Politics & Government

Advocacy Campaign Begins for Transportation Tax

ARC Chairman Douglas Hooker gives NPU-B summary of regional program

Atlanta Regional Commission Executive Director Douglas Hooker told NPU-B Tuesday night that the 1-cent regional transportation tax will support 200,000 jobs by 2040.

Hooker made his remarks before the advocacy group Citizens for Transportation Mobility launched a radio and television ad campaign for the tax, to be decided by region voters in a July 31 referendum.

CTM was to preview its ads Wednesday morning at a press conference at the , which is advocating for the tax. The campaign's theme is "Vote Yes to Untie Metro Atlanta's Traffic Knot." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the campaign, supported by business and civic groups such as the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, will spend about $8 million.

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In summarizing the history of the transit tax program and its benefits, Hooker said that CTM's advocacy campaign is following upon the purely educational campaign of another group, the Metro Atlanta Voter Education Network, whose ads have been running for a couple of weeks. The ARC is not part of the advocacy campaign.

The 200,000 jobs will include created positions and those retained because of the tax, he said. Hooker gave a list of other pluses from the tax program, such as a $9.2 billion savings to commuters in fuel and time by 2040.

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Hooker disclosed that the tax has a cap of $8.5 billion, or 10 years, whichever comes first. If sales tax proceeds are strong enough, the collections will stop at $8.5 billion, even if reached before the 10 years are out. But, if the proceeds never reach that amount, the tax will end after 10 years.

He also said that the legislation setting up the referendum calls for a citizens review panel to audit all projects and to issue a report at least once a year.

The program will provide $7.2 billion for the 157 regional projects set up by a regional roundtable through ARC, and $1.3 billion for local projects to be decided by city officials.

City planner Jessica Lavandier said after Hooker's talk that the city had compiled a list of local projects at a series of public meetings, and that the local projects would be disclosed at future public sessions.

 

 

 


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