on the head when he said the project list is a “bait and switch” deal. And Rep.Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) said attempts might be made in the legislature to allow counties to opt out of referendums. Some Cobb legislators also expect the tax plan to be challenged on constitutional grounds.
There are flaws in the Transportation Investment Act (TIA), the formal name of what has come to be known as TSPLOST, meaning transportation-special local option sales tax. The Georgia Taxpayers Alliance has rightly pointed out that a tax proposal of such size “demands absolute clarity and strict enforcement provisions for every word, every paragraph and every jot and dash to ensure that all promised projects are delivered.”
However, “enforcement does not exist,” James Bell of the taxpayer group wrote last month. “Nothing in the law prevents GDOT or other agencies from moving money from one project to another within a district, especially if any future study shows it is infeasible to build a particular project.
“The logical thing would have been to do studies before creating a project list. Yet, in this fine example of government foresight and planning, only after the tax is passed will feasibility studies be done. Only then will we know if projects are viable and should be built, but by then the politicians will have our money, if we vote for this tax. If the studies deem any project as infeasible, will it still be funded?”
Good question. It needs to be answered and other flaws in the law must be addressed in this session of the General Assembly.
dmckee9613@aol.com
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Why incur the cost of building new lanes when we can just take away "free" lanes add some electronic sensors and charge for "lexus" lanes?
If it worked on I-85 wouldn't it work on I-75?
Just out of curiousity what is the maximum rate for the toll lanes on I-85?
and
Has it really helped congestion?
This is doubly true of Kasim Reed and his Atlanta gangstas!!! Just look at the recent Hartsfield concessionaire situation to see how things work in the "hood" these days.
Obviously, the Georgia legislature needs to tighten up the details of the TIA legislation so that this type of parochial chicanery cannot take place.
Without very specific guidelines and rules attached to the legislation, it looks like our local elected officials cannot be trusted to resist their dubious instincts to be "creative" with our tax dollars.
Sad, but true!!
There is little or nothing in the proposed list that effectively addresses regional transportation issues.
The Atlanta Beltline?
That is a local Atlanta project that has little to do with regional transit connectivity. It is a very expensive trolley line that serves only intown Atlanta neighborhoods.
The Cumberland to Arts Center Light rail?
That is an Atlanta/MARTA project being funded from the pocketbooks of Cobb County taxpayers that does absolutely nothing for gongestion on I-75 north of I-285.
The scary thing about this whole TIA taxpayer funded scam is that the voters (regionwide) are not informed enough about the process or the project list to make a wise decision.
Back to the drawing boards!!
Let's take the time to revisit the details of the legislation and the project list to assure us that we get oue money's worth.
They simply cannot allow any privately financed and operated systems to be put into service.
They can't stand cost effective competition and they know it. It is a matter of survival for them.
Think of publicly operated transit as a giant Chevy Volt, but instead of a measly subsidy of $250,000 per vehicle you are looking at multi BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars being used to support dysfunctional transportation systems.
It would undercut their gravy "train". Sorry I couldn't resist that cheesy pun.
The I-75/575 design adds real capacity, and unburdens existing interchanges. The reversible feature increases the added capacity effect.
The design takes practically no added land beyond the existing right of way.
The toll issue aside, the addition to I-75/575 capacity is a good thing, well designed.
Not really all that surprising as we knew all along that the state would try and get their hands on the T-SPLOST revenues to build the overpriced and minimally-effective HOT lanes that they've been obsessively dreaming of for many years on I-75 & I-575.
I've got a couple of much better suggestions for that $689 million of Cobb taxpayer money that MARTA, the ARC and the state each are trying to get their grubby little hands on so that they can stuff it in the already deep pockets of them and their well-connected roadbuilding and land-spectulating cronies:
One, take part of the $689 million and modify the existing freight rail tracks on the (heavily used) CSX line that parallels I-75 and the (little used) Georgia Northeastern Railroad line that parallels I-575 to accommodate high-frequency commuter rail service on those tracks between Atlanta and Cartersville and Atlanta and Canton, for starters, then take the rest of the $689 million and fix the roads in Cobb County.
Or, take the entire $689 million and just fix the roads in Cobb County, which may not be the flashiest transportation, but despite the lack of high frills, is a proposal that will help to alleviate congestion rather quickly, much more quickly than overpriced toll lanes and boondoogle trains and buses to nowhere.
I'm confident "We the people" are going to
fix this ill-conceived political scheme at
the polls.
The best way to fix this money-burning disaster of a referendum would be to scrap it completely and just take the 1% of the fuel tax that now goes into the General Fund and use it to fix the roads.
I have always thought the fuel tax should be a percent of the sale instead of a cent amount per gallon. 'Would keep up with inflation better and (if administered right) "coulda/shoulda/oughta" amount to more upkeep of our roads, bridges and right-o-way.
I think that the whole idea was for the politicians to get their hands on the money first so that they could easily get the money into the pockets of them and their cronies.
"If the studies deem any project as infeasible, will it still be funded?”"
That's assuming that the politicians and speculators would ever let their favorite pet projects undergo studies that would deem them infeasible, which they wouldn't. Who seriously thinks that the powers-that-be would ever let the Atlanta-Cumberland light rail or the Beltline be deemed infeasible in a study?