How Clifton Corridor Light Rail Line to Avondale Station Could Be Funded In Next Couple Years
Decatur Metro | December 1, 2014 | 12:42 pm
From a recent post on the Saporta Report detailing the upcoming December MARTA meetings to discuss the proposed routes and funding options to reinvigorate the Clifton Corridor rail project between Lindbergh and Avondale MARTA stations via Emory…
The state Legislature is expected to revisit in the transportation funding issue during the 2015 session. Any measure is likely to take two years to win approval, which means a funding mechanism could be in place with the environmental impact study of the Clifton Road route is complete, in 2015 or 2016.
Some lawmakers are discussing an increase in the statewide motor fuel tax. Another proposal would enable a few counties to unite to propose a transportation referendum, rather than the 10 counties that were involved in the 2012 referendum.
There are two meetings scheduled to discuss. Details below:
Thursday, December 4, 2014, 6-8 pm
Westminster Presbyterian Church
1438 Sheridan Rd. NE, Atlanta, GA 30324
Tuesday, December 9, 2014, 6-8 pm
Emory Student Activity & Academic Center
Room 316
1946 Starvine Way, Decatur, GA 30033
Map courtesy of MARTA
“Although voters rejected the proposed 1 percent sales tax, advocates of the “Clifton Road corridor” transit route have continued to foster the project.”
Or, stated differently, these particular advocates refuse to take no for an answer.
Or, stated differently, “Although voters from across the 14 county region rejected the proposed 1 percent sales tax, local voters were overwhelmingly in favor, and so advocates of the “Clifton Road corridor” transit route have continued to foster the project”
But the “local voters” can’t pay for it. As drawn above, it looks massively expensive. That means a regional or state-wide levy is going to be necessary, and that additional levy is what the voters rejected just last year. The elected reps want to keep their jobs, so they aren’t going to impose a new Clifton corridor tax contra the expressed will of the voters.
DEM-
If Fulton & DeKalb were to pass their own “TSPLOST” 1 cent sales tax that only did transit and no roads, it could fund basically all the transit projects on the table in the two counties straight up.
A 1 cent tax in Fulton and DeKalb collects $340M a year today.
That is $6.8B over 20 years.
$2.17B gets you the next three phases of Streetcar / Beltline LRT Transit.
$1.96B gets you the I-20E BRT and HRT extension
$1.6B gets you the MARTA 400N HRT Extension
$700M gets you the Clifton Corridor LRT
That leaves you with $370M left for operations or what ever else you want
That assumes no contributions from other sources:
Zero growth in Sales Tax collections
Zero Fed Dollars
Zero State Dollars
Zero Beltline TAD Dollars
Zero MARTA Dollars
So there is plenty of wiggle room to make this quick-math work.
There is strong support for transit in Fulton & DeKalb and these projects would cover about every part of the counties so it should have no trouble passing.
The legislature never had to put this up for vote and could have implemented the 1% motor fuel tax. But, instead of making tough choices, out elected officials down at the dome took the other route.
“The legislature never had to put this up for vote and could have implemented the 1% motor fuel tax. But, instead of making tough choices, out elected officials down at the dome took the other route.”
Yep. Though I don’t discount the possibility that some actually wanted money for roads outside of the gas tax.
If you read the blurb on the Clifton Corridor website, the leader says that she hopes to see it done one day before she dies. I went to her profile page and she looks pretty young. The environmental impact study won’t even be done till 2017.
Love to see it, but unless Emory chips in a couple hundred million, then it won’t be funded by the current legislature or voters here anytime soon. Hope I’m wrong. Hate to be a downer.
Government red tape makes these projects almost impossible to pull off in less than decades. Look at the Beltline – Cathy Woolard took up that cause 16 years ago and all we’ve got is a bike path.