Friday, February 17, 2012
Guv'ment Super Tuesday not so super for city watershed vote
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 2:31 PM
But, as Mayor Kasim Reed told Council members in a mid-day briefing Thursday, that was then.
Reed, a political strategist at heart, explained that since the March 6 ballot doesn't feature a contested presidential primary, most of the voters going to the polls on Super Tuesday will be Republicans, who tend to be somewhat tax-averse. In short, the MOST can't count on an Obama Bump to put it over the top.
In fact, he said, a poll taken in the past week shows that support for re-re-upping the MOST among likely voters has dropped to 59 percent. Although that number would be good enough, it doesn't leave much room for error. And if the MOST somehow got defeated, it would be "a $100 million 'oops,'" the mayor said.
It doesn't help, he added, that the wording of the ballot question — which comes courtesy of the state Legislature — doesn't mention that Atlanta has been under a federal mandate to upgrade its sewers. In other words, the money's already been allocated.
"Either we pass it or we have to raise water rates by 20 percent — or we default on our bonds," the mayor said.
So, the city has overseen the re-launch of the private Clean Water Atlanta to raise money and organize a voter education campaign. Co-chaired by former mayors Sam Massell, Andy Young, and Shirley Franklin, the nonprofit will be spending freely on direct-mail pieces, radio spots, and possibly TV ads to get the MOST passed.
"You will not be seeing much of me between now and March 6," Reed told Council members, "because I'll be off-campus raising money."
Now, for Atlanta newcomers and others unfamiliar with the city's sewer woes, here's the nutshell version: After years of paying federal fines and fighting lawsuits over intown flooding and overflows of raw sewage, the city was forced in 1998 to sign a consent decree to avoid a federal judge placing its water department into receivership. When Franklin came into office, she proclaimed herself the "sewer mayor" and launched a $4 billion overhaul of the city's crumbling sewer system. Originally, Franklin hoped the state and feds would kick in most of the money, but, as Reed reminded the Council, "the cavalry never came." So the city was forced to adopt what are now the highest water rates in the country. In 2004, the MOST was proposed as a way to give ratepayers a break by making suburbanites and other visitors who spend money inside Atlanta help shoulder the cost.
Although the MOST is undeniably an additional tax, it's supported by even the staunchest conservative groups, such as the Fulton County Taxpayers Foundation, Reed said.
BTW, the campaign to pass the MOST has already begun, with posters bearing the tagline "MOST. Important." And, of course, there's already been some controversy surrounding said posters. We're told Councilwoman Felicia Moore has criticized the poster pictured above, arguing that the city shouldn't be trying to sell the idea of clean water using a photo of a hot chick. Obviously, Ms. Moore has never worked at an ad agency.
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
Too bad we couldn't do the Transportation Sales tax vote on March 6. I would say the legislators set up the water bond vote to fail in order to improve the chances of the Transpo Sales Tax vote since failure of that vote will have a negative financial consequence on the State Budget whereas failure of the Atlanta Water vote only hurts the City budget.
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@InAtl— so you want the republican primary voters to boot vote the MOST and the T-SPLOST bill???
How much city-of-Atlanta water do visitors and suburbanites really use? Wouldn't it make more sense for the cost to be tied to the cost of water? How much water do you have to use for the sales tax to be better for you than the water price hike?
John: Do visitors and suburbanites keep their legs crossed or do they use toilets when they visit Atlanta?
How many visitors to Cobb get to make use of Cobb County school facilities? Since I paid sales tax last time I was out there, shouldn't I be entitled to use a middle school gym to throw a wicked rave?
These taxes never seem to go away. We have the sewer tax, the MARTA tax, the school building tax. Are these temporary measures or not?
If this passes, I will not vote for the transportation tax. 9% sales tax is too high, and the city will suffer (people will change their behavior and make big purchases somewhere else).
They assume they can raise the sales tax by 12.5% and get 12.5% more revenue. I seriously doubt that will happen. Amazon anyone?
They assume they can raise the sales tax by 12.5% and get 12.5% more revenue. I seriously doubt that will happen."
raising sales taxes is the only substantial revenue generation method that the city has available
years of plundering and underinvestment of crucial city services means that we have to spend a whole lot to get our physical infrastructure back into shape. previous mayors kept kicking the can down the road, and now we have a whole pile of cans to kick at once
normally a state government is supposed to help out, and they probably should given that atlanta is the capitol of the state and the primary economic engine and all. but georgia has a pathological aversion to helping atlanta out
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