T-SPLOST fails – What next?
Who has a Plan B?
The proposed transportation sales tax met an ugly end Tuesday as voters in ten counties overwhelmingly rejected the plan to raise billions for a controversial set list of traffic and transit improvements. So what should we try next? Raise the gas tax? Toll more roads? Let us know your feelings about the vote and, especially, what ideas Gov. Deal and other leaders should consider for unsnarling gridlock and making our lives a little easier. We’ll include a sample of comments in Thursday’s newspaper along with a special transportation package addressing the aftermath of the T-SPLOST.
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79 comments Add your comment
A reader
August 1st, 2012
9:05 am
Some are saying that the voters in Atlanta region failed to come together and pass the transportation referendum. The fact is the voters in the Atlanta region did come together and we sent a strong message to the politicians — we did not like the miss mash list of projects and we do not trust you to spend the money wisely.
Personally I would have voted for this if not for the Beltline which does not help the region AND was 10% of the budget. This was Kasim Reeds little pet project and I do not want to pay for it. If that money had been slated for Marta instead then TSPLOTS would have gotten my vote.
Rail
August 1st, 2012
8:58 am
Rail is not the answer. Rail has to start where you want to start, and go where you want to go. In an area as big as Atlanta this is virtually impossible for 95% of workers. Rail is a big waste of money. If business is smart they will leave Atlanta and go to the Far Suburbs, Blue Ridge, Dalton. Perry, Waycross, etc. Better work force and little crime and traffic. With the information age in full force, it does not matter where you are for most business.
Another Voice
August 1st, 2012
8:57 am
@Jack : I’m pretty sure that I’m not a deadbeat, nor is my neighbor who is a partner at one of the largest accounting firms in the world … and we both ride MARTA every day. Have you seen the MARTA trains during rush hour? Packed, and a lot of us are going to well-paying jobs. With more connectivity in the system, you’d find a lot more people willing to use it, especially those accustomed to decent commuter rail systems (ie, transplants from cities with major or world-class transit systems, such as Washington DC, Boston, NYC, Chicago). Those systems may be old, but they work effectively to move people in those regions.
Woody
August 1st, 2012
8:56 am
As a pro-transit person, and someone who read the ‘improvement’ list from top to bottom, I am happy the TSPOLST got voted down. But I don’t think it got voted down for my particular reasons. I think it got voted down because the broken promise of Ga. 400 and the brouhahha over the I-85 toll lanes discredited the source of the referendum. People are hurting in their wallets and don’t want to give any more money to politicians’ cronies and schemes that turn right around to bite them. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time! Here’s hoping some folks under the big gold dome are waking up and smelling the coffee. It’s not too late to recover some leverage with the public – just rip out those tool booths on Ga. 400, restore the free lanes on I-85, and toss MARTA a very public bone every now and then.
Another Voice
August 1st, 2012
8:53 am
No trust – this was a political laundry list of projects to create jobs and create more favors for future payback(ie, elections), not a comprehensive PLAN tor eliminating congestion. A plan to eliminate congestion needs to deal with the “Big Hits” first … rapid transit to Emory/Clifton Corridor, extension north to Alpharetta, and out 1-20 in both directions. Feeder light rail to connect Northern/Eastern Gwinnett, Cobb, Cherokee, and Clayton to the existing rail lines, at a minimum. If we get those commuters off the roads, the surface road congestion begins to improve, without quite as many local projects.
And by all means, beef up telework incentives to cut the humber of commuters. The Clean Air Campaign should be expanded radically, with a portion of any future tax going to address getting people off the roads in the first place.
Quit taking federal money for “demonstration” type projects like the !-85N toll lane in Gwinnett. That was, is and will continue to be a wasted lane for most of the 24 hour day as few people will pay to use it – and we had already paid to build that lane. That was the Toll Authority leadership just wanting extend their kingdom, and it is a horrible abuse of taxpayers.
Put a fixed cap of the tax, too – once it’s raised enough to cover the projects detailed in the list, eliminate the tax. Don’t use an artifical termination date – we’ve seen what happened with GA 400 tolls. And put a no-substitution clause in the taxes – if a project comes off the list, too bad, can’t replace wih something else (ie, putting in someone’s boondoggle project instead). And for the engineers who design and the contractors who build: no cost overruns, no change orders without HUGE penalties for not gettign it right the first time.
Jack
August 1st, 2012
8:43 am
In the first place public transit is nothing more than a way for the public assistance deadbeats to move around town. Most people that are able will avoid it in fear of intimidation and crime.
Secondly; get rid of some of the politicians as we have way too many and too many of them are in just for the free ride. Ever heard of one being laid-off? Fat chance of that happening.
Once you get all that mess straightened out, then we can get down to improving some of the traffic situations around town but keeping one thing in mind. We the individual tax payer, is getting damn tired of paying taxes or contributing our money to causes that we benifit little if any from. Atlanta’s road problems is one of those issues. I don’t live in Atlanta and couldn’t care less if some fool wants to spend a large portion of his or her life sitting in bumper to bumper traffic, usually because of some other fool that trys to cut across three or four lanes of traffic to get to their exit. I don’t want to pay even a portion towards a phony fix.
Toll roads is a possible solution to at least some of that. Let the user pay. But we have to clean up the political arena to be sure the tolls go where they should rather than a streetcar to the Martin Luther King Center.
Government in the USA has taken a serious turnn to the dark side and we the people might be finally waking up to that fact. I am in my early 70’s and I may not live to see it, but Americans need to say “enough is enough” and take this country back from the political establishment. Atlanta is just a microism of the real problem and we cannot trust the politicians to fix anything that does not benifit them personally.
Mark
August 1st, 2012
8:42 am
When I read all the transportation improvments all I saw were roads, roads and more roads. Now build a rail system from Gwinnett to Dekalb with some strategically placed train stations then I would vote. Building more roads and paving more roads is not very exciting. I admit the T-SPLOST proponents had some great TV Ads. However, those Ads were what got me to actually look at the projects. Too much of the same.
Not Blind
August 1st, 2012
8:38 am
Outer perimeter first. This will cut I-285 traffic more than most people think as it will get many large trucks off the road and ditto for cars whose destination at this time forces them to drive through Atlanta. It will also give large businesses another location option instead of the current overbuilt perimeter. AND maybe a location for a second airport will make itself obvious further cutting Atlanta traffic.
Marc
August 1st, 2012
8:36 am
It is a great day in Georgia. The sleeping giant finally woke up. The grandiose plans of politicans and political wannabes has been thoroughly shot down. The Governor and his “boys” resoundingly defeated! All growth and growth at the expense of the native population is not necessarily good. It is time for the ARC, GDOT, the Governor and the Atlanta Chamber to realize that they do not control the wishes and desires of all the people. Now get off your collective butts, come up with real, sustainable, and adequately funded projects. Not these popcicle and ice cream fantasies! If you do not then November 2012 and November 2014 will be yet another GREAT DAY FOR GEORGIANS but not the incumbant politicians, I don’t care what party you associate with.
Ed
August 1st, 2012
8:30 am
I’m so happy the plan failed which I helped vote down. The only “regional” transportation tax I would support would be one that does heavy investment in rail (marta) expansion and an equal tax burden on everyone.