In 2016 the City of Atlanta had little trouble getting a four-tenths special purpose local option sales tax for transportation (TSPLOST) passed, which raised some $300 million over a five-year period for transportation projects. This year new Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is asking for voters to extend that measure, and then some, with three ballot questions on next Tuesday’s ballot that would approve packages totaling some $750 million.
One of those three packages is the extension of the TSPLOST, while the other two would fund other general infrastructure repairs and upgrades, ranging from park and pool improvements to expanding the city’s 911 call center to beefing up arts initiatives.
The measures have the support of much of Atlanta’s business community, with major donations from groups such as the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, and Delta Air Lines, who have helped fund a campaign to raise awareness for the ballot questions and urge voters to approve them. Dickens, too, has spoken at events throughout the city in an effort to drum up support, saying “the stakes are high” and that the money is much needed.
But the package’s approval is no sure thing – back in 2012 Metro Atlanta voters rejected a massive TSPLOST that would have generated more than $18 billion for transportation projects across the state over the next decade. That proposal was on a larger scale, and had more organized opposition, but it was still voted down even in typically-friendly counties such as Fulton and DeKalb.
Many Atlanta residents have been leery of the 2016 TSPLOST, which overpromised and underdelivered on many of its promised projects. Light rail along the Beltline, a popular and much played-up part of the city’s proposal, hasn’t made any progress. Other rail expansions, such as the Clifton Corridor and Campbellton Road, have been shelved in favor of studies on bus rapid transit (BRT) lines.
And road quality continues to be a major concern, with many citizens wondering why few repairs or upgrades seem to have been made in the previous six years. In fact, one of the major pieces of construction to come out of that package was the $23M pedestrian bridge near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a project not even on the original list that went far over budget and had dubious ties to former Mayor Kasim Reed.
With no organized opposition and a new regime that is holding onto more popularity than its two most recent predecessors, the 2022 spending package seems likely to pass. But with an increasingly frustrated populace, could we see a repeat of 2012 and a surprising rejection at the ballot box?
