DeKalb NAACP calls transportation tax 'racist'

• Joeff Davis / CL File

The DeKalb County branch of the NAACP is telling voters that the July 31 referendum that could raise billions of dollars in new funding for roads and transit lines in metro Atlanta - and which the organization has been clear it opposes - is "racist."

For the last several weeks, the group has distributed fliers (PDF) listing seven reasons why voters should reject the 1-percent transportation tax, which it calls "unfair" and "racist."

In addition to correctly noting that residents of Fulton and DeKalb counties, who for 41 years have paid a sales tax to fund MARTA, would now pay more, the flier claims the measure would result in a state takeover of the transit agency and the subsequent "loss of jobs for blacks and others." In addition, it says "blacks are always under served sic and never get our fair share back of taxes paid."

"They charge us taxes and don't provide us any services for them," DeKalb NAACP President John Evans says, referring to the one-cent sales tax DeKalb residents pay to fund MARTA, in a phone interview. "They've never done right by us. We need our share."