2012 Atlanta Region Transportation Referendum (firm, restrictions, parties)

[tonygeorgia]

Originally Posted by koelrw

I agree. This vote shows that the region cannot collectively solve problems. Deal is going to determine the projects, and he's going to do the minimum. That means Georgians can expect roads to become much worse.

Meanwhile other cities are moving ahead.

They got a lot of work to do....your statement will hold weight when those cities have over 43% of the population with college degrees, heavy rail (no city in the south will never have heavy rail besides Atlanta), when they build a larger airport than ours, when they have more universities than us, when they have a better quality of living,have a rail service that connects from downtown to the airport, have a better geographical location than us,etc

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Just saw that Columbus, Macon and Augusta voters have approved the TSPLOST in their districts. All the trash talk about how Metro Atlanta is so much more progressive than the rest of the state needs to stop ... Now!

No kidding!

[Columbus1984]

Glad to see Columbus pass this. Columbus has always been a forward thinking city. The facilities that Columbus has can easily rival cities 2-3 times its size. Columbus is making moves to reach the next level.

[cqholt]

No timeline, no construction schedules, just a list of things and a 10 year time period and 2 year generalites were not enough to convince me to give over hundreds of dollars a year to these people, especially when I am not directly affected by traffic woes.

If you went online to any of the websites http://www.atlantaregionalroundtable...nal_report.pdf dedicated to the TSPLOST, there was a timeline for all the projects getting done.

even though I would like to see more transit and would like to see the Beltline get more funding, this "plan" was not really a plan IMO and I had no confidence that the transit portions would get completed.

Divert the $300 million from Atlanta's hotel/motel tax that the state wants to give for a new Falcon's stadium towards BeltLine transit.

[samiwas1]

I'm pretty disappointed that it failed.

There was not a single project on the list that directly affected me and my commutes. Yet, I was still 110% in favor of it. I look beyond myself on things like this.

And yes, it wasn't perfect. But it was a step in the right direction. I think I saw someone earlier say that even that is deplorable. Anything other than perfection is apparently not acceptable. However, there is NO PLAN that will be perfect for everyone. Even if they came up with a ridiculously awesome rail plan, you would have thousands of very loud opponents, claiming we need more roads. If a big road plan came out, you'd have people screaming about rail. Nothing will ever please everyone. Unfortunately, in Georgia, we only think of ourselves for the most part.

Oh well, the car-use continues for at least the next decade. *sigh*

[southernassassin]

WOW, shocking to see so many people on here that actually believe ANYTHING that the government tells them when taking our hard earned money. What if anything makes any of you believe that this HUGE tax increase wasnt going to be wasted and mishandled by the government??

I am proud that so many of my fellow Georgians werent buying the nonsense that the pro-tax T-SPLOST types were pushing and for all of you complaining about Georgia there are several major insterstates leaving this state along with the worlds busiest airport. Bye, bye!

[arjay57]

You can't blame the TSPLOST itself for not satisfying everybody. It was set up for failure from the beginning by the state legislature in several ways.

Most significantly, it attempted to combine areas with very different needs and priorities. Frankly, it was an amazing feat of compromise and civic vision to come up with a plan that was endorsed by the leaders in all 10 counties. I seriously doubt that we'll ever see that again.

So it was a valiant effort and I give a lot of credit to all our mayors and county commissioners who stuck their necks in an attempt to accomplish something positive for the entire region. The business community deserves a lot of credit for all their work as well. The TSPLOST would given us a beginning point and something to build on.

However, the politics were an uphill battle from the outset.

[Onthemove2014]

Originally Posted by tonygeorgia

when they have a better quality of living,

Too subjective. Traffic and jobs affects this.

[Onthemove2014]

Originally Posted by southernassassin

WOW, shocking to see so many people on here that actually believe ANYTHING that the government tells them when taking our hard earned money. What if anything makes any of you believe that this HUGE tax increase wasnt going to be wasted and mishandled by the government??

I am proud that so many of my fellow Georgians werent buying the nonsense that the pro-tax T-SPLOST types were pushing and for all of you complaining about Georgia there are several major insterstates leaving this state along with the worlds busiest airport. Bye, bye!

So we are fine the way we are then? No change or image improvement is needed?

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Columbus1984

Glad to see Columbus pass this. Columbus has always been a forward thinking city. The facilities that Columbus has can easily rival cities 2-3 times its size. Columbus is making moves to reach the next level.

Again, apples and oranges. The proposals put before them were quite different than Atlanta or anywhere else. Again, let's not make it so simplistic. It's not.