Skeptical Seniors Grill Cobb Official at Transit Tax Q&A

MARIETTA — A boisterous crowd of seniors grilled a Cobb County transportation official at an informational meeting on Cobb’s proposed 30-year transit tax.

Before a crowd of about 50 at Sewell Mill Library, Deputy Transportation Director Morgan Simmons laid out the projects which would be funded by the tax, which will be on the Nov. 5 ballot.

If the tax is approved in a countywide referendum, Cobb would collect $11 billion over three decades to overhaul its public transportation system. The sales tax would rise from 6% to 7%.

The centerpiece of the project list is a 108-mile system of rapid bus routes. Other major projects include half a dozen new transit centers and a countywide system of on-demand “microtransit” service.

Simmons and organizers from the Senior Citizen Council of Cobb County sought to structure Friday’s event as a presentation followed by a Q&A session. But often, it devolved as attendees argued with each other or heckled.

As a whole, the crowd seemed hostile to the proposed tax increase and the billions in transit projects it would support.

Simmons’ presentation was similar to others the county has made before citizen groups, outlining the M-SPLOST’s background, goals, key connections and project list.

Some questions asked for more detail on the microtransit service, in which on-demand, localized transit vehicles would provide “curb-to-curb” service within defined zones.

One woman expressed concern that microtransit buses and vans “are going to be just running through neighborhoods, where kids are outside playing.”

Attendees also said they worried about the impact of construction on local businesses, the loss of existing lanes to bus-only lanes, the use of eminent domain to purchase land and crime occurring on buses.

“There’s a reason why we didn’t want MARTA up in Cobb County,” one woman said.

Others sought more information on “transit-supportive” projects — road work, trails, sidewalks and the like.

Others asked what the new sales tax rate would be (the answer being 7%), or sought clarity on how much the projects will cost — $11 billion or $14 billion?

Cobb expects to spend $14.5 billion over 30 years. Of that, $10.9 billion (79%) would come from the transit tax. The remainder would come mostly from federal funding.

“It’s not just us that’s funding it. It’s also the federal government,” Simmons said.

(Later, one attendee noted federal funding is still taxpayer money, and not cost-free for residents.)

Tracy Stevenson said voters should be aware that much of the M-SPLOST would pay for personnel, unlike previous SPLOSTs, which have focused on capital projects.

“We’ve been paying for SPLOST for a long time. It built this building. It didn’t hire the people to run it,” Stevenson said. “… It was a hard asset.”

Some comments came from former or current political candidates.

“You are misleading people,” declared Pam Reardon, the Republican candidate for the District 2 seat on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, at one point, when Simmons was talking about the project list.

On the question of ridership projections, Reardon cut in later and said, “There’s really not a demand (for transit), so it’s all a hoax.”

As the MDJ previously reported, ridership on Cobb’s existing CobbLinc bus system declined by 73% from 2013 to 2022, going from 3.7 million annual trips to just shy of 1 million annual trips.

Declining ridership on the county’s existing CobbLinc bus systems is one of the main things opponents of the tax point to as evidence that the proposal should be shot down. Supporters, however, blame underinvestment and say a vastly enhanced system would attract more riders.

Simmons said “a great deal of the decline was as a result of the pandemic,” eliciting groans from the audience. She went on to cite the projected population and employment growth Cobb is expected to see in coming decades.

Cobb estimates that by 2050 — 25 years into the 30-year tax — there will be an average of 40,600 rides on weekdays. That would represent a twelve-fold increase over the average weekday ridership of 3,180 trips in 2022, the last year for which data is available.

Alicia Adams, a Republican who sought to run for county commission, was disqualified due to the county’s “home rule” map and is now challenging her disqualification in court; also questioned whether people would use transit.

“How is that going to happen when people are telecommuting?” Adams said. “This is not just a local thing, this is national and international, the reduction in ridership.”

So did Yashica Marshall, a Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged Commissioner Monique Sheffield in the primary election.

“I just cannot stand when people are not transparent and honest about the situation,” Marshall said. “The 55-and-plus individuals are not going to be utilizing this.”

Some attendees, however, appealed to fellow citizens to let Simmons finish her presentation before they began asking questions.

“Is this a question or opinion?” said one exasperated attendee, as another person was speaking.

Simmons thanked the crowd for their questions and referred them to the county’s site, cobbcounty.org/transportation/msplost, for more information.

“All your questions are valid,” Simmons said after one angry comment. “… Every question that you guys are asking is a barometer check, and that’s also a way that we can pull back and say, ‘OK, let’s make sure that we have that information ready for them.’”