Cobb votes 5-0 to begin planning on transit tax referendum

Nov. 22—Cobb is rolling toward a countywide transit referendum in two years' time.

By unanimous vote, county commissioners took another step toward a 2024 vote on a sales tax increase to expand mass transit. The measure authorizes the county's Department of Transportation (DOT) to begin planning and develop a project list.

What that list will include remains unknown, as it has for the nearly two years the board has been kicking the referendum around.

The county will, however, pursue a broader, transit-focused referendum favored by the board's Democratic members, per the agenda item. That's as opposed to a more limited referendum focused on trails and road improvements.

The county has two paths forward under state law. In one scenario, the county could impose an up to five-year sales tax, of up to 1%, to pay for surface-level transportation spending like trails, bridges, and roadways. Under another, the county could impose an up to 30-year sales tax, also up to 1%, specifically for mass transit construction and operating costs.

The approved agenda item specifies the county will explore the latter option.

The county already conducted several town halls last year on potential transit options, but will go back to the people for more input.

Cobb DOT Director Drew Raessler told the MDJ in an email, "In part, last year's town halls were used to finalize the Comprehensive Transportation Plan. As that plan has been adopted, the public input will be focused on developing the project list."

Raessler said his department hopes to have a final project list by the end of 2023.

Cobb's current sales tax rate is 6%, with 4% going to the state, 1% going to local school districts, and 1% going to the county's special purpose local option sales tax fund. Any new tax for transportation would be added on top of those already existing.

Though Republican Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill have both opposed the 30-year tax option, both voted in favor of the agenda item.

Birrell told the MDJ her hope is that other options will come out of the talks ahead, including with the county's six (soon to be seven, including Mableton) cities.

"This is just preliminary to get started on meetings with the cities and with us to see what all will be incorporated. If it's just transit, if it's transit and transportation that would include resurfacing, sidewalks, intersection improvements ... in addition to transit," Birrell said. "I'm not opposed to looking at the options and working with the cities and the board to see what the language is going to be, and what the referendum will say, but I've said all along I can't support a 30-year tax for transit."

Gambrill meanwhile said the onus to decide ultimately falls to the voters.

"Even though I have my own personal vote and thought on the M-SPLOST," she said, referring to the Mobility SPLOST moniker, "as an elected official, it's my responsibility to allow others to have that opportunity as well."

The board's Democrats, meanwhile, publicly backed the 30-year proposal in May, with Chairwoman Lisa Cupid as its strongest advocate. Cupid has repeatedly argued putting the five-year, smaller tax on the ballot first would doom a referendum on the 30-year tax, which she sees as key to a meaningful expansion of transit in Cobb.

"Who's going to vote to be double taxed on transportation in two election cycles?" she told the MDJ last month.