Fulton & DeKalb Only 1¢ Tax Covers Basically All Proposed Transit Projects (Clifton, Next 3 LRT Phases, 400N, 20E) (Atlanta: real estate, gated)

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by PacinoWig

Assuming you get this passed, isn't MARTA still crippled by the state requirement that sales tax revenues are split evenly between capital expenses and operating expenses? It is no use giving MARTA money for HRT up 400 when they legally can't hire the people they need to run it. Whose ass would our representatives have to crawl up under the Gold Dome to get this fixed?

That most likely would be Georgia State Representative Mike Jacobs of Brookhaven who is chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Overview Committee (MARTOC) which provides state oversight (and state control of) the MARTA budget and makes recommendations to the greater Georgia Legislature as a whole on what legislation to pass regarding MARTA.
Representative Mike Jacobs
House MARTOC

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by jsvh

If Fulton & DeKalb were to pass their own "TSPLOST" 1 cent sales tax that only did transit and no roads, it could fund basically all the transit projects on the table in the two counties straight up.

• A 1 cent tax in Fulton and DeKalb collects $340M a year today.
• That is $6.8B over 20 years.
• $2.17B gets you the next three phases of Streetcar / Beltline LRT Transit.
• $1.96B gets you the I-20E BRT and HRT extension
• $1.6B gets you the MARTA 400N HRT Extension
• $700M gets you the Clifton Corridor LRT
• That leaves you with $370M left for operations or what ever else you want

That assumes no contributions from other sources:

• Zero growth in Sales Tax collections
• Zero Fed Dollars
• Zero State Dollars
• Zero Beltline TAD Dollars
• Zero MARTA Dollars

So there is plenty of wiggle room to make this quick-math work.

There is strong support for transit in Fulton & DeKalb and these projects would cover about every part of the counties so it should have no trouble passing.

Originally Posted by Psykomonkee

So....... When is this supposed to be voted on??? How long before we know if we succeeded with the $0.01 tax or not???
I'm ready to move forward! I'd pay that 1 cent in a HEART BEAT!!!

While a smaller TSPLOST which would allow counties to join together to vote projects to fund understandably appears like it would be a much more politically viable and politically digestible approach than the regional TSPLOST approach that went down in flames in 2012, the biggest thing that is standing in the way of the type of transportation funding approach that jsvh points out is Governor Nathan Deal.

Governor Deal has stated that he does not support the smaller voluntary TSPLOST approach because he would like to see a regional transportation solution....Which means that the Georgia Legislature appears to probably be unlikely at this time to pursue a smaller voluntary TSPLOST approach where two urban counties like Fulton and DeKalb join together and hold their own TSPLOST to fund a transit-heavy list of transportation projects.

What particular type of regional transportation solution Governor Deal would like to see is unclear at this time. Though one can probably infer that the type of regional transportation solution that Governor Deal would endorse would likely not be a repeat of the 2012 regional TSPLOST referendum that turned out to be such a political disaster.

[AcidSnake]

And yet North Fulton keeps re-electing book burners and transit haters to the Gold Dome.

Case-in-point: the recent midterm elections earlier this month.

I honestly don't take polls very seriously anymore.

They are a bloody joke.

Originally Posted by jsvh

North Fulton residents voice support for MARTA expansion - Atlanta Magazine

Support builds to extend transit along Georgia 400 - Atlanta Business Chronicle

[bu2]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

And yet North Fulton keeps re-electing book burners and transit haters to the Gold Dome.

Case-in-point: the recent midterm elections earlier this month.

I honestly don't take polls very seriously anymore.

They are a bloody joke.

As opposed to the crooks South Fulton keeps electing to county commissioner and tax collector?

[bu2]

I'd have to oppose such a tax as I think the light rail projects harm mobility. They're just "pretty trains" that suck up a lot of resources on a continuing basis.

If it was solely for HRT, I would support it.

[bu2]

I'm not opposed to all light rail. Just light rail that is simply a slow, ultra expensive, inflexible bus. And light rail that forces extra transfers when we could do the same thing with HRT and get choice riders, not just the transit dependent.

Dallas didn't have a legacy HRT system and they used light rail. So did LA. In Dallas they do have some street level light rail, but most of it is grade separated and so provides a faster alternative to a bus. That's a good use of it.

[jsvh]

Almost all the projects in that list have their own right of way for most if not all of their route.

[AcidSnake]

When those crooks have the ability to affect transportation, education, health policy, and the financing thereof for the WHOLE STATE then you have a complaint.

Otherwise this is just the usual reactionary false equivalency statement, which does nothing but maintain the status quo.

Which is a typically southern thing to do.

Originally Posted by bu2

As opposed to the crooks South Fulton keeps electing to county commissioner and tax collector?

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by PacinoWig

Assuming you get this passed, isn't MARTA still crippled by the state requirement that sales tax revenues are split evenly between capital expenses and operating expenses?

MARTA has been exempted from that any number of times.

What I don't get is why it's such a bad thing. Even holding part of their revenues back for capital expenses, the system has still not been able to expand and there's a billion plus in deferred maintenance. If they spent 100% of the money on operations, they'd have even less money to expand and maintain the system.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by AcidSnake

When those crooks have the ability to affect transportation, education, health policy, and the financing thereof for the WHOLE STATE then you have a complaint.

Otheriwse this is just the usual reactionary false equivalency statement, which does nothing but maintain the status quo.

Which is a typically southern thing to do.

So its ok that they drag the state's most populous county into desperate financial straits? They're more interested in lining their pockets as Mayor Campbell did than in fixing the awful local roads situation (which is a bigger problem than the state controlled highways).

The northern suburb politicians are starting to hear from people feeling the pain of awful traffic. They just reacted to the "leave everything as it is" people who killed the northern arc. That same type of mentality exists in central Atlanta where they elect liberal Democrats.