Citizens skeptical of transit tax at East Cobb town hall

As an open house period preceded a town hall on the proposed Cobb Mobility Referendum, some citizens who gathered at the Fullers Park Recreation Center Thursday weren’t happy with how the event was set up.

After an hour, Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson, Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler and other county, metro Atlanta and state transportation officials conducted a panel discussion and answered written questions from the crowd of about 50 people.

Some complained that there was no process for verbally questioning those at the front of the room, but after a while, a few citizens did anyway.

The Cobb Taxpayers Association, which opposes a transit tax of any duration, distributed two full pages of questions its leader, Lance Lamberton, says the county isn’t trying to answer.

Including the first question: “How much will the transit tax cost the average citizen on an annual basis?”

Lamberton was among the skeptics who question the need for a one-cent sales tax for transit and other transportation  that Cobb DOT presented last month.

One option would be for 10 years that would collect $2.8 billion and the other is a 30-year tax that would collect $10.9 billion. The latter is endorsed by Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who said at a work session last month that would enable the county to get more federal matching funding.

Commissioners are expected to vote later this year on whether to call for a referendum in November 2024, but Richardson told East Cobb News before the town hall a date to formally consider that action hasn’t been discussed.

Thursday’s open house was the first of several to take place around the county through the end of October to gauge public response to the possibility of having a transit tax.

She said the feedback she’s received has been “a mixed bag” that presents a variety of issues and options, including accessibility, pedestrian safety, road resurfacing and paratransit and microtransit services.

The bulk of the proposal would be to create and expand what Cobb DOT calls “High-Capacity Transit” bus services, primarily in dense areas in the Cumberland and along Interstate 75 as well as around Town Center and the main Kennesaw State University campus.

The options include Bus Rapid Transit, which would operated in dedicated lanes, and Arterial Rapid Transit, which blends in with other vehicles.

The only current CobbLinc line that runs in East Cobb is along Powers Ferry Road.

There is a proposed 6.6-mile ART route that would run along Roswell Road from the proposed Marietta Transit Center near the Big Chicken to Johnson Ferry Road, with a projected cost between $125-$150 million.

That’s similar to a route that was previously operated by Cobb Community Transit (now CobbLinc), but was discontinued by commissioners during the recession. It had some of the lowest ridership numbers in the system.

“Ultimately, he voters have the right to say what their tax money will be used for,” Raessler said after highlighting the referendum presentation he made to commissioners in August (you can read it here).

That was a prelude to a question that has been on the minds of many as Cobb DOT prepares to put together a project list before the anticipated commissioners’ vote.

Why?

Raessler pointed to project population growth of 25 percent in Cobb County by 2050, to more than 1 million residents, and a 24-percent increase in the county’s number of employed people, to more than 500,000.

He said KSU students have expressed easier access to CobbLinc, the county’s existing bus service.

An expanded and blended system, Raessler said, is more flexible and affordable than rail, and can take some of the  features of rail “to make it work better.”

“We’re in the transit environment that was envisioned 30 years ago,” said Brad Humphry, a mobility member of Richardson’s citizen “cabinet.”

“The opportunity is now to envision the transit system of the future.”

But several citizens spoke out adamantly against those transit options, saying they would lead to higher density in more suburban areas.

Richardson had said that there would be no proposed changes in density from the county’s future land use map to accommodate transit.

“We’re going to stay consistent with the Future Land Use Map,” she said.

Raessler said that bus service would indeed look different around the county because of varying levels of density that already exist.

“There will be a different look [with routes] connecting the KSU campuses and anything going into East Cobb,” he said.

But resident Virginia Choate said “we do not want to look like Sandy Springs. . . . Buses from the Big Chicken to East Cobb are not needed.”

Raessler emphasized that the need to expand transit now is to get ahead of the anticipated influence of new residents and workers.

“How can we accommodate that growth?” he said.

When Lamberton pressed him on this primary question—the cost the tax would cost the average household—Raessler said “it depends on the household.

“It is a sales tax and it depends on how much that individual is spending.”

Richardson admitted that she has issues with a sales tax that is regressive by nature and would hit those on the financial margins the hardest.

She suggested that perhaps state lawmakers could revisit the 2022 law allowing for local mobility referenda to create some exemptions from the tax in certain categories of sales.

Richardson said she’s inviting further public feedback on the issue and invites citizens to examine her mobility presentation.

Five more open houses are scheduled on the mobility referendum, including Saturday, Oct. 14, from 10 a.m to 12 p.m. at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road).

For more information, visit the Cobb Mobility SPLOST website.

Related:

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• Cobb commissioners adopt FY 2024 budget with no millage cut