Legislature to metro Atlanta: Go play in traffic
The 2009 state Legislature adjourned without addressing the transportation funding crisis that has afflicted metro Atlanta for years now. They just don’t give a damn. All the region asked was the right to tax itself by vote of the people, but state leaders — Gov. Sonny Perdue, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and House Speaker Glenn Richardson — couldn’t manage to do even that much.
And then there’s MARTA. It faces a $20 million deficit because of collapsing sales-tax revenue, but has $65 million of its money sitting in its accounts ready to be used. However, a technicality in state law requires that money to be spent on capital projects rather than operations, and the Legislature in its infinite wisdom — or malign neglect — also refused to change that technicality.
They just don’t give a damn. It really is one of the more amazing displays of governmental incompetence and arrogance I have seen, and I’ve been in this business a long time.
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96 comments Add your comment
I Report/ You Whine
April 5th, 2009
7:03 am
The 2009 state Legislature adjourned without addressing the transportation funding crisis that has afflicted metro Atlanta for years now.
What, no Obozobucks raining from the heavens?
You were hoping Purdue would raise taxes to fund their “shortfall.”
(Notice how the libs get all hot, bothered and breathless even thinking about government getting short changed?)
Hell, it doesn’t matter anyway, you could stack road on top of road, train on top of train, they’ll still get clogged up by the hopeandchangers out mindlessly cruising for drugs.
Now that they don’t have to worry about a job.
Mrs. Godzilla
April 5th, 2009
7:11 am
From our friends at Tondee’s Tavern:
The Georgia General Assembly opted to not find anyway possible to fund one of our two top priorities, transportation, but did manage to make The Great Georgia Corporate Giveaway even better by folding in tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Georgians.
Read it here:
http://www.tondeestavern.com/
Taxpayer
April 5th, 2009
7:22 am
Look, it’s magic. When a Georgia businessman moves his hand, a Georgia politician’s mouth moves. How do they do that? So, when someone slaps the hand of a Georgia businessman, do politician’s heads roll. Now that’s a funny thought. Perdue, Cagle, and Richardson, for starters, with their swelled little heads rolling on the ground — like bowling balls.
ByteMe
April 5th, 2009
7:26 am
It’s really Glenn Richardson’s fault this time. He put three rural possums on the Senate-House “negotiating committee” for these bills and they refused to do any negotiating at all and really didn’t have any reason to do so. Cagle — at least this time — was doing the right thing. Purdue was more interested in getting DOT under his total control so that he could reward his good friends.
Totally worthless politicians. MARTA should park all of its idle Friday busses in front of the governor’s mansion until they hold a special session to allow us to solve our own problems.
Taxpayer
April 5th, 2009
7:31 am
MARTA management should tell the bus drivers to park ‘em where ever they run out of fuel and hitch a ride home.
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
7:38 am
OFF TOPIC:
This is getting scary ……………..
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879833094588163.html
I Report/ You Whine
April 5th, 2009
7:38 am
Listen carefully: Georgia birds need our help-Urinal
Yeah, so let’s throw up a bunch of windmills and get the rest of them, duh.
The birds here have lots of company. A recently released report, “State of the Birds,” estimates that nearly one-third of America’s 800 bird species aren’t thriving. How birds fare is an indicator of how healthy our environment is, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. “[B]irds today are a bellwether of the health of land, water and ecosystems,” he said in a prepared statement, blah, blah, blah.
So why don’t the little critters “evolve?”
hahahaha
Believe me, I’ve been a bird watcher for decades and I go through more seed now than I ever have.
You wanna see Painted Buntings, come out of the marsh, fool, and look in my back yard.
There is one real threat that I’ve noticed and it is the growing population of Cowbirds, they raise their young like a liberal does, parasiting off of the hard working birds nest, dumping their fledgling off on some other poor unsuspecting critter, while they go party. And when baby Cowbird gets big enough, he tosses the hard working baby bird out to it’s as-s, becoming a full time burden on the hard working bird family.
Seems like that’s a problem we all face, nowadays, ain’t it?
I Report/ You Whine
April 5th, 2009
7:42 am
Aahhh, yes, the “unbiased” Urinal reluctantly reports some news-
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the president’s choice to lead the Health and Human Services Department, last week joined a ~~~~~~~small~~~~~~~ but growing group of Obama appointees who required a reckoning with the IRS.
Here’s a look at the six nominees who ran into tax problems after Obama announced their appointments:
Hahaha, and they had to spin it too, spin AJC, spin.
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
7:44 am
HEADLINE: “Obama: N. Korea rocket launch ‘provocative’…”
Boy, I bet that really scared them …………..
I Report/ You Whine
April 5th, 2009
7:51 am
Yeesh, Kyle Wingnut (ha, beat you to it) really is a Con-
I have seen the way many popular environmental regulations, most notably carbon dioxide cap-and-trade schemes, are intellectually dishonest, economically harmful and ecologically ineffective ways of achieving the old political goal of enriching one’s supporters at other people’s expense.-Urinal
Surely this was a misprint, no?
How long before the Urinal realizes what they did here and this guy gets offered a buyout?
Joey
April 5th, 2009
7:53 am
I do not believe that Georgia Business controls the Legislature. Metro Atlanta Business has been hammering our elected officials for two years to pass the Local Option Transportation. We failed last year and this year. We even agreed to Richardson’s Statewide Option, just do something. Maybe it is the business men outside the Metro area.
I also would like to know where the environmental community came down. By this I mean what position did they take in private discussions with legislature members? Not their public statements.
chrisg
April 5th, 2009
8:08 am
I report/You whine : I realize, having read your past posts that you, sir are not terribly bright. So I will use small words, to prevent confusion. Evolution is a process that takes place over very long time span. The birds are evolving, you can rest assured of that…As for the comment about you going through more seed than ever, did it occur to you that the reason the number of birds eating from your feeders has increased might be due to the fact that they cannot find food in their natural habitats? Proba
bly not, as you obviously don’t do well with original thought. Anyway, have a great day and don’t let the orderlies forget to change the paper in your cell.
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
8:09 am
Food for thought:
“One is thus driven to conclude that qualitative change results from quantitative change not among the proletariat but among the beourgeoisie. Marx would be apoplectic.” Jack Jacobs
I Report/ You Whine
April 5th, 2009
8:38 am
Oh yeah, there are a lot less worms and bugs out there than before, that “global warming” deal is ruthless, ain’t it, moonbat?
Pardon me while I go to covering the landscaping, seems as though it hasn’t “evolved” far enough to withstand hard spring freezes and snowstorms.
DB, Gwinnettian
April 5th, 2009
8:44 am
and the Legislature in its infinite wisdom — or malign neglect
Oh, it’s definitely the latter. Nothing keeps the wingnut faithful faithful than sticking it to Those People who ride MARTA.
DB, Gwinnettian
April 5th, 2009
8:47 am
As for the comment about you going through more seed than ever
Is that what the elderly are calling it these days?
RW-(the original)
April 5th, 2009
9:03 am
Oh, it’s definitely the latter. Nothing keeps the wingnut faithful faithful than sticking it to Those People who ride MARTA.
DB,
When your default argument is to preemptively deride anyone that doesn’t hold your beliefs as a racist or at least heartless toward the poor you really limit the possibility of a productive discussion.
For instance Jay B and the MARTA spokespeople would have you believe that MARTA is this highly profitable enterprise that is being kept away from their profits by the evil or thoughtless legislature that doesn’t let them get to “their” money, but that money isn’t MARTA profits, it’s taxpayer money set aside for capital improvements that MARTA wants to steal for general operating expenses and maybe a few more lavish company picnics.
I absolutely love their tactic of trying to blackmail the electorate with a day of service being withheld. I’m sure the taxpayers all over the state, that aren’t in Atlanta, are really going to be impressed with that one. /sarc
DB, Gwinnettian
April 5th, 2009
9:06 am
If you are like me (and I know I am!) and read John Rosemond’s whiny, perpetually grumpy and spiteful column every week to better appreciate American right-wing neurosis, this week’s entry gives a wonderful bit of insight as to why the man seems to think it’s still 1969, and he’s still being wedgied by those mean long-hairs on campus who make fun of his square clothes and funny haircut.
He doesn’t get to the campus long-hairs, but he does admit that he read one (1) popular-at-the-time child-psych book and foolishly decided to slavishly follow what he thought were its instructions to the letter.
And he was shocked, shocked to learn that if one is to allow a 3-year-old to do whatever he wants, there might be some discipline issues at home.
(John’s tight with Focus on the Family–that’s the only explanation I can come up with for his ongoing viability as a kid-psych pundit.)
DB, Gwinnettian
April 5th, 2009
9:12 am
RW, please don’t read more into what I’ve said, than what what I’ve said.
Obviously there is a multifaceted conservo-case to be made against the evils of subsidizing mass transit. I’m simply acknowledging what I’ve heard literally dozens of times amongst my white brethren (and sistren) here in GA about “moving Africans right through Atlanta.” I stand by what I wrote–I believe there are plenty of state legislators who stick it to MARTA because their constituents enjoy seeing MARTA stuck.
For the record, no metropolitan area can expect to be world-class without a topnotch people mover, and if these fools cared about GA and its long term prospects for viability, they’d have found a way to expand the rail system and built an outer-perimeter line along with the Beltline already.
But they don’t, so they haven’t.
(But please, do go on railing against those “lavish company picnics.” Because that’s ever so big-picture relevant.)
DB, Gwinnettian
April 5th, 2009
9:18 am
Refresh Gremlins are at it again, eating one post, putting it back. Sure wish they could hold off hiring this Kyle guy another month and have Jim Wooten actually work a little tiny bit more, prior to becoming a full-time resource suck to Cox, and use the money saved to get an IT guy working this issue.
Anyways, must run, back to ya later…
RW-(the original)
April 5th, 2009
9:19 am
RW, please don’t read more into what I’ve said, than what what I’ve said.
DB,
What did Those People who ride MARTA mean and please be very specific because you are constantly making this kind of comment?
We DO subsidize their operating budget just as we fund their capital improvement budget and I don’t think the answer is allowing them to raid the capital improvement fund for operating expenses. Furthermore you undercut your very own argument by advocating for that. How are you going to have first class people movers when you divert the funds set aside for that very purpose to let trains run on Friday?
RW-(the original)
April 5th, 2009
9:27 am
(But please, do go on railing against those “lavish company picnics.” Because that’s ever so big-picture relevant.)
I guess you’re right there, DB. Company outings shouldn’t have any relevance when taxpayer funds are being used. After all we would never think of putting a stop to an outing for the top independent producers affiliated with AIG………..oh wait, never mind.
deegee
April 5th, 2009
9:27 am
The Georgia legislature is an embarrassment. MARTA riders are left hanging in the balance while Georgia’s investors get a big cut in capital gains taxes. Cagle is predictably dishonest in his statement concerning no tax increases for Georgians. While there may be no tax increases at the state level, budget cuts will surely result in local property tax increases. Just be honest and stop assuming that Georgians are too stupid to read.
jt
April 5th, 2009
9:35 am
If our goverment was as incompetant, arrogant, and dysfunctional as Jay portends(and I agree that it is), then why shovel more money into it. It’s not as if a few more billions would relieve traffic. I am also relieved that our region didn’t get to vote on “taxing ourselves”. As per the recent election results, the people aren’t that smart.
danjonglee
April 5th, 2009
10:07 am
Not spending tax dollars on a entity that has never broke even is incompentance…hmmmm
Bud Wiser
April 5th, 2009
11:13 am
MARTA’s arrogance (racially motivated, I suspect) at deliberately not planning rail service south of the airport (Fayetteville, Peachtree City, McDonough, ie) is part of the basic problem. It is not just “those people”, as DB so presumptively put it; as a new Falcons season ticket holder, I intend to ride MARTA from the airport downtown and back every Sunday this Fall. There are thousands of airline employees that live also in those areas who would LOVE to take rail to work, but do not have that option.
Oh, the inner city is served well enough, and certain outlying areas north and east, nothing west or south. And why do you think that came about? If you want to ease traffic on the city streets, the city is the obvious first choice, but what studies were used, if any, to go beyond? Service to the southside wuld justify the expense of the expansion, hell, there’s already a parking facility just off Flat Shoals Rd and I-85. If the construction project is not ferreted out to some high official’s relatives in Atlanta, why can rail not serve there?
Hmmmmmm
Mmaybe ferreting out contracts to officials families has become a more important priority to MARTA than actually having service to user friendly sreas.
fearless fosdick
April 5th, 2009
11:36 am
Bud .. In all your infinite wisdom, you don’t seem to have a clue..Do you? MARTA Does not go into Cobb or Gwinnett either!
It has nothing to do with racism or maybe it does! Understand the voters get to choose if they want MARTA, and pay a small tax. Much to my chagrin evertime it’s put to a vote it’s voted down..The reason; it will make it easier for THOSE people to come to our neighborhoods. Talk about racism
Also MARTA…is an acronym for metropolitan Atlanta rapid transit .. Fayette county is not part of metropolitan Atlanta.
Bud Wiser
April 5th, 2009
11:42 am
How MARTA awards contracts, from MARTA’s own mouth:
What is a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)?
A DBE is a business that is at least 5l % owned and controlled by one or more minority persons. A minority is generally defined as an individual who is African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American, a Woman or a Disabled person. The Federal Government DBE Program also includes Alaskan Natives, Pacific Islanders, Aleuts, and persons who are not minorities but who are socially and economically disadvantaged in its definition. The socially and economically disadvantaged owners must demonstrate longstanding, chronic and substantial disadvantage since the business is not owned by persons in the cited minority groups.
How does MARTA determine which businesses can participate in the DBE Program?
MARTA has a very comprehensive certification process to determine the ownership and control of firms, which apply for DBE certification. There are many specific eligibility criteria for certification. In assessing ownership, investments by the minority owner are important. Control includes both managerial and operational control with technical knowledge of the firms’ major areas of work being an important component for assessing operational control.
Corey
April 5th, 2009
11:59 am
Bud Wiser, please find a copy of MARTA’s charter and read it. I’ll provide you a towel so you can wipe the egg off your face. MARTA runs where it runs because the people in those areas embraced and voted “Yes” during its conception while people in your area and other areas avoided it like the plague. Even while the dynamite blasts where being heard booming for the tunnel under Peachtree St. nay sayers were out in droves. MARTA would love to operate in more affluent areas to shake off the perception that it only provides service to people with little to no incomes, the working class poor, the unemployed and homeless. By the way, go online and read the San Francisco Chronicle’s article regarding their transit system’s financial woes and please note the picture of the graffiti laced interior of one of their buses.
Angry Black Man
April 5th, 2009
12:01 pm
Hey Bud,
You have to go back 30+ years to answer your question about why MARTA stops at the airport. Surrounding counties had the option of voting themselves in or out of the system when it was first founded. If memory serves me correct, the local counties all had a chance to opt in. It’s plain to see that the only two that voted in favor are Fulton and Dekalb. As some have already stated, back then they voted to keep certain people out of their communities. And what did they get for that backwards thinking? Gridlock and now more minorities are moving away from the city and into the suburbs (go figure). I’ll buy into that thinking once someone robs a bank and plots a getaway on the train or one of the buses.
Road Scholar
April 5th, 2009
12:04 pm
Fearless: Fayette Co is apart of the metro area based on Federal law and is included in the 20 County (yes 20) metro area for planning transportation facilities. Check out ARC’s (Atlanta regional Commission) website. You are correct that MARTA is only in Fulton and Dekalb due to the tax support. Expansion of MARTA, comuter rail, etc. is and should be apart of alternative transportation network linking activity centers that have the densities to support it.
Bud: The DBE program is usually limited to the respective % of the population of certified contractors for that type of specific work. This includes WBE’s (Women controled firms). Some states and cities also have programs for Asians, when they comprise a definitive portion of the market. GDOT uses a 12 % DBE goal ( not an absolute). I hope I do not sense a tone of bias in your comments?
fearless fosdick
April 5th, 2009
12:07 pm
Rhode Scholar…I stand corrected..Thanks
Dusty
April 5th, 2009
12:28 pm
Well, folks, with a 3 x trillions fed budget laid on us, maybe GA legislators decided to CUT EXPENSES. Got it? When you are going broke you don’t LOOK for places to spend money.
MARTA is not known for wise financial decisions. Maybe MARTA should look around and be more economical. TRY IT. YOU WILL LIKE IT. So will taxpayers.
Bumpkin from Lumpkin
April 5th, 2009
12:55 pm
“Obama decries North Korean missile launch” – What an idiot. He’s showing the world he’s nothing but an incompetant, weak leader. I though Bush was a little on the “dim” side, but Obama makes George Bush look like a Rhodes Scholar. Then again, at least Bush had the balls to stand up to North Korea.
I Report/ You Whine
April 5th, 2009
12:56 pm
Unfortunately, as part of the curious run of bad luck currently afflicting our new secretary of state, upon dialing the number the gentlemen of the press were greeted by a honey-voiced seductress, presumably not Secretary Clinton, offering them “phone sex” and seeking their credit-card number if they “feel like getting nasty.”
I’m not sure why the White House needed to correct it. It’s the perfect radio ad for the administration. Call 1-900-OBAMA, and Timothy Geithner will demand your credit-card number and ask whether you feel like getting nasty, because he certainly does. He’ll be wearing a steel-tipped basque, and the squeals in the background will be an AIG executive or the former CEO of General Motors hanging upside down in the Treasury Department basement while he feels the firm lash of government “regulation” from Barney Frank and Mistress Pelosi.-Steyn, OC Register
ew
Bumpkin from Lumpkin
April 5th, 2009
12:56 pm
PS. Jay, what do you expect? Our state leaders are nothing but a bunch of party line idiots who have no interest in the interest of the people.
fearless fosdick
April 5th, 2009
1:13 pm
Bumpkin .. You mean these kind of BALLS?
The Bush administration has argued that the diplomatic engagement — led by Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill — has convinced North Korea to begin dismantling its facilities and turn over 18,000 documents on its reactor at Yongbyon. But conservatives say those achievements have come only after large concessions by Bush, including returning millions of dollars tainted by illicit activities, and that a tougher approach is still needed.
The Bush administration has also relented in its demand for a full accounting of North Korea’s assistance to a reactor in Syria and its suspected experimentation of uranium enrichment, keeping the focus on seeking the return of weapons-grade plutonium.
Yea Bumpkin… Some kind of BALLS! I call it diplomacy
Taken from the Washington Post may 27, 2008 article entitled “McCain breaks with Bush over North Korea………..”
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
1:21 pm
OFF TOPIC:
What scares me most about the North Koreans is not that missle launch but the size of the headgear on their military officers. It reminds me of Darth Vader’s helment in “Space Balls.” Now that’s scary!
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
1:37 pm
P.S.
Looks like the McArthur/Truman fiasco is taking on new meaning.
The old adage has never been more true …. “pay me now or pay me later” !
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
1:46 pm
President Barack N.(Naive) Obama wants to rid the world of nuclear weapons but can’t even get North Korea to not test fire a missle. What if they want to be last?
Cherokee
April 5th, 2009
2:04 pm
Hey Bumpkin, the reason the North Koreans were able to do this was because of the idiocy of Bush.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0405.kaplan.html
(Sorry for being off topic Jay)
getalife
April 5th, 2009
2:05 pm
You are scared of everything private.
Man up.
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
April 5th, 2009
2:31 pm
Clearly, the operating problems at MARTA fall at the feet of its management. However, the problems concerning the reach and scale of MARTA clearly lie at the feet of all close-in counties except Fulton and Dekalb. It was not so many years back when a Cobb politician stated that he did not want MARTA extended to Cobb because Cobb did not need, “Diseffected, urban, inner-city youths exporting their lifestyle and crime to Cobb.” Now clearly, statistics show that, with very few exceptions, high crime rates seem to be highest where concentrations of negros are the highest, but I doubt any of the gang bangers would steal a tv from a Cobb residence and take it back to Atlanta on the train. Nonetheless, not everyone is is as open minded as I and clearly the vieled racists in some suburban counties need to be coerced into accepting MARTA.
I believe the following steps should be taken: 1) the legislature should not allow state funds to be spent in any of the adjacent counties that do not participate in MARTA; 2) each of the adjacent counties should participate in MARTA as a GO obligation; 3) rail service should be extend to approx 30 miles from the central business district in east, west, south, and north axis; and 4) all “rubber tire” routes should be self sustaining with respect to direct fixed and variable costs.
That would fix the problem.
I Report/ You Whine
April 5th, 2009
2:45 pm
The Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition, another umbrella group, has recently faced money problems as well, while struggling to keep its members motivated. This month’s Washington rally by the group, known as Answer, drew only about 3,000 protestors to the steps of the pentagon, according to police.-CQPolitics
Who would have ever thought that their most favorite surrender monkey was really a closet chickenhawk, bwahahahahaha.
Give war a chance, moonbats.
Bud Wiser
April 5th, 2009
2:53 pm
I mentioned what I did for a couple of reasons:
a. Fayette County has ALWAYS been resistant to newer traffic where a BUS is concerned, part of the sub-culture, I guess. I have heard none of the same reluctance to rail.
b. Check it out for yourselves, Fayette County has the most disproportionate population of airport workers, numbering over 20,000 for Delta alone.
And, no, Road Scholar, you do not detect a note of bias. I have always wanted the rail here, and would have spent much more of my time, AND money in Atlanta proper, had rail been an option as opposed to driving and finding a convenient place to park. I know your figure refers but to GDOT, and not MARTA. Are they dwelling under the same umbrella these days?
Angry Black Man automatically assumes racism as the end all, be all reason for everything that exists, so you cannot reason with that kind of person. Join the irrelevant club ABM, it is open to all regardless of race, creed, religion, sexual orientation, and, of course, the terminally stupid.
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
2:54 pm
Cherokee:
No, the idiocy of Truman would be more accurate.
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
2:56 pm
getadeath:
Especially those with your political persuasion!
Corporal
April 5th, 2009
3:04 pm
BUREAUCRATS:
“Bureaucrats begin by “wanting” to do good things but quickly find themselves co-opted by the inertia-ridden structure and subsequently find it perfectly sufficient to mark territory, verify their positions in the pecking order, and attempt to exert a modicum of influence on those who can’t defend themselves.”
Colonel Jack Jacobs (Ret.) “If Not Now When?”
Dusty
April 5th, 2009
3:05 pm
Corporal,
Why did you say “the idiocy of Truman”? He’s one of my favorites.
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
April 5th, 2009
3:06 pm
Bud Wiser 2:53 pm
I enjoy your posts, and respect you and your opinions. I have wrangled over the issue of race with ABM on one occasion and have found him to be well reasoned and thoughtful – even though I suspect I might not reside on his x-mas card list.