ATLANTA — Voters across 10 counties in metro Atlanta will head to the polls Tuesday, July 31, to decide the fate of a referendum that, if approved, would fund local and regional transportation projects through a 1 percent sales tax increase for the next decade.
An economist for the State of Georgia has estimated that the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST, would generate $8.47 billion over 10 years.
The ballot initiative calls for the money to be split between two funds: 85 percent, or $7.2 billion, would go toward regional projects already selected by the Atlanta Regional Commission, while the second fund would account for 15 percent, or $1.27 billion, and will be allocated directly to counties and cities.
The revenue from the sales tax increase in the latter fund will be distributed back to each jurisdiction based on population and centerline road miles present in that jurisdiction.
Vocal Supporter
The commercial real estate industry has taken a strong stance in favor of T-SPLOST. Clark Gore, regional managing principal in the Atlanta office of brokerage firm Cassidy Turley, says passage of the referendum would be a win-win for everyone involved.
“From a self-serving standpoint, we would all like traffic to be better individually for our commutes to and from work,” says Gore. “But more importantly, that reputation for having bad traffic hurts us when we’re recruiting companies to relocate or trying to attract new businesses to the city.”
According to the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), if this initiative passes, it will fund more than 150 transportation projects, which should generate $34 billion in gross regional product (GRP) by 2040. (Similar to gross domestic product, GRP measures local economies by the market value of final goods and services produced in a region.)
Additionally, using its travel demand model, the ARC estimates T-SPLOST-funded projects will create a 24 percent average decrease in future travel delays.
“There are a lot of people who say, ‘I’m tired of taxes. I pay too many taxes.’ My counter to that is that this is a very specific investment in the future of the city,” says Gore.
Voice of Opposition
Even though the commercial real estate community is supporting the referendum, a June 12 poll conducted by Insider Advantage, a polling firm based in Atlanta, shows that 47.3 percent of the people polled would vote against the transportation referendum. Another 31.7 percent would vote for it, while 21 percent were undecided. The poll also found that voters ages 18 to 29 are more likely to vote for the initiative with 98.1 percent approval, while 55.9 percent of voters 65 and over would vote against T-SPLOST.
James Bell, director and co-founder of the Georgia Taxpayers Alliance, says the organization dislikes the idea of using a local sales tax to build state and federal highway projects.
Fulton County, including the city of Atlanta, is expected to raise $2.52 billion over 10 years if the referendum passes, and $274.8 million of that revenue would fund county- and city-driven projects.
The Georgia Taxpayers Alliance (GTA) is also against T-SPLOST because the organization thinks the other nine counties would simply be “donors” for Fulton County. Douglas County and Fayette County would generate $242.4 million and $223 million, respectively, from T-SPLOST, while each county would receive approximately $53 million of that to fund projects within their county lines.
GTA is also against the transportation initiative because the tax is something that affects Atlanta voters now, while the projects are a long-term plan. “Many of these projects are not fully funded since they are 20- to 30-year projects that cannot be completed with only 10 years of taxation,” says Bell. “Raising taxes in a down economy will do further harm to that economy and taxpayers.”
Previous plans similar to T-SPLOST received sharp criticism from Atlanta residents because there was no method to control how the invested dollars were spent, says Gore. “The governance that’s in this initiative mandates that the revenue is invested in the geography that’s actually contributing those dollars. We have control.”
The transportation referendum would save approximately $18 billion in real personal income over 10 years through fuel savings, if it were to pass, according to the economic analysis study compiled by the Atlanta Regional Roundtable, which was created by ARC.
“All you’re doing is paying one more cent in sales tax for something that can have an extraordinarily positive impact and ripple effect,” emphasizes Gore.
But in Bell’s opinion, most of the projects would do nothing to solve congestion. “What’s the number one cause of commuter delays?” asks Bell. “Traffic accidents. Regardless of how many billions of tax dollars we spend on public transportation, there is no way to avoid the inevitable traffic accidents.”
— Brittany Biddy