Transit costs more than it gives

By Steve Brown

The Transportation Investment Act, or TIA, is turning into an infomercial like you see on TV, promising to revolutionize your lives, never living up to the hype.

Over half the total funding, $3.2 billion, is going to a mode of transportation that less than 5 percent of commuters choose to use — mass transit.

TIA was created to relieve regional traffic congestion, but the process was hijacked by special interest desires, shelving many legitimate road projects.

The indoctrination via the advertising on why you should vote for the TIA has begun. Special interests, most recently the Metro Atlanta Voter Education Network, backed by groups such as the Metro Atlanta Chamber, are spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 million trying to convince you to support the TIA. The obvious question is, if the list of projects is so beneficial, then why do they need to spend so much trying to persuade us?

Likewise, if voting for the TIA is a no-brainer, then why did the Legislature build in a financial penalty for local county transportation projects if the TIA is voted down?
Even with all their power and money, these special interests know it’s the voters — demanding efficient and accountable government and not likely to be wooed by the thought of perpetual indebtedness to an underused and broken transit system — who have the real power to simply say “no.”

It’s a tough sell, saying the way to solve our traffic congestion problem is to take our mass-transit system — that is 80 percent or more subsidized, with huge budget deficits, has billions in backlogged maintenance and is used by less than 5 percent of commuters — and make it bigger.

Look for small print on those ads saying the only way to fund the exorbitant future operations and maintenance expenses of an expanded transit system is with a permanent regional sales tax. Once you install the permanent regional sales tax, it never goes away.

The barrage of favorable TIA ads with no reporting of the harsh financial downside could influence voters who know very little about our infrastructure.
Sadly, most government officials refer to inflated “economic development” benefits because the TIA does little for traffic congestion.

We need formal debates on the TIA as soon as possible and to upload them to the Internet. The voters deserve to hear both sides of the argument, not just a whitewashed horde of feel-good ads from chamber of commerce types.

Hopefully, TIA supporters will accept my debate challenge, and let’s have two teams provide an open dialogue so the voters can be properly informed and not brainwashed by $7 million worth of lopsided advertising.

Steve Brown is a Fayette County commissioner.