Report: DeKalb Could Withhold Support For Sales Tax Funding Plan For Regional Transit

The Journal-Constitution reports DeKalb County officials vow to block a penny sales tax for regional transit because the current short list of projects does not include rail service in South DeKalb.

The so-called I-20 project they're lobbying for is a 5.4-mile rail line to link the Indian Creek MARTA station to Wesley Chapel Road.

But it's not on the the short-list of projects that the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable, which has been studying a number of transportation ideas that could come to metro Atlanta, is proposing.

The final list won't be released until October, but DeKalb leaders threatened to oppose the sales tax proposal if the I-20 project doesn't make the final cut, the newspaper said.

“If we do not have that rail, we cannot support the penny,” the newspaper quoted Larry Johnson, the DeKalb County Commission’s presiding officer as saying.

He and other DeKalb leaders spoke at a news conference before a scheduled meeting of roundtable officials.

Voters won't even decide on the penny sales tax until a regional referendum in July of 2012. If voters approve, the tax could generate about $7.2 billion over a 10-year period — which would cover the $6.1 billion cost of these regional projects.

Bucky Johnson, who is chairman of transportation roundtable, stressed nothing is final until October.

But Johnson, an East Atlanta native who now is mayor of Norcross, said the final list of projects has to make sense from a regional perspective.

It's key, he said, because federal attention to Atlanta's transportation needs suffers from a lack of regional cohesion.

"One of the things that we've heard is that the federal government is confused about what we really want," Johnson told East Atlanta Patch. "The need is great and you have got to start somewhere. If we did a little bit to everybody, than nobody would get what they wanted."

Ironically, what DeKalb officials want for South DeKalb won't necessarily be what constituents in East Atlanta Patch favor.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority has plans for an $800 to $900 million project which would create a mass transit corridor along I-20 between Stonecrest Mall and Downtown.

In that proposal, residents of East Atlanta and neighboring Ormewood Park, favor the scenario that has a transit line — light rail or rapid bus system — running along I-20 through the East Atlanta and Glenwood Park neighborhoods and directly into Downtown.

MARTA's two alternatives to that idea include:

• A transit system along the same route on I-20 but instead of going through East Atlanta and Glenwood Park, veer off through Kirkwood and connect directly with MARTA's Edgewood-Candler Park station.

• Extending the MARTA line that ends at Indian Creek down I-285 and then east along I-20 to Stonecrest. This would bypass East Atlanta and Glenwood Park, as well.

The next two months will be critical, Johnson said, because public input will help shape what the roundtable ultimately picks to make the final list.

Whatever the outcome, it can't favor one jurisdiction's needs at the expense of others, he said.

"What would help one part of the metro area support the tax may cause another part of the metro area to not support it," Johnson said, noting other jurisdictions in the 10-county area are lobbying for their projects, too.

"But there has to be some sensibility because there's only so much [money] to go around."