2012 MARTA Bailout Vote

Vote NO

We urge a NO vote in July 2012 on funding the $6.14 billion Atlanta Regional Transportation Plan. The funding for this plan is a 1 cent increase in our county sales tax for 10 years.

Transportation Investment Act of 2010

The Transportation Investment Act of 2010 actually took the future Georgia's transportation out of voters’ hands and turned it into a political football controlled by an unelected commission. Prior to this new law, the Metro Planning Commission only screwed up the roads in DeKalb and Fulton counties and the City of Atlanta. Now it will screw up the surrounding counties.

What Prompted the Change

Public transit, the MARTA train and bus system, is technically bankrupt and requires tax subsidies of 83% to fund its $750 million a year budget. For decades, the federal government has been MARTA’s sugar daddy. Now the federal government has run out of other people’s money and MARTA either has to close, shrink or find another source of revenue. It wants the surrounding counties to fill the void, expecting that federal funding will actually stop in July 2012 when we hit the Debt Wall,

Meanwhile, Obama, in his rush to implement UN Agenda 21, pushed light rail along with his other unsustainable “green” scams and tied all federal funding to light rail and public transit spending. Having been trained to chase after federal dollars, our politicians rushed to get the last federal giveaway, so in a really bad move, the Georgia Legislature and Governor pushed the law through. We are just now learning what a boondoggle this is.

Transit Heavy

The current $7.22 billion plan includes $6.14 billion for “regional improvements” and $1.1 billion for “local improvements”. The transit projects in the current plan will cost $3,323,392,377. Transit is over 50% of the cost of the plan, yet citizens view transit as unnecessary, low use and too expensive. Citizens in each county also resent the fact that they could reject the plan as a county, but if a majority of the 10 county regional voters vote yes, this tax and spending plan will become law.

We believe all Transit should be private and self supporting. MARTA should not be allowed to expand its footprint, because it requires $630 million in subsidies to meet its $750 million budget. If this Plan is approved by the voters, subsidies will double. MARTA needs to increase its prices to $6.50 per ride to break even.

The assertion by proponents that we need public transit, MARTA trains and buses and light rail in Atlanta because it brings "development" to the region is not true. They bought that lie in Spain and now it's bankrupt because it blew all of its money on this scam.

Violates County Sovereignty

I don’t remember voting to establish the Georgia Regional Commissions in last election. It is another layer of government and voters should be allowed to vote for its creation. We are not allowed to elect members of these commissions; they are appointed by the Governor.

Before this law was passed, cities and counties were responsible for their roads. The Georgia House and Senate and Governor passed the law establishing the Regional Commissions with no voter input. This law usurps city and county sovereignty and removes voters from the process. Counties cannot opt out.

If we vote NO, we could reject the plan and the structure. It is the only way to put this unaccountable beast back in its box. If the 1 cent sales tax is passed by a majority of voters in the 10 county region, whatever the Commission decides as a final plan will be imposed. It will make that decision after the Plan passes.

If it does not pass, they may still have the authority to control transportation and they will do nothing. Worse, they may not allow cities and counties to fix their roads themselves, now that it is legally our of their hands. At that point we would need to petition the Legislature to repeal the establishment of the Commissions. The argument that the commissions are needed just isn’t true.

GDOT Incompetence - HOT Lanes

Somehow, our useless HOV Lanes are being turned into Toll lanes without a vote. A private company will “partner” with the government, if the government promises by contract to allow all alternate routes to deteriorate, to “encourage” everyone to use the Toll Lanes. This should not stand. The HOV Lanes should have been dismantled and the lanes returned to general use. It's time to dissolve the non-elected "planning commissions" and return accountability to our local and state elected officials.

Voters Not Convinced

Don't believe the well orchestrated spin by the Atlanta Journal or your elected officials. This violation of sovereignty has made voters suspicious. Like the federal stimulus bill, the ARC project list is a Liberal wish list, packed with transit cost. Seeing our city council reps and county commissioners appointed to the commission and volunteering to be cheerleaders for the plan is convincing us to replace them along with those in the Georgia House and Senate who voted to establish this ARC in 2010.

The speed with which this plan is moving combined with its complexity makes “railroading” an appropriate metaphor for this disaster.. To add to this credibility gap, the long maligned Georgia DOT was enlisted to design this plan, guaranteeing that a bad plan will be implemented badly. The Georgia DOT is not highly regarded by the voters. We’ve seen their “innovative” HOV lanes, stop lights at entrance ramps, refusal to widen roads, the new Toll lanes, the proposed left-lane highway ramps and roundabouts. The Georgia Legislature has squandered all of its revenue on Education and Medicaid. Meanwhile, we are told the $7 billion Toll Lanes are being built, without being voted on. Toll charges are rumored to reach $7. When the confusing signs are all installed, it will be impossible to drive around Atlanta because of the 10 fold increase in accidents.

ARC Desperation

Neglect of Atlanta Metro roads and highways for the past 30 years has driven drivers to desperation. The ARC proponents are counting on our desperation to result in a yes vote from the 10 county region. With 5% using trains and buses to commute and 95% using cars, it’s difficult to understand why half of the $6.14 billion in this 1 cent sales tax hike goes to public transit. The ARC proponents are desperate to avoid answering that question.

They are having meetings to promote the plan. They are using the Delphi Technique to get the answers they want. One question asks: Would you rather walk or ride a bike ?

When I asked if they considered extending US-29 to I-75 and I-85 south of Atlanta to give interstate traffic an alternate route around Atlanta, the DOT guy said the problem was that there is a railroad track it would have to cross. God help us !

The creation of Regional Commissions appears to be a desperate attempt to bail out a bankrupt MARTA, install more low use, public transit and give Obama some light rail monuments to his stupidity. And this was brought to you by our Republican State government. God help us !

It’s clear, government can no longer be trusted to maintain our roads. I can buy a nice used road grader for about $38,500 and I may have to do that. The problem is that our tolls, gas taxes and car license tag fees go to the government and maybe that needs to change. Those taxes aren’t all spent on road maintenance.

I get the feeling that government doesn’t want us to drive cars. I know they don’t want us to fly in airplanes. I think they want us to live in transit villages and grow our own food without violating the EPA dust ban. It would be like living in the 20th century in the USSR and then going broke.

What Would Work

We need to repeal the Transportation Investment Act of 2010 and dismantle the Toll lanes. MARTA will need to raise rates to $5 a ride and tighten its belt, or get DeKalb, Fulton and Atlanta to vote to increase the sales tax subsidy to 2 cents, or a combination of cuts and tax increases, or sell its assets to a private transit company. We prefer private transit. If the tax increase fails to pass, the 8 surrounding counties are off the hook.

We believe expanding US 29 to intersect with I-85 and I-75 south of Atlanta would provide an alternate interstate by-pass route that would remove traffic from I-285.
We believe our cities are responsible for our roads and will vote to improve them on a city by city, road by road basis. Voters in unincorporated county areas look to the county to fix their roads. We want our tax dollars to go to fixing our own roads.

We don’t want to expand a failed public transit system to soak up tax dollars. Town Hall meetings so far, have confirmed this. When citizens reviewed the projects and costs, they wanted to eliminate the public transit projects.

With no federal funding for transportation, the State of Georgia will need to reduce it’s “investment” in public education and Medicaid (sand holes) and fund state roads and interstate highways maintenance if necessary. This U.S. government bankruptcy has consequences.

Things to Consider

A yes vote on this tax will mean that we accept this new layer of government, run by a board and director we didn't elect, with authority that will make it impossible for us to determine our own transportation infrastructure.

Voters should realize that this additional 1 cent increase in sales tax will cost us $6 billion over the next 10 years and may be extended beyond that, just like the GA-400 toll. We would be better off spending the entire $6 billion on roads and nothing on transit and doing it on a county by county basis by accountable, elected officials.

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 needed 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 a roads-only plan would pass.

DeKalb and Fulton counties should fund their own public transit or make it self-supporting. All other surrounding counties should not be burdened by Atlanta transit costs. Cities and counties in the Metro area need to divert funds from non-core expenses to roads, bridges, sewers and water and become self-sufficient.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader