Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) believes it’s time to move mass transit into the 21st Century in metro Atlanta.
“We have to make some big, bold decisions, and this is big and bold,” said Beach during a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the State Capitol to discuss SB 330 — which would allow Fulton and DeKalb voters to approve an additional 1/2 percent sales tax for new infrastructure for mass transit.
“We will never be a world class region if we don’t address transit in the metro Atlanta area,” he said. “This is bigger than just these two counties.
MARTA currently has plans for expansions to Emory University and along GA 400 and I-20 east of Atlanta.
The press conference followed an announcement earlier in the day that the state Senate Republican caucus had reached an agreement over the problem of two MARTA expansion bills. Beach initially filed SB 313 concerning rail expansion, but that bill was sent to the State and Local Government Operations Committee. That committee is chaired Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, an opponent of MARTA expansion.
Beach followed that with the introduction of SB 330 — an almost identical bill — and it was referred to the transportation committee. Beach said Tuesday the initial bill was heard in Albers’ committee Tuesday, and the new bill will be heard in the transportation committee Thursday.
Beach believes mass transit is a critical piece of the economic development picture in Georgia. “Transit is a component today when it comes to economic development. It’s a box they now check off when looking into locating somewhere,” he said, emphasizing that the “people are ahead of the politicians on this issue.”
“The people want this,” he said. “The poll proves it.”
Beach stressed that the timing was right for this $8 billion infrastructure improvement — which would be the largest investment in infrastructure project ever built in the state.
“We have a lot of momentum in the transportation world right now,” he said. “We passed HB 170 — which means $1 billion of state money to get transportation projects going. We need to capture that momentum and seize the momentum to address transit in our region. We will never be a world class region if we don’t address transit in metro Atlanta.”
Beach also addressed any concerns of raising taxes for mass transit projects.
“We are not raising taxes, we are flexing the one-half of a penny allocated in the SPLOST in HB 170,” he said. The voters will have the final say.”
Beach was joined at the press conference by officials from Advance Atlanta, an advocacy group calling for building a better transit network in metro Atlanta. They have started a petition to urge legislators to support SB 330.
