Transportation Plan? Atlanta Voters Say No Thanks
Voters in the Atlanta region rejected a ballot measure to raise sales taxes by a penny to fund some $6 billion in transportation projects.
Caroline Cournoyer
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September 2012
Something for everyone isn’t always enough to please anyone. That moral can be drawn from the failure of a major transportation funding measure in Atlanta.
Business groups disturbed by Atlanta-area congestion decided to borrow an idea from Western cities like Phoenix and Denver. Rather than waiting for federal funds, they wanted to ask residents to pay for improvements. They got the Legislature on board, and voters in Atlanta and a 10-county area were presented in July with a ballot measure to raise sales taxes by a penny to fund some $6 billion in transportation projects. (Other regions throughout Georgia voted on similar, more modest packages.)