The time is right to talk about regional transportation and Fayette County’s role in the scheme of things. Please pay attention because the referendum is coming on July 31.
The same people in Fayette County who contended the horrible 2009 SPLOST package was absolutely vital to the future of the county are the same ones telling you to vote for the Transportation Investment Act, or TIA. The 2009 SPLOST was defeated 3-to-1 by a voting public that was paying attention.
Former Fayetteville Mayor Ken Steele had a short burst of sour grapes in a letter to The Citizen on Feb. 29 on the subject of regional transportation.
Steele, who refused to congratulate Greg Clifton on his victory, said the “editorial page of the newspaper, [is] where the unvarnished truth is but an infrequent visitor from many of our would-be leaders,” and then he starting varnishing on the editorial page.
Steele was the sole vote responsible for removing Mayor Don Haddix as one of our representatives to the Regional Transportation Roundtable, or RTR. We paid a significant price for Steele elevating himself to a leadership role.
Haddix, in Steele’s mind, had committed some unforgivable sins. First, Haddix had the audacity to open his mind and discuss the option of Fayette County leaving the Atlanta Regional Commission and joining the regional commission to our west and south.
Steele actually cited in public that his reasons we had to stay in the Atlanta Regional Commission were the schools and the transportation planning. He literally said the schools in Clayton (loss of accreditation), Atlanta Public Schools (cheating and fraud), DeKalb (cheating and fraud), South Fulton (underperforming), Gwinnett (declining), etc. were reasons not to leave.
By the way, the best school system in the state is in Forsyth County and they chose not to join the Atlanta Regional Commission on the north end.
On the transportation planning end, metro Atlanta is a clogged, uncooperative system controlled by special development interests which is why people are screaming about the traffic.
Regarding the second sin, Steele, who always voted in favor of our inclusion in the regional mass transit system and for regional transit governance, voted Haddix off as our RTR representative because Haddix refused to go along with the premise that we needed to spend massive amounts of our dollars on mass transit when only 5 per percent of commuters choose to use it.
In fact, the final RTR transportation list, approved by Steele and Chairman Herb Frady, called for 52 percent of the funds ($3.2 billion) to go to mass transit projects which will have virtually no effect on metro traffic congestion. (Note: Ridership on mass transit has declined over the last 10 years.)
To make matters worse, those mass transit projects are only 50 percent funded, meaning we need an additional 10 years of regional sales tax to finish them.
As you can probably guess, I am backing the position of Haddix and rational thought, abandoning the illogical and groundless arguments of Ken Steele.
Scott Hollowell of the local Chamber of Commerce also had to jump on the Haddix bashing bandwagon, basing his letter on hearsay.
“I find it strange that the Mayor is claiming credit for the [local road] projects when he is actively campaigning against the funding for those projects,” (Scott Hollowell Letter, The Citizen, Feb. 22).
Well, of course, Mr. Hollowell, there are some road projects we would all like to see, but we are not willing to toss $3.2 billion (and $3-4 billion over the following 10 years) in the toilet to gain small projects in the local area that we could easily fund with a local SPLOST.
Furthermore, since MARTA is already approaching a $3 billion deficit, building an expanded transit system would pull us into a permanent regional sales tax to pay for regional transit maintenance and operations.
I like my house, but I am not willing to pay $5 million for it. There is a point to where common sense has to kick in and we walk away.
Steve Brown
Fayette Commissioner, Post 4
CommissionerBrown@fayettecountyga.gov
Peachtree City, Ga.
