In a March 13 response by Commissioner Brown to an earlier letter to the editor on TheCitizen.com, Commissioner Brown said, “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.”
Commissioner Brown is “running with scissors” when he uses these numbers. And they ain’t pinking shears.
Fayette County is not tossing in $3.2 billion for transit in the ARC region like Commissioner Brown suggests, and he knows better.
In fact, Commissioner Brown knows that approximately 92.27 percent of all regional sales tax dollars will be returned to Fayette county residents for highways and other non-transit uses within Fayette County borders.
And if we include the highway improvements in West Clayton and South Fulton that Fayette residents use daily, Fayette County residents would get a whopping 123.13 percent return on their investment.
Those additional highway projects include widening Ga. Highway 85 from the Fayette/Clayton County line to I-75 ($29.4 million), widening Fayetteville Road from McDonough Road (in Fayette) to U.S. Highway 41 in Jonesboro ($8.1 million) and rebuilding the I-85/Ga. Highway 74 intersection ($11.25 million) in South Fulton. Commissioner Brown knows these projects could not be funded with a Fayette-only local SPLOST.
Combine these investments with all the improvements made throughout the remainder of the metro Atlanta region, where 40 percent of Fayette County residents travel every day, and Fayette County residents may be getting the best return on their investment of any county in the metro Atlanta region.
The transportation referendum on July 31 is important to the future of Fayette County. It is critical that Fayette voters base their voting decisions on the facts. I would encourage everyone go to http://atlantaregionalroundtable.com/documents/final_report.pdf and get the facts.
And please don’t run with scissors.
Terry D. Lawler
Executive Director
Regional Business Coalition of Metro Atlanta
Atlanta, Ga.
