Former Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott, who has rarely commented publicly on county government and politics since he left office in 2021, is speaking out against the proposed 30-year transit tax referendum.
Last week he said submitted a lengthy letter expressing his opposition to the tax to the Marietta Daily Journal, but released it elsewhere after he was told it wouldn’t be published until Saturday.
“That’s like 50,00 voters from now,” Ott told the East Cobb News on Monday, as the second week of early voting is underway in Cobb County for the 2024 general election.
East Cobb News separately obtained a copy of the letter (you can read it in full here), which closes with him saying that the tax is “a bad idea and needs to be defeated.”
A retired Delta Air Lines pilot, Ott said he’s contributed to a Vote No on M-SPLOST group started by former Cobb Chamber of Commerce leader John Loud.
Ott, a Republican from East Cobb who served District 2 from 2009-2020, said in the letter than in addition to the 30-year duration of what’s being called the Cobb Mobility SPLOST (“think about that for a moment; your middle schooler would be in their mid 40s at the end of the tax’), the tax isn’t a Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax, such as the county and Cobb County School District have for shorter periods for specific construction and maintenance purposes.
“Many will remember my numerous NO votes for previous SPLOST proposals because I felt that the project list was mostly wants and not needs,” Ott wrote. “In most cases there wasn’t anything special about the projects, they were just other ways to spend money. This proposal is a long way from the intent of a SPLOST.”
He said that one of the differences is that if the referendum is approved, a new regional transit authority, ATL, would have to approve transit projects in Cobb. “The majority of the ATL committee members are not from Cobb. So how are they going to know what is in the best interest for Cobb related to transit related projects?”
He said the biggest need in Cobb is transportation between the Cumberland area and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, but the transit tax “is silent on any links.”
Other needed transportation projects include widening Roswell Road east from Johnson Ferry Road to the Fulton County line, but it doesn’t “need a 30-year tax to be completed.
“A proper review of county needs vs wants is needed long before giving the county and the commissioners any more of our hard-earned money.”
Ott said it’s hard to look into a crystal ball and envision future needs for the current six-year Cobb SPLOST, which was approved two years in advance, much less three decades.
Like other transit tax opponents, Ott said the low ridership figures in general don’t warrant such a lengthy, broad-based solution to transportation issues.
“Here in East Cobb and many other suburban parts of the county, transit and transportation must compete with the car to be remotely successful,” he wrote. “This transit tax is just like many of the others; it can’t compete.”
The proposed transit tax would restore a little-used bus route in East Cobb that was axed by commissioners during the recession.
Ott told East Cobb News that he tried to get the bus stops along that route on Roswell Road removed, but they continue to generate local advertising revenue.
“I don’t think ridership will improve” if that route comes back, he said. “Transit in Cobb is all about will it compete with the car? It really doesn’t.”
Ott told East Cobb News that when he left office (see our Dec. 2020 interview), he was retiring from politics for good, and wanted to follow the example of former President George W. Bush by staying out of the public spotlight.
“I’ve been trying to do the same thing,” Ott said.
But in addition to his concerns about the tax, he said former constituents and others have been asking him about it.
“I’ve heard from a lot of people who say that they don’t know about it,” Ott said.
Ott, who lives in District 3, represented by Republican JoAnn Birrell, said he was approached about running for commission chair, but declined.
“I’m done with politics,” he said.
Since his departure, Cobb has gone from solidly Republican to having a 3-2 Democratic majority on the commission.
In addition, Cobb countywide office-holders are all Democrats, with one exception (State Court Clerk Robin Bishop).
When asked if a Republican can win countywide office anytime soon, Ott said “I’m not going to speculate.”
But he said that “our elections have turned away from the issues” and have become “character assassinations” that ignore what candidates stand for.
Related:
- More than 80K vote in Cobb in first week of early voting
- Cobb school board candidate profile: John Cristadoro, Post 5
- Cobb school board candidate profile: Laura Judge, Post 5
- Cobb early voting wait-time maps for 2024 general election
- East Cobb early voting guide for 2024 general election
- Prominent Cobb business leader opposes transit tax referendum
- How Cobb commissioner district maps look post-‘home rule’
- Cobb launches transit tax website for November referendum
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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