10/25: T-SPLOST a good idea for Cobb County?
Moderated by Tom Sabulis
The debate over metro Atlanta’s special purpose local option sales tax for transportation has a number of flash points. One is Cobb County, where an early plan for a rail extension was scuttled in favor of more road improvements and bus service if the 1-percent tax is approved next year. Below, two former county leaders have their say on the issue.
William B. Dunaway, former mayor of Marietta, writes that Cobb transit future can’t wait. While Bill Byrne, Cobb County Commission chairman from 1992 to 2002, writes that the tax is a bad idea in tough times.
What do you think?
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28 comments Add your comment
Marietta Native Boomer
October 25th, 2011
2:59 pm
Not only is the T-SPLOT a bad idea, but if Bill Dunaway is promoting it, that’s enough reason for me to vote against it in the first place.
Anson (Bob) Roberts
October 25th, 2011
2:23 pm
I will be voting against this license to steal.
I live in Cobb. I work in Cobb. I dine in Cobb. I don’t go to Atlanta except if ordered by my employer or except to pass through on the way to the airport. In the words of Dorothy Parker, “there is no there, there.” And even if you DO go, there is no realistic way to get around save the private car. Even the Amtrak station is inaccessible by MARTA rail. How absurd.
I grew up in the NY area. Rail transit was (and is) ubiquitous. Hop on a train and be in THE CITY in half an hour, No gas, no parking, no traffic migraines. Until this bastion of right-wing fearmongers gets the message that the passenger auto is a dinosaur and knuckles down to a REAL rail transit solution, you won’t be getting MY money.
Jeremy
October 25th, 2011
12:52 pm
The downtown/metro area can’t afford the non-producing, liberal, crime ridden area it has become, and wants to suck money from the affluent North. Why don’t those areas support themselves, instead of needing Cobb’s money. And Bryan, Cobb’ers work downtown because that’s who companies want to hire; why don’t they hire people who live down there?
Intown
October 25th, 2011
12:48 pm
The region is either going to thrive together or see its fortunes take a turn for the worse. Let’s stop worrying about the selfishness of a few naysayers in the nothern suburbs and start doing what’s best for the region. Vote YES for Metro Atlanta’s future.
Bryan -- MARTA supporter
October 25th, 2011
10:49 am
For everyone that will be voting no, I’d love to hear what you guys (and gals) think will fix traffic here. I’m sure I’m just going to here “more roads” and “no transit.”
Bryan -- MARTA supporter
October 25th, 2011
10:45 am
@ East Cobber Paying ENOUGH Already
October 25th, 2011 9:02 am
If Fulton is so currupt stay out of it. Don’t come to enjoy all that Atlanta offers. Tell your Cobb constituents to stop taking jobs from people that live here. Stop coming to enjoy the entertainment in the city. The only reason Cobb is what it is today is because of Atlanta. People want to be near this city even if they don’t live directly in the city. Do you think Cobb would even be 700,000 strong if they weren’t in the metro ATLANTA area?
It’s obvious that building more and more roads isn’t working. There has to be an alternative. If the idiots of Cobb would have voted to fund MARTA in the first place there would already be heavy rail in the county and a much more extensive bus system other than CCT that primarily has service within the Cobb Pkwy corridor, which funny enough would have been where the MARTA rail line would have gone.
Rail transit is much more acceptable that bus transit. The county won’t support MARTA but you’ll fund sorry CCT that connects to MARTA anyway and does everything that the heavy rail line that was planned would do. Instead you have a bunch of buses that get stuck in the same traffic. Then your county complains that transit doesn’t work. If the region wasn’t so “conservative” (aka racist)the rail service would be there and we would be working on things like an extensive commuter rail system, cross town rail like the I-285 from Cumberland to Doraville, and a commuter bus system from suburb to suburb. But no, Cobb wants to continue to support CCT and “enhanced” bus service. That just means the same bus service that is there that comes more frequently. Instead of having buses every 30 minutes that are stuck in traffic they will come every 10 minutes….. and be stuck in traffic.
Great job Cobb!! Instead of improving transit, I just hope you enjoy your traffic and your soon to come HOT lanes. We have seen how successful they are in Gwinnett.
East Cobber Paying ENOUGH Already
October 25th, 2011
9:02 am
You clowns can take that additional sales tax idea somewhere else.
This isn’t Liberal Fulton County with all the deadbeats, leeches and super-corrupt county government.
This is Conservative Cobb County.
An American Patriot
October 25th, 2011
8:27 am
Folks, I live in DeKalb County and I’ve not talked to a single person who will be voting “yes” to this obvious debacle. It just doesn’t look right……and besides, we’re looking at a pretty bad economy right now and a “New Tax” is “NOT” what we need.
Ga Values
October 25th, 2011
6:49 am
Road Boy
October 24th, 2011
9:30 pm
That should be empty busses. I rarely see a MARTA bus with more than a few riders.
Vote NO for WASTE & CORRUPTION.
Sallie
October 25th, 2011
6:43 am
I will be opposing TSPLOST. It does not address the traffic needs of the region and of Cobb County in particular. I don’t know what criteria they used but it was not relieving congestion. Tim Echols missed the boat and will lose his chairman seat as a result.
The traffic pattern in Altanta is no longer from the suburbs to the city. It is from one suburb to another. This plan is a giant miss.