The Losers
The very nice people at the Sierra Club who thought that facts, logic, and the needs of the people would win out. They bet that a less-than-perfect TSPLOST list could be improved. They lost.
The very nice people at the NAACP who thought that the underserved and overlooked would be better served by an improved TSPLOST. They lost.
The very nice people who felt that the parts of metro Atlanta that had carried a disproportionate amount of the transportation funding for decades should be shown some consideration and that an improved TSPLOST would create more fairness. They lost.
The angry T-people who initially thought that by working together with other groups, they could have some influence on transportation policy. They lost.
Instead of getting halfway to our destination, we are back to the starting line, and still backing up.
Gov. Deal has said that he will determine what projects will be selected. He will determine what projects are “needed” and which projects are just “wanted.” No input of the state legislature is wanted.
There will be no Plan B, no do-over. There will be no additional taxes. Gas taxes won’t be raised. Without additional funding, there won’t be any progress, not half progress, not partial progress. Existing gas taxes couldn’t fix existing potholes and improve existing roads. We are slowly backing up to the 1950s.
The Winners
Imagine this phone call to Gov. Deal’s private/lobbyist-only cell phone: “Hello Nathan, this is Mitt Bane. I hear that you could use some money to improve Georgia’s transportation system. Our new transportation division would like to invest in Georgia’s roads. A public private partnership is the best way to go. We get Georgia and the federal government to guarantee a $100 million loan. Bane puts the first $30 million in our pockets and the next $70 million into a toll road, or HOT Lane, or whatever you folks want to call it.”
Gov. Deal likes the idea but asks, “What about opposition?”
CEO Bane says, “If the Governor's Mansion didn’t get burned down because the HOT Lane disaster in Gwinnett on I-85, you are immune from harm. You’ll get the credit for action and we’ll take the heat for the screw ups. The environmentalists won’t get their calls answered. Local groups will be ignored. The T-people won’t know what to do. Will they criticize free market capitalism? I don’t think so. Besides, we’re getting the Koch brothers to form a transportation partnership and they can take care of their own.”
Gov. Deal says, “That sounds great, but what if the plan falls apart and you go bankrupt?”
CEO Bane says, “Nathan, Nathan it’s not our money, except what we'll already have in our pockets. Georgia and the feds are backing the loan. We don’t get hurt. We don’t take the risk, just the profit. Nate, by the way, the Koch brothers want to buy MARTA and re-name it after their dad. Let’s talk about that on our next call.”
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It's my Ball and if you don't play the way I like I'm taking it home!
Is he pointing out that with private/public partnerships the private makes the profit, but when it goes sour the public (taxpayers) foot the loss? Very confusing article.
Instead of taking the consensus of the accurate poling data that predicted the results and resoundingly laid the defeat of TSPLOST at the feet of government perception by the populous, Mike chooses to complain. Come on Mike, join the populous and help us fix our rigged, corrupted and overly expensive government. Now you could take this consensus and run with it, or continue this blame everything on conservatives and enjoy gridlock on the roadways. There is work to be done that has overwhelming support of the voters. Clean the governmental infrastructure starting with actually following through with promises to remove the tolls on 400 and follow through with listening and implementing the audits of GDOT and MARTA. Help us get control of government if you want Georgians support. We're just not that interested in throwing money away on empty promises, like how our education dollars did not increase after the lottery earnings came in. We see the tricks used by government to pay Peter(general budget) by stealing from Paul (education). That was done by Dems and Rebs.
Maybe you could write an article to open a dialog on the subject.
"A little publicized clause in the law [48-8-244 (d)] requires counties in the 9 regions that said 'no' to pay 30% of the cost of future transportation projects. But it only requires the 3 regions that voted "yes" to pay 10%." In other words if GDOT goes ahead with a project we will pay 30% of the cost anyway. Anger doesn't begin to describe how I feel having found this out.
Since Kasim and Lisa are black, do they think TSPLOST opponent State Senator Vincent Fort, a black man, is a racist? How about Dekalb County NAACP President John Evans, another black man, who opposed TSPLOST? The people have spoken. Get a life.