Atlanta Regional Transportation Plan 2040 - Vote No

In its current form, we urge voters in the 10 county area to VOTE NO on the plan in November 2012. We would support a vote in 2013 if the State Law that authorizing ARC is amended to ensure county sovereignty rather than allowing a total 10 county vote for passage.

Vote in 2013

This plan is consistent with the current federal DOT U.N. Agenda 21 implementation scheme. If the Democrats lose the White House and Senate, the federal DOT support of U.N. Agenda 21 goals will cease. Scheduling this vote in November 2012 is too soon.

Violates County Sovereignty

This is a top down, take it or leave it plan, that violates county sovereignty. This Plan has been massaged to death by an appointed board, expensive consultants and DOT staffers. It has been mandated by the federal government to include public transit in order to receive 25% federal matching funds.

We suggest that ARC take their $6.1 billion plan and present it for a county by county vote. The plan would be a starter list for the voters of each county to reach consensus by taking a poll where voters can vote yes or no on each project. That would help county commissions identify and eliminate the unpopular projects. They can take the final list of surviving projects for their county and propose it for a vote in 2013.

The end result should maintain county sovereignty and allow county residents to vote whether or not to approve the final list each county commission selects. Counties should consider how much they really believe a 1 cent sales tax will deliver over the next 10 years. It should not be an excuse for counties to eliminate their road maintenance projects or budgets, or divert these funds to fluff projects. It should be restricted to only include county roads. Cities have their own roads and need to propose their own improvements for a vote.

Revise ARC Law
To allow a real bottom-up list to arise, counties will need to do their jobs. They will need to take the ARC list and make sure voter consensus is strong enough to pass. They will then need to adopt it or revise it and put it on the 2013 ballot for a vote. The Georgia Legislature will need to revise the law that authorized the ARC Plan to allow sovereign counties to have the final say.

Public Transit
We believe all public transit should be privatized. Public transit is unsustainable and should not be expanded. That means that MARTA and GRTA should be sold to private transit companies. We oppose tax subsidies for transit.

HUD & MARTA
MARTA owns land around their train stations. They plan to lease this land to apartment developers. The idea is to have transit oriented villages next to each MARTA station. These stations are next to large shopping malls. As these apartments age and rents drop, these apartments will become HUD Section 8 housing units. The riots of subsidized housed youth in the U.K. suggests that you might not want to put HUD housing next to your malls.

Democrats vs. Republicans

If Democrats prevail in 2012, we can expect the continuation of Obama-care implementation costs, continued restrictions on domestic energy production, a five-fold increases in our electric bills, a doubling of automobile sticker prices and no relief from EPA, banking and other regulations Democrats will continue to push for U.S. compliance with U.N.carbon dioxide emission standards, trillion dollar deficit spending will continue and unemployment will reach 50%. By 2016, we will become a socialist republic with a flat 50% tax rate.

If Republicans prevail in 2012, we can expect a freeze in federal spending. All support for the climate change hoax will cease. We could expect the repeal of Obama-care, Dodd-Frank, EPA carbon emission restrictions and other laws. Our hope is that the federal government would begin to transfer their unconstitutional responsibilities to the States. States would need to revise their budgets to absorb these responsibilities and actually stop spending on fluff. The free market will be free to operate.

Federal Funding
We realize that if we remove public transit from the plan, or abandon the regional model, we may lose some or all of the $1.5 to $2 billion in federal funding. We know MARTA expenses are about $750 million a year, income is about $120 million a year and tax subsidies are about $630 million a year. We know doubling public transit would double these numbers. Expenses for public trains and buses would be $1.5 billion a year, income would be $240 million a year and subsidies would be $1.26 billion a year. Over 10 years, we would subsidize public transit by $12.6 billion. We could widen lots of roads and highways for $12.6 billion. We think this $1.5 to $2 billion federal bribe is an easy one to walk away from.

The Vote
We believe each voter should base their vote on whether or not they will ever use trains or buses. They only go where they go and so far, that hasn’t been where we need to go. We mostly use cars and public transit utilization has always been low in the Atlanta Metro area. Even with federal bribes, we cannot imagine the plan would pass in its current form. If transit subsidies could be removed and federal funding could be preserved and counties were allowed to remain sovereign, we think it would pass.

Toll Lanes
We don’t like toll lanes and will continue to avoid using them until they are abolished. We object to restrictions on road improvements in the contracts with private toll road companies. This violates county sovereignty.

Government Reform
We want to see city and county governments to limit spending of current tax dollars to roads, bridges, water and sewers, reduce its footprint and spend less on everything else. We want government to stop spending money on fluff, special interest projects, low utilization services, failed business models and subsidies. We don’t like deficit spending that causes us to spend double for what we get to pay off Bonds. We want government to sell its wildlife preserves to the Sierra Club.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader, ntl@mindspring.com, NTL Conservative Blog, 770-394-1284