Category Archives: Tax and Spend Republicans

The incredible disappearing transit machine

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Last Friday an agenda item about a transit presentation by Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce CEO, Northpoint CID Director and Georgia DOT Board member Brandon Beach magically appeared on the Alpharetta City Council docket for Monday night. I was surprised to see such an item appear out of thin air and wrote about it in this post over the weekend.

Well apparently I wasn’t the only one surprised. Several City Council members told me that they didn’t know anything about it until last Friday either.  Then yesterday, as magically as it appeared, the transit presentation disappeared and never took place. Curious stuff.

Maybe Mr. Beach saw the recent article “The Public Transport Revolution – Why does it never Arrive?” on Newgeography.com and realized that MARTA trains were a waste of time and money. You can read the whole article here but below are a few highlights.

Urban economist, Anthony Downs, writing in “Still Stuck in  Traffic?” reminds us:

“….trying to decrease traffic congestion by raising  residential densities is like trying to improve the position of a painting hung  too high on the living room wall by jacking up the ceiling instead of  moving the painting.”

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One of the arguments used against building more roads – and  especially against more motorways – is that as soon as they are built they  become congested again because of “induced demand.” Such “induced demand” is  surely the natural expression of suppressed demand. It seems unlikely  that motorists will mindlessly drive between different destinations for no  other reason than they can.

However, let us accept for a moment that “induced demand” is  real, and suggests that improving the road network is a fruitless exercise. Advocates  of expensive rail networks claim they will reduce congestion on the roads and  improve the lot of private vehicle users as a consequence.

But surely, if the construction of an expensive rail network  does reduce congestion on the roads then induced demand will rapidly restore  the status quo. Maybe the theory is  sound after all. It would explain why no retrofitted rail networks have  anywhere resulted in reduced congestion.

This is the time to invest in an enhanced roading network while  making incremental investments in flexible public transport. Roads can be  shared by buses, trucks, vans, cars, taxis, shuttle-buses, motor-cycles and  cyclists – unless compulsive regulators say they are for buses only. Railway  lines can be used only by trains and if we build them in the wrong place they  soon run empty. The Romans built roads and we still use them.

So maybe the incredible disappearing transit machine shows that local business leaders now realize raising sales taxes to pay for expensive, inefficient trains is a waste of time and money. And maybe the Georgia Department of Transportation will make up for decades of neglecting roads in what has been one of the fastest growing areas in the nation.

And maybe I’ll ride a flying pig to Braves games this Summer.

Nothing to see here… move along… move along

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A curious thing popped up on the city of Alpharetta’s website the other day.

It comes as no surprise that Brandon Beach wants the Alpharetta City Council to accept his billion dollar vision for taxpayer subsidized public mass transit. Mr. Beach simultaneously acts as the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce’s CEO, the North Fulton Community Improvement District’s Executive Director as well as the 6th District representative on the Georgia Department of Transportation and I have personally heard him pitch his vision to the Windward Rotary Club as covered here at the Alpharetta Patch. I have also noticed that local Chamber of Commerce officials along with representatives of area Community Improvement Districts are currently conducting an extensive public relations campaign to promote taxpayer subsidized trains on the northern perimeter of Atlanta. You can see what I mean here and here.

So Mr. Beach’s proposal is not a surprise and there is nothing wrong with businessmen and their employees lobbying Metro Atlanta taxpayers to pay an additional 8 Billion dollars in sales tax which will be spent on transportation projects. When the projects could make them billions of dollars it just makes good business sense. Kind of like when the Cobb County CIDs spent $150,000 to make sure the local SPLOST tax passed.

The only surprise is that once again the Alpharetta City Council is making crucial decisions about the future of our city without actively soliciting the consent of their constituents. I pay a great deal of attention to what is going on in the City of Alpharetta and take care to read every public notice and press release I find. Yet the appearance of the transit item on Monday night’s Council agenda was a complete surprise to me.

I think it is fair to say that 99% of Alpharettans won’t even know the transit issue came up unless the local print media bothers to publish a story after the fact. The decision of approving Mr. Beach’s transit vision of the future is a crucial one. It is a decision that could affect every person in this city for generations to come and may decide how billions of dollars in taxes are spent. Yet there are only a handful of people that even notice what is going on.

Nothing to see here… move along… move along.

Senator Saxby Chambliss, Tax and Spend Republican

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Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss continues to show why conservative voters in Georgia are constantly frustrated by his presence in the Senate. As reported on Redstate.com:

A few weeks ago, I reported that the Senate Republicans’ point man on dealing with the deficit, Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), said he’d support tax increases as a means to reduce the deficit.  Chambliss promptly denied it.

Yesterday, in the New York Times, Chambliss admitted he and the Senate Republicans will support tax increases to pay off the deficit.

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Chambliss has already attacked Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” because, in Chambliss’s words, Ryan is able to balance the budget without cutting defense spending.

I know South Carolinians keep electing Senator Lindsay Graham but at least they make up for it with Senator Jim DeMint. Floridians have finally elected a rock ribbed Republican in Marco Rubio. Alabama has Senator Jeff Sessions. Why doesn’t Georgia have a staunch conservative senator to balance the moderate tendencies of Johnny Isakson?

If Herman Cain isn’t successful in his quest for the Presidency I hope he will consider remedying our situation by making another run to be the junior Senator from Georgia.

Update on the transportation tax increase

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Today’s AJC includes an update on the wish list being compiled to sell voters on the sales tax increase proposed by the state of Georgia. The additional sales tax is expected to cost Atlanta metro area residents 8 Billion Dollars over ten years and the referendum will include examples of the projects that the money could be spent on.

So far municipalities around Atlanta have submitted over 29 Billion Dollars worth of projects that they want to include so there is going to be a lot of horse trading over the next few months as politicians are forced to give up on 21 Billion Dollars worth of projects. This should be fun to watch.

Below is the paragraph about North Fulton:

Notable no-show

All those north metro drivers who motor down to MARTA’s North Springs Station have spurred talk of extending the train line further up Ga. 400. But no one requested such a project for the referendum, according to the ARC. (At least not yet, as the state DOT has yet to weigh in.)

Since the President and CEO of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, Brandon Beach, is also the North Fulton representative on the Georgia Department of Transportation Board it will be interesting to see what is included after the DOT “weighs in”. You can read the whole thing here.

Alpharetta City Council’s Wish List for a Tax Increase

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Tonight the Alpharetta City Council is slated to vote on the list of projects to include on the transportation tax referendum next year. Proponents hope that a list of possible projects will entice voters into voting for higher taxes on themselves. You can see the list of projects on the city website here.

I also suggest you read this article about the transportation tax issue in today’s Atlanta Journal Constitution. The AJC article doesn’t do a very good job of summarizing the list being presented to Alpharetta City Council tonight but it does give a valuable overview of the process. Below are a few random thoughts on the transportation tax proposal:

1. I don’t trust the state of Georgia to live up to their end of the bargain. After the DOT and State Roadway and Toll Authority arbitrarily extended the GA 400 tolls I came up with a phrase to express my thoughts on the matter: “Once you vote to give the government your money they will do with it what they damn well please.”

2. Supporters of the tax increase include most of Georgia’s business and political establishment who try to portray the issue as just another penny for a great cause. It is important that taxpayers realize all those pennies add up to 8 Billion Dollars. That works out to about $3,300 the average family of four in Georgia will no longer have to buy gas, food or anything else they need.

3. Supporters of the plan point out that the tax is only authorized for ten years. Let’s be realistic, there isn’t a chance in hell that the tax will ever go away. If you doubt me look at what Cobb County did to push through the SPLOST tax extension.

4. The business and political establishment in metro Atlanta are determined to expand inefficient and expensive train service. One way they hope to achieve this goal is by rebranding MARTA as a shiny new regional transportation authority run by GRTA. Somehow they think that will make it more palatable to suburban taxpayers. This recent front page article in the Alpharetta Revue illustrates what I mean. While the article uses the transit authority in Chicago as an example it failed to also mention that census numbers show people are fleeing the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois is on the verge of bankruptcy and the Chicago Regional Transit Authority will cost taxpayers about 1.4 Billion Dollars this year.

5. Land development companies and speculators will reap billions of dollars in profits while shouldering none of the burden for the transportation improvements which increase their property values. That is why local Chambers of Commerce and Community Improvement Districts will invest millions of dollars to promote the new tax on consumers.

6. There is still no relief in the proposal for taxpayers in Fulton and Dekalb Counties who already pay a one cent transportation tax for MARTA that costs us about $350,000,000 a year. Last year North Fulton mayors threatened to withhold support for the proposed tax increase if it continued to unfairly punish their constituents but the resulting political backlash left them noticeably silent since then.

There is no doubt that the state of Georgia has neglected our road infrastructure as tax revenues boomed over the past few decades. I just think it is a horrible idea to make up for that mistake by raising taxes now that people are struggling with high unemployment, rampant inflation and declining property values. The state’s political and business community disagree.

It will be interesting to see what the people of Georgia decide when the issue reaches the ballot box.

Forget plastics… buy Bag Balm!

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Bag balm is the medicated salve that dairy farmers apply to soothe the overworked teats of dairy cows. But Bag Balm isn’t just for cows any more and after yesterday’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax vote in Cobb County the stuff will soon be flying off the shelves as taxpayers seek to soothe the pain of being milked for another 500 million dollars.

The special election decided whether Cobb voters would approve an extension of the local 1% sales tax. The referendum could have been held in November thus saving taxpayers $340,000 in special election expenses but tax advocates knew that higher voter participation would hurt their chances of passage so the special election was held yesterday. In addition to that example of political gamesmanship the Cobb County business community funneled $150,000 to tax advocates through the local Community Improvement Districts.

Yet despite all the machinations of Cobb County’s business and political community the issue was a dead heat right down to the wire. The tax extension won by  a whopping 79 votes out of the roughly 43,000 votes cast.

That works out to 50.09% in favor and 49.91% against so proportionally about 241 Million Dollars will be taken from taxpayers to pay for projects that they either didn’t want or didn’t want to pay for. That’s gonna hurt.

But every challenge presents an opportunity and the sore teats of Cobb County’s cash cow taxpayers present a huge opportunity for the local distributors of Bag Balm. And since political observers viewed the Cobb SPLOST referendum as an indicator of how Georgia’s proposed transportation tax increase will fare next year we can all get in on the action.

Forget plastics… buy Bag Balm!

How much does Georgia spend on Transportation?

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The state of Georgia expected to take in over 14 Billion Dollars of income taxes and general sales taxes for 2010. How much of that general revenue do you think they spent on roads?

Ten percent? Not even close. Five percent? Dream on. One percent? Nope. Try less than 1/10 of one percent. Yes you read that right. Out of 14 Billion Dollars in sales taxes and income taxes the state of Georgia spent a measly 15 million on the entire Department of Transportation.

That means less than 1/10 of one percent of those general taxes went toward maintaining and improving the lifeblood of our state. For perspective, the state spent more than 2 Billion Dollars on community health departments but .0075 of that for the roads that allow Georgians to get to the hospital and drugstore. The state did spend other money on the Department of Transportation in 2010. Fuel taxes or other money from the federal government made up 99.24% of the state DOT’s budget.

In 2012 the state of Georgia will ask voters to raise taxes on themselves because infrastructure needs are so dire the situation demands it. I submit to you that a lack of money isn’t the problem and raising taxes shouldn’t be the solution. If Georgia spent more than 1/10 of one percent of the 14 Billion they already collect on infrastructure there wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.

(Update 3/5/2011)

Regular reader Lee from rootsinalpharetta.com asked for clarification on this post so I am adding the following explanation to hopefully clear up any confusion.

As I mentioned in the article more than 99% of the state DOT budget of approximately 2 billion dollars is funded by fuel taxes and federal money. Georgia drivers pay about 800 million dollars in fuel taxes for the DOT and the feds kick in the other 1.2 billion.

Based on that it appears a person who doesn’t drive a car in Georgia pays less than the cost of a round trip ticket on MARTA for the state’s entire Department of Transportation. Since the DOT is responsible for making sure groceries can reach stores, ambulances can reach homes and buses can reach schools that seems like a heckuva bargain.

The point being that instead of proposing another huge tax increase for transportation projects the state of Georgia should reevaluate the way they spend the 15 Billion already being collected.

Different party same plan

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Yesterday I pointed out that President Obama’s Secretary of Education was on capital hill asking for a 68% increase in spending despite our presently catastrophic federal deficits. You can see that article here.

Today it is President Obama’s Secretary of Transportation on capital hill asking for ridiculous sums of money that the American people don’t have. According to this report in The Hill, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is asking for a 62% increase in spending and wants congress to raise taxes by 435 Billion Dollars so that he can implement a transportation infrastructure bill. Fortunately Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is unsympathetic to the administration’s plan.

But if mean old Republicans won’t agree to higher taxes how will the federal government ever afford to turn hamlets like Alpharetta into livable centers? What will happen to sustainability and trains if the feds don’t have billions to pump into organizations like the Atlanta Regional Commission? Will people be forced to drive cars and live in those terrible neighborhoods with cul de sacs? The horror!

Of course an attempt to raise taxes during a miserable economy is something one might expect from Washington liberals. Too bad it’s the same thing being proposed by Georgia Republicans.

SRTA’s informational meeting about the GA 400 toll projects

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I stopped by the State Roadway and Toll Authority’s meeting in Alpharetta tonight. The handful of residents there were outnumbered by consultants about 4-1 but I did see a few locals I knew.

I walked away thinking that the SRTA folks and their supporters are probably very nice, earnest people that believe they are just doing what’s best for us but they are completely oblivious to how angry taxpayers are that SRTA just appropriated millions of our dollars against our will to do it. They just don’t get it.