Channel 2 poll: Transportation sales tax support slips
On the eve of a resumption of the TV campaign for the transportation sales tax, a new poll just posted by Channel 2 Action News shows support for the effort slipping.
A Rosetta Stone Communications poll conducted for Channel 2 Action News found only 38 percent of voters in 10 metro counties support the proposed tax, while 49 percent oppose the plan.
Those numbers show a drop in support of the tax from late May when a Rosetta Stone poll showed 42 percent supported the referendum and 45 percent opposed the measure.
The margin of support in Fulton and DeKalb counties isn’t anywhere near what’s needed to offset opposition in largely Republican counties. Check out the crosstabs:
Just for the record, Rosetta Stone Communications is a political service firm that caters primarily to Republican clients.
In response, Sam Williams, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, sent an email to supporters that included this:
“WSB released a poll this afternoon. The results are in stark contrast to the results of our own as will happen many times in the ensuing weeks. We do not know anything about the methodology used by WSB’s pollster but we have every confidence in ours.
“Additionally, our polling has shown a long standing trend of people saying they plan their day around traffic. In fact, 87% of voters say the traffic in metro Atlanta has gotten so bad that something must be done about it.”
That was quickly followed by a longer, more detailed don’t-panic message from Dave Stockert, chairman of the pro-transportation campaign:
I wanted to be the first to alert you that WSB is releasing a poll this afternoon showing the July 31 Transportation Referendum down by 11 points. While this figure is in stark contrast to our internal polling data, we do want to take the time to properly address your concerns.
First off, it is nearly impossible to properly poll in such a low-turnout race. We are expecting less than 400,000 voters to turn out in the July 31st Primary. That is why over the past two months we have made over 200,000 successful voter ID calls so we know who we need to turn out to vote yes. Without having access to this data it is extremely difficult to accurately identity likely voters for a poll.
More importantly, our massive media campaign was just launched last night. Thanks to your generosity over the past sixteen months we were able to book over 3,000 points of network television for the month of July; meaning likely voters are going to view our TV spots an average of 30 times. We have also placed over 1,500 highly-targeted cable television spots. The poll released today does not reflect the impact our persuasion media will have on currently undecided voters.
In addition to the television spots we are dropping over one million pieces of mail highlighting specific projects to our targeted strong yes voters. This along with a huge absentee ballot program will help ensure our current supporters cast their “YES” ballots.
They don’t call these operations campaigns for nothing. We are literally waging an air and ground war over the next month that is the biggest Atlanta has seen in almost a decade. Our messaging along with the heavy media blitz and advanced field operation will all have a major impact on not only turning the polls in our favor, but in leading us to victory.
We will not grow weary in the face of an unfavorable poll. Instead we are reenergized and motivated to work even harder. I ask you in this last month to dig deep and help us see this critical campaign through.
The impact can’t be measured yet by any poll, but here’s a dire thought for T-SPLOST supporters: Given Thursday’s health care decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the GOP presidential campaign of Mitt Romney will be carpet-bombing the nation with the message that what we once thought was a health care mandate is now a health care tax.
That means anti-tax rhetoric is about to soar, and there’s a danger that the July 31 sales tax referendum could get wrapped into it, further dampening support for the measure.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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113 comments Add your comment
Centrist
June 29th, 2012
11:41 pm
Most posters here are probably “likely” voters, since they are following the issue so closely. Early voting opens in some Counties July 9th – usually at the County Seat. Other locations for early voting are offered, too. I suggest looking up your County Elections website for specifics. Many voters will be on vacation in July, so early voting (or filling out a form for an absentee ballot) makes sense. Send the information on to your email list.
As noted in the original blog – the pro vote organization expects a low turnout of “less than 400,000 voters”, and are concentrating on getting their side out to vote one way or the other with a massive media campaign. We all know why the pro side is spending this sort of money – they expect to be paid back very handsomely.
hiram
June 30th, 2012
12:00 am
The legislature’s blatant refusal to stop accepting bribes, like family vacations to Europe, is the straw that broke the camel’s back. They have lost all credibility with the voters, and rightly so.
Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
June 30th, 2012
12:55 am
Politico
June 29th, 2012
9:30 pm
{{{”MARTA does NOT compete with GRTA. GRTA bus routes serve areas not served by MARTA and bring thousands of extra riders to MARTA.”}}}
You are correct that GRTA does not necessarily compete directly with MARTA.
But GRTA does operate very inefficiently by not taking full advantage of the existing MARTA heavy rail infrastructure both by not using MARTA heavy rail lines to transport GRTA Xpress commuter bus users on the last leg of the trip inside of I-285 to the city during morning rush hours and using MARTA heavy rail lines to transport GRTA Xpress commuter bus users on the first leg of the outbound trip inside of I-285 during evening rush hours.
As of now, there is only one GRTA Xpress commuter bus route that utilizes the existing MARTA heavy rail transit infrastructure for the entirety of the Inside-the-Perimeter leg of its trips and that is GRTA Xpress Route 408 Johns Creek-Doraville which terminates inbound in the mornings and originates outbound in the afternoons/evenings at the Doraville MARTA Station.
GRTA Xpress and its suburban counterparts who provide rush hour express commuter bus service into and out of the city, could cut its operating costs by close to 60% or more if the existing MARTA heavy rail transit infrastructure was utilized for the Inside-the-Perimeter leg of bus trips by feeding the GRTA Xpress and GCT (Gwinnett County Transit) express commuter buses into the furthest outlying MARTA heavy rail transit stations during morning rush hour trip and using MARTA heavy rail to feed suburban and exurban commuters into GRTA Xpress and GCT buses during evening rush hour trips.
New Channel 2 poll: Transportation sales tax support slips | Political … « Deals Sales Management
June 30th, 2012
1:48 am
[...] more here: New Channel 2 poll: Transportation sales tax support slips | Political … Comments [...]
Will the last Democrat in Georgia please turn off the lights?.....
June 30th, 2012
2:16 am
Suburban express commuter bus routes other than GRTA Xpress Route 408 Johns Creek-Doraville that could utilize MARTA heavy rail transit lines for the Inside-the-Perimeter portion of their morning and evening rush hour trips are:
GRTA Xpress Route 400-Cumming to Perimeter Center and Downtown, which could use the MARTA North Line to transport its passengers between Downtown and the North Springs MARTA Station which has access ramps directly onto GA 400 Northbound and directly off of GA 400 Southbound;
GRTA Xpress Routes 410 (Discover Mills/Sugarloaf Pkwy-Lindbergh MARTA Station), 412 (Discover Mills/Sugarloaf Pkwy-Midtown Atlanta), 411 (Hamilton Mill-Mall of Georgia-Midtown Atlanta), 413 (Hamilton Mill-Downtown Atlanta) and 416 (Dacula/Hebron Baptist Church-Downtown Atlanta) and GCT Routes 101 (I-985 @ Hwy 20/Buford-Downtown Atlanta), 103 (Discover Mills/Sugarloaf Pkwy-Downtown Atlanta) and 102 (Indian Trail-Downtown Atlanta) could all operate more efficiently, practically and cost-effectively (lower gas costs, less wear-and-tear on buses and lower maintenance costs, etc and possibly more frequent service) by terminating at the Doraville MARTA Station on morning inbound trips and originating at the Doraville MARTA Station on evening outbound trips instead of utilizing the heavily-congested HOV-2 lanes on I-85 for the portion of their trips inside of I-285.
The GRTA Xpress Routes that utilize Hwy 78/Stone Mountain Highway and I-20 could operate much more efficiently, practically and cost-effectively and could likely provide more direct service for those commuting between points on Hwy 78 East and the city by terminating and originating at the Kensington MARTA Station.
GRTA Xpress buses that operate and utilize the I-75 South and I-85 Southwest corridors could save time and money by terminating and originating at the College Park MARTA Station as opposed to traversing severely-congested Interstates 75 & 85 Inside-the-Perimeter to their current termination and origination points in Downtown and Midtown Atlanta.
While GRTA Xpress buses that utilize I-20 West would do much better to terminate and originate at the Hamilton E. Holmes (formerly Hightower) MARTA Station that is directly off of I-20 Eastbound (and I-20 Westbound) just inside of I-285 West.
One could also make the argument that the GRTA Xpress buses that utilize the I-20 East Corridor might do much better to terminate and originate from the Indian Creek MARTA Station which has freeway ramps that provide direct access from I-285 Northbound and to I-285 Southbound rather than traversing a heavily-congested I-20 between I-285 East and Downtown and Midtown.
I hate to level this criticism on GRTA Xpress and (GCT express commuter) buses as GRTA Xpress (and GCT express commuter) buses pull a lot of single-occupant vehicle traffic off of the virtually-gridlocked major radial and spoke roads that transport extremely heavy commuter traffic into and out of the city during morning and evening rush hours.
But the way that GRTA Xpress (and GCT express commuter) buses are going about operating is highly-inefficient financially as not utilizing the existing North, Northeast, East, South and West MARTA heavy rail transit lines which directly parallel the Inside-the-Perimeter portions of GRTA Xpress routes cost way much more to operate and maintain the bus service than it would if the I-75 South, I-85 South, I-20 West, I-85 North, GA 400 North & Hwy 78 East GRTA Xpress routes were completely-integrated logistically into the existing MARTA heavy rail system.
By operating GRTA Xpress the way it does, the state needlessly and unnecessarily burns through garantuan sums of tax money as the utilization of the existing MARTA heavy rail infrastructure could cut the operating costs of all GRTA Xpress routes except the I-75/I-575 Northwest Corridor routes by one-third to one-half.
It makes absolutely no sense or logic to waste fuel, increase wear-and-tear and increase commuting times on GRTA Xpress (and GCT) buses by operating the buses on often-gridlocked sections of ITP spoke and radial Interstates and freeways that run directly parallel to high-frequency MARTA heavy rail lines.
Moon Mullins
June 30th, 2012
6:27 am
Wanting a decent infrastructure so business can expand and folks can access work and businesses is a progressive idea. That’s why Democrats support it and Republicans reject it.
“Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose.”
~George Will
Brandon Beach, T-SPLOST and a healthy dose of irony | Roots in Alpharetta
June 30th, 2012
7:01 am
[...] member. Many who oppose T-SPLOST cite distrust of transportation leaders as a primary reason. And recent polls show opposition for T-SPLOST [...]
Jackie
June 30th, 2012
7:49 am
I would support a tax if it would relieve congestion and improve traffic. This proposal is a whiff. Not enough projects to make a difference for a thirty year tax… Remember this is a twenty billion dollar proposal, not a seven billion dollar one…many of the projects are o ly partially funded in the ten years.
I don’t want to spend the next thirty years watching our tax dollars wasted with no improvements in traffic.
VOTE NO.
Voting YES
June 30th, 2012
7:54 am
Good points Bunky!
Red
June 30th, 2012
7:56 am
Obama says let’s raise taxes on the rich and use that money to build roads, bridges, etc. and create thousands of jobs – Republicans say oh that’s bad and it will never create jobs.
GA Republicans say let’s raise taxes on everyone and use that money to build roads, bridges, etc. and create thousands of jobs. Why is when Obama says this it is bad and when Deal & Co. say this it is good? Not to mention you have the most corrupt agency in the state running this whole operation. The Love Connection needs reforming before enacting anything remotely close to this.
Just think about that Republicans – if raising taxes is bad why would you vote yourself a tax hike? Why would any conservative put this matter on the ballot? Higher taxes and bigger government. This is what a YES vote means. We can get the roads GA needs without this. Vote NO and vote every single Republican who pushed this out of office.
Edward Ruffin
June 30th, 2012
8:06 am
Stop the excessive flow of my money out of my pocket into the treasury of the feds, the state and the county. There is enough money to do road projects. Rail and bus expenditures are big losers. Just look at MARTA and AMTRAK. VOTE NO.
td
June 30th, 2012
10:27 am
hiram
June 30th, 2012
12:00 am
The legislature’s blatant refusal to stop accepting bribes, like family vacations to Europe, is the straw that broke the camel’s back. They have lost all credibility with the voters, and rightly so.
You can wake up from that dream now. For most conservatives, voting no is either all about TEA or about too much lib projects like rail and biking trails and not enough road building.
Proud Voter
June 30th, 2012
11:42 am
Why would a fair tax be a bad tax? Why not be able to keep all of any fund in the region where it is collected? If your region vetoes t-splost, you’re going to become known as one more dumb Georgia county who failed to look at the bigger picture to improve itself.
T-splost is a chance to improve your region without waiting twenty years for DOT to getting around to looking at your local project. By all means, if you want to have a say-so as to how the t-splost money is to be spent in your region, then get off the couch and get involved. Whatever is good in your region right now was planned and financed many years ago so that you could benefit from others’ ambition and foresight.
Ignorant does’t know; stupid refuses to learn. Don’t be stupid.