Two years ago Mark Mathews was elected mayor of Kennesaw with 1,364 votes. But this month he became one of the most powerful people in Cobb when he was named to the roundtable that will decide on projects for the new regional transportation plan. The mayor and Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee will represent all of Cobb's interests in negotiations with the 12 counties and the City of Atlanta in this process. They also are likely to hear from lots of real estate investors who have their own ideas about what kind of transportation projects should be funded.
Your story touched on the expected difficulty of trying to pass three different sales tax initiatives (SPLOSTs) within a fairly short time span. It may be more difficult than you imagine. Both the Cobb schools and the county government are expected to want to extend current SPLOSTs. Both have had problems with current SPLOSTs. It appears that all parties now regard SPLOST as a permanent fixture in the budget process. One has to wonder how Cobb County built schools and roads for close to 100 years before SPLOSTs were invented.
The biggest complication on the horizon is the newly enacted Regional Transportation Plan, which is built around funding from yet another one cent sales tax. Cobb is linked by law with 12 other counties and the City of Atlanta. If implemented, we all commit to the extra penny sales tax for 10 years. Then, the roundtable decides how the money will be spent.
Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin got it right in observing that people in Clayton County aren't going to be interested in paying for streets in Marietta. Not surprisingly, people in Cobb may not be enthusiastic about paying for projects in Atlanta. Winning over voters and taxpayers will depend on defining projects as genuine regional transportation improvements. If voters and taxpayers are to take this regional transportation plan seriously it must be focused on legitimate transportation needs, not development projects, social services, job creation or any of the other "good deeds" that sometimes presented as "transportation" projects.
Lee said in the story that he and Mathews will have to support the bill as members of the roundtable. I disagree. They are elected representatives of the people of Cobb and that trumps anything else. Their primary obligation is to the people of Cobb, not to the roundtable, not to the ARC, and not even to the Chamber of Commerce. If this bill doesn't serve the best interests of Cobb, then Mathews and Lee must stand up and say so.
Cobb is not the City of Atlanta. I'm uncomfortable with the growing notion that the entire metro region should be turned into one homogeneous megacity. Urban transportation solutions that may be appropriate for interior Atlanta may be imposed on suburban Cobb. I doubt that I will be alone in insisting on proof of sound plans before I agree to part with yet another penny in sales tax.
Larry Savage
East Cobb
Editor's note: Mr. Savage was an unsuccessful candidate this summer for Cobb Board of Commissioners chairman.
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My budget is not open for expansion -- who can get a second, part-time job nowdays? So, why have we allowed our supposed leaders to convince us that we MUST have SPLOSTs renewed?
This reminds me of the advent of the Georgia lottery. What did we do before without all these tax dollars for education? Pre-schoolers stayed home or privately paid for preschool. College students paid their own way or their parents did. I put myself through two professional programs without any Georgia lottery funds -- why can't anyone else?
Because we are so spoiled with more dollars that we fail to see we are just ratcheting up society's supposed real "needs" verses "wants".
If this recession continues several more years, we will realize that all the "nice-to-haves" are no longer an option to purchase -- including more sidewalks, roads, jail cells, etc.
Cobb County Commissioners need to go on a lean, mean diet for good!!!
They make a wish list of their pet projects and that's what they cram down our throats.
If you lived here long enough you will remember that we were promised that after the first SPLOST was over there would be no school still using trailers, like that really happened.
Lee and Mathews were elected to serve the public, not the legislature or any bill it deliberates in session. Neither Lee nor Mathews are public servants. They are politicians who serve the special interests who fund their campaigns. Lee's assertion that they will "have to" support the bill highlights that they have no grasp of who they are supposed to serve.
This will be just one more opportunity for the state government to avail itself of tax revenues collected in Cobb to redistribute.
The housing market has crashed, the unemployment has risen, our cost of living has risen. Nearly every county and city in the metro has cut their budget and services to the bare bone.
And now these dolts want us to support more taxes.
Wrong answer sports fans!!!!
No new taxes no new SPLOST. Pay as you go or do without!!!
Cobb citizens, while sitting in traffic jams on a daily basis,... just remember, (THEY) are watching you from their 'high-tech' newly built 5.5 MILLION DOLLAR SPLOST FUNDED transportation video room!