The Georgia General Assembly is coming to a close this week and there is a hot transit issue still on the table that can make or break Atlanta's transit future. Luckily there is Citizens for Progressive Transit, a local non-profit organization that stays on top of transit issues and laws, with a lobbyist down at the capitol trying to keep an eye of road spending vs. needed funds for transit, such as MARTA and the Beltline.
If you support such transit issues, you have until Friday to contact your local legislator to encourage him or her to vote yes for the regional transit bill (instead of the state transit bill) as it is more likely to support city transit projects. It is a fairly big deal...even NPR gave it a call out this morning. It is important to act now.
The Environmental Action Network has come up with the following text you can use as a guideline for your email contact:
"We want local control for any new transportation tax. The statewide sales tax approach does not provide enough certainty on how and where the new transportation money would be used. We need to know that any new transportation money raised here in metro Atlanta will be used for the projects that Atlantans want and need.
Please oppose any statewide sales tax that would spend our tax dollars on road projects all around the state. Let's keep metro Atlanta tax dollars in metro Atlanta, for the projects the people want. Support the regional sales tax option."
Find your representatives and legislators here:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/state/main/?state=GA&view=myofficials#0
Related, MARTA is having serious financial trouble (not incredibly unexpected), which might be aided by the regional plan. MARTA is the only transit system that doesn't get state funding and things have been adding up. So now they are at the point of reducing service and charging more money per trip to pay for their debt that is becoming higher than the escalators at Peachtree Center. Here is a survey you can fill out if you would like to help form their decisions:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey.zgi?p=WEB228TXMWSPX8