Voters to decide on MARTA sales tax in November

The Atlanta City Council voted unanimously in June to put a referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot to allow voters to decide whether MARTA will get an extra half-cent in sales tax for $2.8 billion over the next 40 years for expansion projects.

This month, the council will take up a potential second referendum for a transportation special purpose local option sales tax – or TSPLOST – to fund bike trails, sidewalks and road projects for five years. If voters approve another half-penny for the TSPLOST along with approving the MARTA tax, that would increase the city’s sales tax to 9 percent – the highest in the state.

Councilmember Felicia Moore said she voted for the MARTA tax referendum, but said “sales tax is regressive.” She said many of her constituents depend on MARTA to get to work and shopping, so she said expanding the system would help, while the sales tax will hurt.

“The poorest among are the ones being the most hurt by it,” Moore said. “The new way of funding projects is to ratchet up sales tax. People who are dependent on MARTA don’t have the option to go somewhere else with a lower sales tax to buy goods and services.”

Councilmember Kwanza Hall had infill stations at Mechanicsville and Krog/Hulsey Yard, identified in the 2007 Infill Station Study as having the greatest cost benefit to the potential project list. Hall also amended the list to add the proposed “S” Light Rail line that would connect Murphy Crossing, Atlanta University Center, the current Streetcar, the BeltLine Eastside to Armour Yard, and eventually on to Emory University. Other projects that would be funded by the sales tax include a transit station at Greenbriar Mall, on-demand circulators that operate in neighborhoods, additional fixed-bus routes, and other enhancements and expansion initiatives that would link to the Atlanta BeltLine as well as MARTA’s existing bus-and-rail network.