Just a quick follow up to yesterday’s post about ESPLOST and TSPLOST (1% sales tax increases for education and transportation infrastructure).
In the Dublin Courier Herald and here on Peach Pundit, Charlie Harper paints a grim picture for TSPLOST prospects in the Atlanta area:
The 10 core counties comprising the Atlanta Regional Commission are sharply divided over the current funding model for regional transit, with citizens of Fulton and DeKalb county seeking equity for the additional 1% they currently pay for MARTA. Outlying counties generally view any additional tax with great suspicion and disdain, and aren’t inclined to shift their transportation dollars to support a transit system that many of their residents oppose.
A recent poll suggests that as few as 30 percent of the Atlanta region’s voters approve of the plan in its current form.
He concludes:
State leaders need to recognize that the 2010 transportation initiative was a way for an exiting governor and timid legislature to kick the problem down an unfunded road. Georgia has a new Governor and Atlanta has a new mayor. While it would require significant political capital, the two should consider an entire re-work of the current plan. The risk of failure of the current initiative is great. The cost of failure and continued delay is even greater.
There is much more in Harper’s column.