Vote No on July 31 - Stop Taxing the Middle Class/Poor Unjustly (Atlanta: school, to live in)

[NY2ATL2NY]

Its a tru shame How much Opposition there Really is to something so desprately needed...
A one percent tax for much needed transportation fixes over 10 years is NOT GOING TO BREAK ANYONES POCKETS!
I guarantee it!..My God they put it across as if its a burden on the middle class?..Gimme a break people...You wont even notice it in ur paycheck u recieve. Lets stop exagerattin about the tax and EMBRACE IT! ...So these people claim it unfairly taxes the middle class and all thay Bullshyt..well who Uses the roads on the regular?? People without cars?? Rediculousness at its finest
And yet these people voting against this plan offer up NO SOLUTIONS to fixing and improving the traffic situation here..so its just vote no, do nothing, and watch the city Stagnate. If someone on the opposition team showed me a valid way to go about this besides this new tax them Im all Ears...Until then I suggest you Naysayers take a seat and shut the %~€ Up! Ur Propaganda is poisoning!!! Becuase ur not FOR Atlanta...Ur AGAINST IT!

[Onthemove2014]

Originally Posted by NY2ATL2NY

Its a tru shame How much Opposition there Really is to something so desprately needed...
A one percent tax for much needed transportation fixes over 10 years is NOT GOING TO BREAK ANYONES POCKETS!
I guarantee it!..My God they put it across as if its a burden on the middle class?..Gimme a break people...You wont even notice it in ur paycheck u recieve. Lets stop exagerattin about the tax and EMBRACE IT! ...So these people claim it unfairly taxes the middle class and all thay Bullshyt..well who Uses the roads on the regular?? People without cars?? Rediculousness at its finest
And yet these people voting against this plan offer up NO SOLUTIONS to fixing and improving the traffic situation here..so its just vote no, do nothing, and watch the city Stagnate. If someone on the opposition team showed me a valid way to go about this besides this new tax them Im all Ears...Until then I suggest you Naysayers take a seat and shut the %~€ Up! Ur Propaganda is poisoning!!! Becuase ur not FOR Atlanta...Ur AGAINST IT!

I thought you lived in NYC?

[NY2ATL2NY]

Originally Posted by Onthemove2014

I thought you lived in NYC?

I sure do Reside in New york...whats ur point? I know enough about the Traffic down there becuase
I LIVED in Newton County( Covington Ga) for 5 years...So I know firsthand the perils of sitting on I-20, the connector, 285 etc.

[belleislerunner]

Citizens elect representatives who they believe will vote according to the best beliefs/interests of any specific region/district.

Such representatives address issues for us every day (taxes, education, religion, government involvement). If such representatives determine (after outreach to their constituents) that raising taxes is not a palatable plan, I would argue that taking a vote of the general population would lead to the same conclusion. If it didn't, there would be a breakdown in the representatives elected.

Thus, while any one side on any given issue, will largely be upset because their views didn't prevail - the presumption should be that whatever the majority of elected officials believe, is generally how the greater population will also vote.

In my view, this whole vote is just an academic exercise proving the above/governmental assertions and why it's important to vote in general elections for the people who share your interests.

[cqholt]

Young people won't care enough - so with two weeks out - I predict failure.

Not so fast my friend, the Millennials came out in 2008 in surprise numbers, so don't think we don't care. Its our future, not yours. You have already had a chance to run this country and you ran it straight into the ground. Now its up to my generation to pull it out of the dirty and the first thing is to stop this unsustainable, car-centric development. Have any of y'all been reading how young professionals and families want urban life and many are moving to the cities?

Also, except for folks who are into urban planning issues, I haven't heard anyone between the ages of 18-30 talking about this referendum

Then y'all are reading the wrong news source. AJC sucks, local TV news sucks. We get our news from the internet and underground news sources. There are tons of articles and comments on Creative Loafing and other non-typical news sources. A Millennial's argument for the T-SPLOST | Atlanta News & Opinion Blog | Fresh Loaf | Creative Loafing Atlanta There see if we don't care. We are not too scared to ask to leave work early to vote. Its our right to vote and employers can not keep us from voting.

[belleislerunner]

2008 was a presidential election, which was my point. I encourage people to vote in every election - I was just merely offering my predictions for a lighter turnout in a July election. We'll know by Aug 1 how accurate they were.

PS - I'm only 30 - so I'd like to think its my future too, we just may have differing views on the best route forward.

[cqholt]

PS - I'm only 30 - so I'd like to think its my future too, we just may have differing views on the best route forward.

So what do you think is the best route forward?

[belleislerunner]

I would support it if it was 100% focused on mass transit. I've lived in both DC and Manhattan before Atlanta and I think that's the only long term way for sustainable growth. Focus on creating a critical density of highrises/jobs/living arrangements within proximinty to transit lines. I feel like the current proposal, in order to appease suburban voters which it requires, includes too many peripheral road widenings that will just encourage future urban sprawal. Maybe I'm biased because I live within walking proximity to work - I just have no sympathy for people who choose to live in Alpharatta and commute to downtown and expect me to foot the tab.

[cqholt]

I would support it if it was 100% focused on mass transit. I've lived in both DC and Manhattan before Atlanta and I think that's the only long term way for sustainable growth. Focus on creating a critical density of highrises/jobs/living arrangements within proximinty to transit lines. I feel like the current proposal, in order to appease suburban voters which it requires, includes too many peripheral road widenings that will just encourage future urban sprawal. Maybe I'm biased because I live within walking proximity to work - I just have no sympathy for people who choose to live in Alpharatta and commute to downtown and expect me to foot the tab.

I would agree with you 100% as a daily MARTA commuter and user. But unfortunately there are many, mostly in the suburbs, that refuse to give up reliance on their cars. For this thing to even have a chance to pass it had to appease to them too. We get the BeltLine and Clifton Corridor, they get freeway interchange improvements and road widenings that will just fill up again. Hopefully with expanded transit, we can show others that transit is for more than poor people.

[westau]

Originally Posted by NY2ATL2NY

I sure do Reside in New york...whats ur point? I know enough about the Traffic down there becuase
I LIVED in Newton County( Covington Ga) for 5 years...So I know firsthand the perils of sitting on I-20, the connector, 285 etc.

The amount of projects that will actually improve interstate driving is VERY small. Outside of interchange upgrades between I-20 and I-285 on the west side and I-285 and 400 there isn't much. Those are both needed but guess what, they won't even start working on those until 2020!!

It is apparently more important for them to add bike and pedestrian lanes and a new air traffic control tower in Kennesaw(even though the current one is only 17 years old it gets to go first).

I agree that we need to spend on infrastructure but I want ACTUAL real benefits. Not just lining the pockets of road construction companies for a bunch of politician's pet projects that won't actually do us any good.