Roundtable puts finishing touches on transportation-tax list

A roundtable of metro Atlanta elected officials yesterday finished deciding which regional road and transit lines would be funded by a 1-cent sales tax voters will decide next year. The process of determining the $6.1 billion list of transportation projects ends on Thursday, when the group’s 21 members will give the entire proposal an up-or-down vote. David Pendered of the Saporta Report notes some highlights from yesterday’s meeting:

• GRTA and MARTA were winners, in the sense that MARTA earmarks were not cannibalized to pay for GRTA bus service. GRTA is to maintain existing service levels for a decade with the use of sales tax money and $33 million in federal money expected after 2017. MARTA’s earmark to maintain its state of good repair was not cut in order to shift money to GRTA bus service.
• DeKalb County did not get an additional fund to help pay for a MARTA rail line along I-20, from Atlanta toward the Mall at Stonecrest. The money was proposed to come from cuts to earmarks for upgrading the Ga. 400/I-285 interchange and collector/distributor lanes, and from the new rail line from MARTA’S Lindbergh Station toward Emory University.
• Two other proposals failed — a $350 million earmark to build commuter rail with money obtained by cutting a host of other projcts; and an $80 million earmark for GRTA to be covered by reducing earmarks for Atlanta’s BeltLine and two transit lines — rail lines to Cumberland Mall and Emory University.

This page offers a complete rundown of how each effort to amend the project list fared. We’re trying to get our hands on a list that runs down each road and transit proposal.

In January, state lawmakers will most likely try to reschedule the referendum date from July to November, when more voters are expected to visit the polls. They’ve also promised to push for the creation of a regional transit agency to help wrangle metro Atlanta’s myriad bus and rail lines. You should also get prepared for a multi-million dollar promotional campaign paid for by some of the region’s big bidnesses, urging a “yes” vote. It already has a Twitter account.