Metro Atlanta’s TSPLOST campaign finds its voice
From the beginning, the Achilles’ heel of the campaign for a transportation sales tax in metro Atlanta has been its lack of a living, breathing champion. And we’ll get to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in a bit.
Strategists in the $8 million Untie Atlanta camp have preferred to think of their candidate as the $6.14 billion project list that would be underwritten by the penny-on-the-dollar tax. Let roads, bridges and rail speak for themselves, the thinking goes. TV ads have largely focused on the anonymous, solo treks between home and work that tens of thousands of us make each day.
It has been a battle plan of necessity, owing to the absence of any Republican who a) appeals to the suburban region at large; and b) has been willing to hitch his career to the initiative. The political figure who most closely fits that description is Nathan Deal. But each time, his strong endorsement begins with the caveat that the July 31 referendum wasn’t his idea.
Tax-hating, consumer guru Clark Howard showed up on an Untie Atlanta mailer that arrived Wednesday, one of the few public figures to be linked to the campaign. A key hurdle for the TSPLOST campaign has been the matter of trust. People do not trust lists or citizen review panels. They trust other people. Howard fits that portion of the bill.
But another problem with the faceless campaign has been the inability to quickly answer the assaults from opponents, to question the questioners from a position of authority. That’s not a role for Howard. And while the governor is about to ramp up his participation — he’s scheduled a news conference for today — Deal may not be in a position to engage in a pitched battle.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers of Woodstock, one of the most influential and well-spoken Republicans in the state, appeared at the state Capitol to publicly join with foes of the transportation sales tax. Rogers had been essential in the fight to put the transportation measure on this primary ballot.
The reaction from Untie Atlanta and the governor has been silence. Perhaps because Rogers and Deal – and some involved in the sales tax campaign — will be allies come Aug. 1, when the fight begins over a November ballot issue to restore the state’s authority to create public charter schools.
Enter the mayor of Atlanta.
Every now and then, a politician will offer up a speech larger than the event that houses it. This was the case in Atlanta’s City Hall on Tuesday. The occasion was a trotting out of several local groups supporting the TSPLOST. But Reed aimed his words largely at the TV cameras in front of him and the audience beyond.
Yes, the mayor attended to some housekeeping. African-American support for the sale tax in the city and south DeKalb County has slipped to threatening levels, according to several polls, and Reed chastised those who argue that the sales tax doesn’t do enough for black communities. “Y’all, that’s just flat-out not true,” the mayor said, staring at state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, who was in the crowd.
But the bulk of the mayor’s address was an attempt to lift the language of the sales tax debate. So far, tea party opponents have held the upper hand in this department. Their arguments have emphasized the need to preserve the sovereignty of metro Atlanta’s many, many local governments. They have pointed to the risk that accompanies massive expenditures of public money.
But metro Atlanta has never been about minimalism, Reed said. Risk is in its DNA. “Just surviving leads to just surviving,” he said. It doesn’t build railroad lines or airports or freeways. The mayor all but made a unilateral declaration that he intends to serve as the champion of the transportation sales tax. Any time, any place. “And I believe in the Winston Churchill model. I smile when I fight. I love to fight,” he said.
Afterwards, in his office, Reed said he hadn’t intended to sound angry. “Our elected leadership has done what everybody says they want out of elected leaders. If there’s any frustration, that’s what you were hearing in me,” he said. The meetings that led to the project list “were open to the public. There was black people and white people. It was rural and urban. It was Republican-Democrat.”
Reed said the list itself should be considered “the most significant political event in modern Georgia” – a tour de force of cooperation. That hasn’t happened, of course.
The mayor began talking dollars and sense and the possibilities of a Republican-Democratic partnership. “If we pull off the four significant things that we’ve been working on right now, our competitors can forget about it,” he said. The quartet? The water wars, the dredging of the Port of Savannah, the new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson, and the TSPLOST.
“All of this stuff has been ugly. We have not won it with beautiful passes. You can put the warts and all on it,” the mayor said. Reed specifically included the new airport terminal in that description.
But metro Atlanta has been at its best when it looks past the warts and cuts the deal in spite of imperfections, the mayor argued. “But nobody has given up any of their core values. None of these issues require me to be less of a Democrat, or Governor Deal to be less of a Republican,” he said.
Reed’s bottom line: A biracial, bipartisan metro Atlanta has a future. A fractured one doesn’t. That’s an argument that requires the voice of a human being, if it’s to be made properly. A list won’t do it.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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32 comments Add your comment
Sam Sauce
July 18th, 2012
7:18 pm
Mayor Reed showed a huge amount of leadership and courage. The T-SPLOST has to pass if Atlanta wants to move forward.
Attack Dog
July 18th, 2012
7:23 pm
Vote no and choke on your smoke. Since Dixiecrats claim that Fulton and Dekalb mooche off the Dixiecrats, even though they have been paying 1% over the past 40-years, take ownership and exempt them from the tax increase.
Attack Dog
July 18th, 2012
7:24 pm
T-SPLSOT is not about the City of Atlanta, but all the NIMBY counties that are choking in their own smoke.
Centrist
July 18th, 2012
7:43 pm
Just one more jgalloway blog in support of the hopefully doomed TSPLOST.
Mayor Reed does not have any gravitas OTP in Georgia. He probably has an Obama appointed Washington DC job wrapped up, though.
The Atlanta suburbs are going to vote down the TSPLOST – it is just a matter of how big the pro tax vote is by the Democrats ITP.
jgalloway
July 18th, 2012
7:45 pm
Sam Sauce:
The rule here is that once you choose a handle on a post, that’s the only handle you can use. No sock-puppeting.
Married with (School) Children
July 18th, 2012
7:53 pm
The politicians keep saying that T-SPLOST is necessary for Atlanta to compete against other cities…. but if it goes thru, Atlanta will have an 8% sales tax, while Charlotte only has a 7.25% sales tax… and they are paying for a light rail system. How well will Atlanta complete if it is stuck with higher taxes?
ClemsonNeil
July 18th, 2012
7:56 pm
So let me get this straight. Governor Deal refused federal dollars for transportation programs in GA from Obama because Georgia couldn’t afford it. But now is a proponent of a bigger state tax on metro-Atlanta? All the while this bill is full of earmarks and pet projects that has nothing to do with transportation. What Atlanta needs to do is simple. EXPAND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. If your going to impose a tax, use it hire or retain teachers, firemen, and policemen.
VOTE NO to this bill that will screw Atlanta and Dekalb.
td
July 18th, 2012
7:56 pm
I went to the polls today and voted NO. We do not need 8% tax and we do not need anymore rail in Atlanta.
Married with (School) Children
July 18th, 2012
8:05 pm
Here is my suggestion for a slogan –
TSPLOT: If it were really needed, they’d make Delta pay it too!
http://www.11alive.com/news/article/248129/3/Delta-others-exempt-from-TSPLOST-tax
hmmmmm
July 18th, 2012
8:22 pm
Jim, thanks for actually policing your blog somewhat. Its a refreshing change.
Well Meaning Mayor - Lousy TSPLOST
July 18th, 2012
8:24 pm
A bad deal is still a bad deal, even if it is done for good reasons. The Mayor’s vision and dedication is admirable, but TSPLOST has a rotten core. The good has been compromised by the special interests and does not outweigh the bad on this one. Vote NO on TSPLOST, and bring back a better set of projects in two years.
Angus
July 18th, 2012
8:30 pm
Married: the list of supporters/donors wouldn’t have all the heavy-weight corporations if they had to pay up as well.
It seems in politics these days that everybody wants something – as long as someone else is paying for it.
Steve Benton
July 18th, 2012
8:35 pm
Governor Deal gave us the Peach Lane up and down I-85. Wonderful little joke that was! So now we have to pay to get to work in a reasonable amount of time, and the toll rate varies depending on the traffic. Now the Regional Commission wants me to pay for everyone else to get to work. This, I’m told, will attract businesses to Georgia. Is the business community kicking in any cash for this? Or would they rather we pay them to go to work, too? So, unless I’m missing something, I have to pay to go to work, pay everyone else to go to work, pay for businessmen to go to work, and with all the road projects in the plans to make it easier for us to get to them, I’m essentially paying for their overhead, too! No thanks.
Just Nasty & Mean
July 18th, 2012
8:51 pm
The original concept of the TIA bill was worthwhile–Taxpayers vote for more taxes for specific projects.
However, the whole thing became politicized (shocker!), and the projects turned into developments instead of congestion relief–as always—disproportionately focused on Atlanta.
I am sorry, Mayor Reed. But the Atlanta metro area no longer made up of just Atlanta and everything DOES NOT have to point downtown. Get used to it.
The concept of double taxation on Fulton/DeKalb is inexplicable, and the focus on rail transit not cost justifiable by any measure.
And Jim, stop being a sock-puppet for Cox and the downtown corporate hacks. It belittles you, your ethics, and the paper. How ’bout calling it “neutral” for a change. (Example: where is the video attachment for the con-TSPLOST position..Huh?).
Vote NO on TSPLOST!
JeromeMJ
July 18th, 2012
8:58 pm
Why don’t we have a tax to send anyone that works for us, the citizens, to school to learn how to do their job of running something besides their mouth.
Kris
July 18th, 2012
9:21 pm
Truth
Did Not the Governor of Georgia (thief) turn down the High speed RAIL funds championed by President OBAMA?
Did Not the Governor of Georgia (in title only) sit on Millions of Federal HIGHWAY FUNDS for years, Just because “JIMBOB” and his friends did not want to wear seatbelts in their PICK-UP TRUCKS?
Where were all of them and the Corporate Masters on the issue of DISPERSION of all of and REFUSED funds?
Maybe, If someone had the FORESIGHT and The Wisdom, to accept those funds.
Now, We are ALL suppose to rally around this PUPPY called T_spLOST just because a handful of elected officials say that this is what we need , I tell you this was a SCAM cooked up by Sonny and DEAL to line their pockets.
To SCAM the tax payers of GA….HMMMMMMMMMM! I wonder!
Vote not NO but HELL NO on the SCAM. Impeach DEAL and his cronies.
JR
July 18th, 2012
9:28 pm
The T-Splost vote will be the defining vote of the 21st century for Atlanta. Will Atlanta continue to lead in the Southeast or fall behind Charlotte, Raleigh, and Tampa-St. Petersburg. Vote Yes!
G Mare
July 18th, 2012
9:37 pm
Just mailed my absentee ballot – voted NO on tsplost. I am on a fixed income & everything else keeps getting more expensive, so I surely DO NOT want to pay an additional tax. I can barely afford to buy what I need NOW.
JR
July 18th, 2012
9:39 pm
The regions of New York and Paris are 4 times larger than the Atlanta region. Yet, you can go everywhere in these two cities without the need of a car.
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
July 18th, 2012
9:52 pm
Atlanta is blessed by G-d – the prophesied New Jerusalem. Those who say otherwise, using Winthrop Rockefeller’s adulterating, 9/11-pimping, Arkansas white-trash yard-baby for backup, should know better.
The alternative? Repatriate through full expropriation the $27Trillion placed off-shore (much of Mitt Romney’s wealth but a partial example), betting against the American People, that profits be hoarded by the same Fifth Column faction for whom Bush and Cheney were working when they treasonously committed 9/11 abetted by the Jews of Mossad, using the same Roman Catholic CIA which assassinated John and Martin to send us to die as papal catspaw in Vietnam, in perfect obedience to fascist economist Vilfredo Pareto’s prescriptions – taught in all “elite” university Economics departments – to remove the threat posed against fascist plutocracy by an affluent People/the Middle Class.
This is why the Internet Revolution was intentionally tanked – emptying the Middle Class’s burgeoning 401k’s with equities then bought at the bottom the same way it was done by Big Oil against Edison and Tesla, by Bush’s faction as he ran for the presidency, to be illegally cheated into office by only the Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court’s manifestly unconstitutional ‘Bush v. Gore.’
“They” know what “they” are doing.
Truth and Justice must rule under G-d alone in America, then politicians can again be trusted with our money. All else is but caesarism, the very Old Sectarian Order of king and pope we escaped to receive in covenant with the Creator this New Secular Order – “Novus Ordo Seclorum” – of which Atlanta is the highest manifestation.
Civilization pivots on urban culture. Atlanta must lead with better ideas, better culture by G-d, not by “me too” affiliation with the scum we know has been intentionally and satanically wrecking Our Country.
Kris (voted NO)
July 18th, 2012
9:56 pm
IF I might add this whole thing was probably cooked up in a in a smoke filled room ripe with cigars lit with $100 bills and the pungent smell of asphalt. I wonder if Thrasher Contracting and C.W. Matthews were at this alleged meeting of the (for lack of a better word) minds This whole thing smell of sonny do do doings. I believe sonny works for Matthews. And the looker dirty DEAL is all for it….$$$$$$ in his pockets.
Vote No NO
native
July 18th, 2012
10:36 pm
Will
You must be off your meds. I understand many people have very strong and differing opinions, but yours is way over the edge. Please seek help.
mamaj
July 18th, 2012
10:52 pm
My NO vote for T-SPLOST has everything to do with the fact that I live in Dekalb and have been paying the extra 1% for 40 years; plus, paying another 1% will not get my area of the county that I live in, the rail service that it so desperately needs.I am all for ALL transportation money being put into a first-class RAIL service for EVERYONE, but since that wasn’t a suggestion–H@!! NO!
Will Jones - Atlanta Jeffersonian Exegesis
July 18th, 2012
11:10 pm
“native” – You prefer your chosen “golem,” the American People, to shut up and continue giving you money and shedding innocent blood on Satan’s behalf?
Those without reason, intelligence, class, patriotism, or G-d, resort to “ad hominem,” at least, when their faction, perversion, or favorite lie is “outed.”
Tough finding out Gentiles, Black and White, to whom G-d gave America in covenant, aren’t “a mindless herd of cattle,” eh?
Auntie Christ
July 19th, 2012
12:37 am
Married w/children @805: Here is my suggestion for a slogan –TSPLOT: If it were really needed, they’d make Delta pay it too!
You posted this right after I had just read a Pew Research Center study that discussed how Ga and 25 other states do not conduct even a minimum of cost/benefit analysis to determine whether the tax breaks they hand out to corporations like department store Santas handing out candy canes, have a positive or negative impact on their states’ economies. I haven’t heard of any more sweetheart deals like Delta’s being incorporated into the TSPLOST, so I can only wonder how many more exceptions like this exist, and if they do, I hope someone posts that information here.
If the state is going to continue this practice of giving tax breaks indiscriminately and arbitrarily, I think we citizens should have the right to demand certain stipulations. Since our learned legislators seem so eager to pry into the lives of every citizen who faces hard times and applies for public assistance in the form of welfare or UEC, we should demand no less from our corporate citizens. Why can’t we see the books of these corporations who are also receiving public assistance in the form of tax breaks. I want to know how much in bonuses the officers are making, how many 3 martini lunches are being bought, a complete accounting of every expenditure at their ‘executive retreats’ or ‘team building’ excursions in Las Vegas, and how much is being paid to lobbyists, to name just a few. I don’t think this is too much to ask, considering these corporations, oops, people get $$Millions in tax breaks from our state, while we are demanding the same accounting and scrutiny from people drawing $250 a week in UEC. I’m sure if I write to Gov deal and other fiscal conservative republicans to propose this, it will get their full-throated support, given their prior show of enthusiasm for making stipulations on those facing economic hard times. Surely they wouldn’t say that some people are more equal than others, just because that ‘person’ is named AT&T or Delta or Toyota, would they?
See Through The Smoke Screen
July 19th, 2012
1:43 am
I took a look at what is inside of the T-splost and there is very little going towards public rail which is what all counties can benefit greatly from.
I’m voiting a big NO on this because GDOT has already proven how incompetent they are in executing traffic management solutions. Their solutions have lead to HOT MESS LANES, more 24×7x365 HOV lanes and plan to expand HOT MESS LANES on highways that are already overwelmed.
Just this afternoon the spokewoman for GDOT was on the news saying that T-SPLOST money will go towards traffic light timing…..this is what they should already be doing as part of their job with taxes the state has already collected from us! She also mentioned road construction (aka, HOT MESS LANES) will also be done with T-SPLOST money.
As far as the CIty Of Atlanta is concerned, my family and I have no reason to support or patronize in Atlanta, for they are their own worst enemy with Park Atlanta writing bogus parking tickets and rookie police officers writing frivilous citations to fund Atlanta’s budget defecits. We have free parking in Cobb County at all restaurants, sporting and entertainment venues.
We have no reason to come into nor through Atlanta for anything as we live work and play in Cobb with cheaper sales and propoerty taxes. We enjoy avoiding the headache of Atlanta’s crime rate, vagrants begging for money, incompetent traffic court system and city personnel…….etc.
The problem with Atlanta is the people running it who are shooting themselves in the foot by chasing tourism away-
The problem with traffic in all areas is the people running it (GDOT)
I’m voiting NO to T-SPLOST to help stop the madness
steve macke
July 19th, 2012
7:50 am
If the media and the pro-T-SPLOST refer to the TAX as the penny on the dollar instead of the 1% sales tax – it is because they believe that people are not bright enough to figure out that everything goes up 1%. I for one will purchase as much as possible on line and outside of the new tax area. What about the people who are already hurting and not making ends meet – this will take a tool on the poor. If you want to raise money then tax the people who use the transportation offerings – not those who can not afford it. Why reach into someone else’s pocket and take from them what you have no right to take
whitec477
July 19th, 2012
9:04 am
Our regional competitors (i.e., Charlotte and to a degree Miami) are hoping that we take the misstep of NOT passing this referedum; Charlotte already has a $1.5B light rail project about to be awarded because they’ve gotten ahead of us wrt Federal funding by showing a local commitment to these same types of projects while we’ve been “tied up”…
west cobb voter 4
July 19th, 2012
9:38 am
I’m not interested in paying for Atlanta’s Beltline community/lifestyle development project. With so little of the proposed 1% sales tax focused on road traffic congestion relief I have no reason to support this tax.
Mayor Reed may seem to have finally taken a grand leadership position with his recent blustery speech but his efforts remind me of a tempest in a teapot…no one OTP cares what Reed has to say.
Interesting article here:
http://environmentblog.ncpa.org/the-atlanta-transit-tax-for-the-1-percent/
AMitchell
July 19th, 2012
9:55 am
Atlanta is a forward thinking town!
Atlanta will only become a city if we MOVE…forward!
Atlanta is a convention town!
Atlanta will be a convention city when we are able to MOVE people
Atlanta is a convention town because of attractions in this region…not just downtown!
If it’s difficult to transport people to Callaway, the Speedway, Helen, Savannah & Oconee….people won’t go to the beautiful attractions of our region.
Give Georgia a chance.
Let’s MOVE Georgia—-Let’s MOVE on the transportation initiative—Vote yes & MOVE on!
oldfart
July 19th, 2012
10:07 am
Mr. Galloway,
Why is it that I have only seen this normal journalistic disclaimer:
“Cox Enterprises Inc., the parent company of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB Radio, has contributed to the campaign in support of the transportation referendum.” — Cagle wants Clark Howard for citizen transportation panel by Aaron Gould Sheinin
on only one article concerning TSPLOST on the AJC?
thinking it thru
July 19th, 2012
11:28 am
This stab at making our communities more sustainable is for just 10 years and at a cost of under $10 billion. That would only be the first leg of the total proposal. This plan will require a voter renewal of funding after 10 years, and probably cost over $60 billion in today’s dollars. And yet these costs might not be a bad thing, after-all. The idea is that the benefits to the local economy and our way of life will be greater than the T-SPLOST’s actual costs!
Plus, I like Mayor Reed. But the poor chap is hog-tied by lack of funding for basic infrastructure and by an unsupportive State legislature. I am NOT convinced that his proposed T-SPLOST will — in the long haul — reduce congestion, smog, and ground-level ozone in Atlanta metro. I am not convinced that it will significantly reduce the $2 billion or more we lose every year due to traffic clogs. So if the Atlanta T-SPLOST is not a transportation solution, what is it?
The Atlanta T-SPLOST looks like an attempt to kickstart new real estate development. It looks like a trickle-down approach to fiscal stimulus using 20th century style road improvements to enhance development corridors. It looks like a bail-out of a local development elite who happily over-built metro Atlanta while WE neglected to finance the building-out and maintaining of our other necessary infrastructure — infrastructure such as storm and sanitary sewers, public education, public transit, walkways, and roads, etc. If so, then this T-SPLOST’s non-road projects might just be bits and pieces of transportation goodies to toss to peculiar special interests to coopt their support of a huge road development project. If so, this also might explain why public transportation advocates feel that the plan is simply not comprehensive enough to be effective. In any case, other bits and pieces of the plan are part of a good tactic of leveraging available federal funding.
So this referendum (if it passes) will also be used to satisfy unfunded (and much needed) road maintenance needs … not just to change, or add to existing road infrastructure … and definitely not to add to, or maintain, other infrastructure the growing population needs to support itself. So let’s ask ourselves now … When might we confront these other ticking time bombs?
T-SPLOST also taxes regressively. Thus, it disproportionately burdens those of lower income — those who could often benefit from more reliable, effective public transportation access in their neighborhoods. We’d all be wise to favor such access in order to help reduce the area’s unemployment and social welfare costs … to improve access to education, training, healthcare, the labor market, etc. This T-SPLOST also exempts its application to fuel sales, thereby exempting 18-wheelers and other fossil fuel vehicles from paying toward any T-SPLOST concrete their wheels WILL pound on daily.
We can do better. Let’s not fall for this!
P.S. The Center for Public Integrity claims that “Georgia’s ethics laws are loaded with loopholes and are poorly enforced, yielding one of the nation’s worst scores on the State Integrity Index.” If true, then we may first need to repair our political infrastructure.