Mayor Floyd’s Memorable Quote on the Transportation Referendum
Decatur Metro | April 28, 2012 | 12:44 pmCreative Loafing’s transportation nut, Thomas Wheatley, reported earlier this week from the T-SPLOST forum hosted by Emory on Wednesday evening. Of all the answers given by the panel, Wheatley found Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd’s reply to a question about how supporters should address the issue with potential voters to be the most memorable of the bunch. Here’s Floyd’s reply according to Wheatley…
“The key to it is to let people understand what’s at stake here. I heard someone say this last week: Who do you think is gonna be cheering when this doesn’t pass on Aug. 1? Is it gonna be the tea party people? Is it gonna be those in South DeKalb? Is it gonna be those who think we’re paying a penny and we don’t want to pay any more? It’s gonna be Charlotte, it’s gonna be Dallas, it’s gonna be Phoenix. It’s gonna be everybody we compete with for jobs on a daily basis. They will know we’ve stepped back from the plate. They will know we are not willing to take the steps here to move this region forward.”
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A very good point by the Mayor. But never underestimate the astounding capacity that people have to vote against their own interests. Many will simply look at the (minor) impact that an additional penny in sales taxes will have on their checkbooks without any thought given to the return on investment that it would provide in the future to themselves and their neighbors.
I have to say that I was shocked lately reading about how poorly Atlanta is doing compared to other areas of the country in terms of economic recovery–jobs, foreclosures, whatever. We live in a little bubble here in Decatur where many of us have lost jobs or been cut back in income but our homes still have value and our schools and local government are still solvent. I have no idea whether the mayor is right about the transportation referendum being key to our area’s competitiveness for jobs but he seems like a pretty wise guy. Of course, I count anyone who is nice to my family on a regular basis as perceptive and sage.
I wish my condo existed in that bubble you speak of. I’m down 60k on the value of our home, and we are in the City of Decatur limits.
I didn’t say that our homes had RETAINED the falsely high value that they had 5 years ago! I just said they HAVE value. Any value! I’ve got in-laws in the outer burbs whose homes essentially have no value if they tried to sell them right now.
I have never thought about or cared what people in Charlete, Dallas, or Phoenix think. If there are people in those towns that will celebrate the defeat of the tax referendum, all I can say is, that sounds like one boring party!
We compete against those cities for jobs and economic development. If you are OK with those cities passing Atlanta, then I guess that is fine. Atlanta will continue it’s economic decline that it has been undergoing for the past decade.
I know who will be cheering if it passes. The gas interest in the state of Georgia they came up with a sales tax to avoid it becoming a gas tax. Pathetic. DOT will also be cheering because a huge portion of the projects will be mega road projects managed by them. They tossed mass transit a few bones so they could call it green, this is just more of the same.
I believe this is your strongest statement yet on this project TR. What was your inspiration?
Mass transit does make up 50% of the money for projects on the list. Now, one could argue it should be more and I might agree with that. But it sounds like more than just throwing it “a few bones.”
It’s been a while since I looked at this, but doesn’t the mass transit part leave a huge short fall compared to the projected total cost, whereas the roads projects are almost fully funded by the tax?
Yes. Over 10 percent of the total cost would be unfunded. That means metro Atlanta would have to depend on the already broke federal government to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to us for our Clifton Corridor, Beltline, etc. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the “roundtable” created no contingency plan or priority list for the projects if full funding wasn’t available. Add that to the fact that there still isn’t a proper agency in place to oversee transit in metro Atlanta, and you can make your own choice as to whether the TSPLOST passing will be something to “cheer” for or a huge boondoggle.
My inspiration is my passion for mass transit being used against me in a well thought out weapon by the gas lobby. As might be expected, I was for this project until I spoke with a friend of mine who also pines for urban planning nirvana woke me up to its realities. Lots of mega road projects with no guarantee of federal funding or how it will be managed. Moreover, there is nothing in it for bicycling. Last its source of revenue should be a gas tax (like most other states), not a sales tax. These are all factors that need to be considered before we jump in head first to this important vote.
This is Georgia. Thinking that we will have a chance to find a way to fund large-scale sustainable development (Beltline) and mass transit, including a real asset creator in our backyard, anytime again in the near-to-mid term seems crazy to me. This is a far-from-perfect solution but we need get behind this. Those highways will get built one way or another at some point – the road lobby ain’t going to stop fighting for them if this doesn’t work. Look at positives and think of the alternative: more of the same. I wish we could find optimism for a better solution to come along in the next 10 years or more, but I don’t see it happening. I know this is what the road builders would want me to say, but I really think it’s the truth.
Your suggestion that this should be funded thrpough a gas tax is simply bad economics. Large scale and long term projects funded through consumption on any one class of goods, in particular a class of goods where people are actively trying to curb consumption leads to reliance on an unstsuainable source of revenue. Furthermore, it insinuates that those who consume more gas should be more financially responsible for these improvements as if it is not for the benefit of the entirety of the region. While I understand if you don’t agree with the specific proposals, there is no reason to confine the funding to one specific class of goods (in this case gas). Tying it to overall consumption, as currently planned, provides for a more sustainable source of revenue to fund the project that is tied to the success of the local economy and in turn is aligned with the objectives of the initiative
Let’s try a usage tax based upon number of miles people drive, to be paid with your tag and/or a “toll” to enter a particular congested area like London has been doing for a few years. Neither of those would ever fly in Georgia, because the “take away personal freedom”, but both have been used other places.
I’ll vote yes on the transport referendem, but as Trees Rock states above, this vote puts us all between a rock (no pun intended) and a hard place. The massive amount of investment in highway and road infrasturcture (in addition to the desperately needed public transport infrastructure) is so backwards and misguided in this day and age its laughable. As long as we can extract (e.g. steal) resources from foreign countries to enable us to keep up this wasteful and expensive commuter lifestyle so we can keep endlessly paving over the land to honor the “growth God” (as if developing the land far and wide can continue endlessly like a cancer.) Sure…Tea Party reps can make statements about “independent liberties” in an age of mass population growth…but in order to sustain individual liberties there needs to be a focus on responsible collective solutions….and yes…there is a responsiblity to the collective. Environmental degradation, runaway global warming…there’s a river in Africa call de-Nile. … oh, that’s right…we’re all headed to heaven so who cares about “this world”. uh huh…sure. Maturity is just as great of a quality as honesty, integrity, humor, hard work, and responsibility. Responsibity to the next seven generations and beyond. Seriously…when did people get so mentally clouded, lost and confused? A generation ago? A few hundred years ago? The start of this civilization? Look around. Be aware. (There’s a parking lot in the Square for gosh sakes)
Well said — your thoughts on this matter are mirroring mine in many ways, particularly in regard to “this wasteful and expensive commuter lifestyle” that has resulted in so much of the precious landscape of north Georgia becoming developed, paved over and disconnected.
Many of the projects attached to this tax continue the same destructive pattern that has put us in a bind over recent decades: transportation projects playing catch-up with land-hogging, inefficient, badly connected development patterns across the metro. Because, of course (begin sarcasm), planning efficient, compact land use that puts people closer to their jobs would be tyranny and we couldn’t stand for that — just build things wherever the cheapest land is and we’ll worry about the billions of dollars in transportation costs later (end sarcasm).
Previous generations in the metro have handed mine a real lemon by way of sprawling construction that paid no heed to environmental damage or the transportation woes for future generations. We need to stop the damage and demand more efficiency in land use so that we don’t just pass the problem on to future generations.
Metro traffic is a symptom of the greater problem of bad land use. Instead of yet another decade of treating the symptom, it’s time to move on to the core problem. Demand that we build with an eye toward infill, mixed uses, walkable neighborhoods and cycling infrastructure. And demand that transportation and development are planned together with an intention to reduce environmental harm and the need for so much pavement.
That said, I know there’s a chance that I’ll also vote ‘yes’ just because I want to see more intown transit projects and I’ll have trouble resisting that dangling carrot. But the thought of once again subsidizing car-centric sprawl in a state that refuses to raise the gas tax to an appropriate level (considering the damage we’ve done to the environment with that sprawl and the cars that enable it) makes the chance slim.
Also, I feel compelled to provide a vote for the environment. Native plant and animal species — many of which have been devastated by decades of sprawl — and their ecosystems don’t get to vote. People who care about them have to vote in their place.
There are a million people in this region that would vote against the referendum simply because of the “T” word. There a a couple million more that would vote against it because there’s too much money being spent on transit projects for ITP communists. Ultimately it’s a compromise in an era where compromise is unheard of, and only a couple hundred thousand people at most will show up at the polls. Hopefully we’ll signal the country that we are reasonable people who can do what it takes to solve a local problem, one that impacts all of our incomes and home values. I hope everyone in Decatur votes YES on July 31.
+1
I don’t know if this is just a dumb question from the new guy, but why is the vote happening on a random day in the middle of summer? Why didn’t they put it on the November ballot when people will actually be planning to go out and vote?
The vote is coincident with the primary election. You’ll have to act the legislature why it’s not in November.
Thanks. I read what you wrote and didn’t understand it at first because I voted in what I thought was the primary back in March. Didn’t realize there was anything else until the November vote. Things work very differently than here than in PA, but I’m learning. Thanks again.
No, you voted in a presidential preference vote in March. In July, you will vote in a primary election for all other offices, like state legislature, judges, DeKalb Commission and CEO, and the like.
Well, the reason we will be seeing it on the July ballot as opposed to November is so it won’t pass. Less folks at the voting polls. That’s your Red State at work at the Gold Dome.
You may be right Decatur Resident, it is certainly a rebuttable presumption. Conventional wisdom though would argue that July was selected precisely to get it approved not rejected. The reason, according to those who receive large consulting contracts to know such things, is that in an off election, people who support a particular item are more likely to cast their vote than those who oppose. They already have somthing to gain in the form of the initiative that they support and will go to the extra effort to register their support. Votes against something apparenlty don’t engender the willingness to make the effort if there is little else on the ballot.
I certainly don’t know the facts here, but since we have a presidential election in November you can bet your last dollar that the July referendum date was set for a calculated reason – I know for a fact that the bond referendum for the City of Decatur a few years back was set that way – Mrs. Skeptic was in the room when the consultant laid out the plan…
Off elections votes such as this are scheduled as they are precisely because a low voter turn-out is expected. The thought is that those who support the referendum are more likely to bother to show up than those that oppose if there is nothing else or very little on the ballot.
This brought to you by the same people who urge everyone to show up and participate in the election process and callously schedlue their pet initiatives to be voted on when the lowest probable turnout is likely.
I would suggest that a “no” vote on any issue scheduled in hthis manner would be appropriate if on prinicpal alone.
For readers here, the most relevant info might be that the panel repeatedly clarified that the Clifton Corridor project was only from Lindbergh to Emory – not Lindbergh to Avondale.
I’m voting No. No to more highways, no to more sprawl, no to half-funded transit projects that only do half the job. And no to those [edited: no name-calling] OTP who expect me to pay for them to get to work while they call MARTA “Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta.”