Cobb County residents will vote in November on whether to fund transit expansion — the county’s first vote involving transit in over a decade.
The Board of Commissioners voted along party lines Tuesday to officially place the 30-year penny sales tax referendum before voters in the November presidential election, an upcoming vote that will likely determine the fate of transit expansion in the region for decades.
Gwinnett County officials have also placed a penny-sales tax transit referendum on the November ballot after their voters rejected proposed expansion of MARTA rail. Leaders in both counties are wagering that county-owned bus rapid transit and on-demand microtransit at the exclusion of MARTA will make a difference this year.
Cobb County proposed a lofty 108 miles of high-capacity transit with BRT through population centers in the county along with on-demand microtransit and expanded local bus routes. The tax will collect an estimated $10.8 billion over 30 years.
If approved by voters, the mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax would increase Cobb’s sales tax from 6% to 7%.
Credit: Cobb County
Credit: Cobb County
Several pro-transit individuals at Tuesday’s meeting voiced their support for transit expansion while some urged the board not to advance the transit tax.
“Public transit in Cobb County keeps declining, and I don’t see how funding more public transit is going to change that,” said Marietta resident Robin Moody. “Cobb County is not built for public transit.”
A few senior citizens spoke in favor of transit expansion, including 48-year Cobb resident Barbara Coley, who thanked the board for “looking ahead for the aging population” that will increasingly rely on public transportation.
“Once I give up my car keys and my independence to come and go as I want, I will become dependent on ride sharing or relocation or both, but that will not be sustainable over the long term,” added Jim Kerr, a 52-year Cobb resident and retired Army colonel.
Those opposed to the transit referendum said ridership on the Cobb County bus system has decreased in the last few years and said 30 years is too long to impose a tax.
Alicia Adams, who tried to run for Cobb’s District 2 commission seat, said low ridership is “not just due to COVID. It’s due to work-life balance, due to people being able to remote work. It’s due to a number of factors that we’re not considering.
“We’ve got 30 years of uncertainty, and no way out.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Cobb County ridership projections show average weekday ridership would increase from an estimated 10,400 under the current system to 40,600 in 2050 under the proposed expansion, according to an analysis generated by a consulting firm hired by the county that relied on pre-COVID methodology and 2020 population estimates.
Transit advocates say the historic lack of funding in the transit system have contributed to the lack of riders, and a significant investment such as the mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax will make the system more usable and increase ridership.
Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill, the board’s two Republicans, both voted against placing the 30-year referendum before voters.
“I’ve been on this board for 14 years and did vote for the 2016 and 2022 county SPLOST to go to a referendum. I feel like it’s the voters’ opportunity and decision to make,” Birrell said. “However, those were six-year projects. ... It’s too long of a project.”
While Cobb County has historically opposed transit expansion, a lot has changed since voters had the chance to voice their opinion on transit at the ballot box.
Cobb Countians in 2012, along with several neighboring counties, voted down a 10-county referendum on a transportation sales tax that also included some transit elements.
But in the 12 years since then, a lot has changed in the metro Atlanta suburb: Democrats flipped almost every local government seat during the 2020 election. And in 2016, the county unexpectedly backed Hillary Clinton, the first Democratic presidential candidate to win a plurality in the Republican stronghold since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
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