Sales Tax increase coming to Fulton County?
Rumor has that Senator Brandon Beach, a Republican who represents parts of Fulton and Cherokee counties, is planning to drop a bill Monday that will increase the sales tax in Fulton County by half of a penny as part of the proposed MARTA funding bill, bringing the total county sales tax to 7.5% – unless you live in City of Atlanta. Then it would be 8.5%.
Specific details are not available since the bill hasn’t dropped, but the increase is a move that DeKalb County is planning to put off for one more year.
A couple interesting points: It’s interesting that Senator Beach would have a tax bill originate in the Senate, since you’re not exactly supposed to do that. It’s also interesting that Beach essentially blindsided the rest of the Fulton delegation with the initiative for the bottomless pit that is MARTA. One thing’s for sure, though: The idea is full of pep from people on the outside.
What kind of ‘pep,’ you ask?
From the EventBrite Invitation:
Evening to Support Transit Expansion with Sen. Brandon Beach.
The Coalition to Advance Atlanta is proud to join together with Senator Brandon Beach to discuss plans to further connect the Atlanta region through mass transit during the 2016 Georgia legislative session. If you are a supporter of mass transit, or want to learn more, please come out and join us! North Fulton residents are especially welcome and encouraged to attend, as the event will cover the proposed northward rail expansion being discussed.
DIRECTIONS FROM MARTA:
-Take the Red Line north to the North Springs MARTA Station.
-Take Bus 140 north via GA 400.
-Exit Bus 140 at North Point Pkwy @ Old Milton Pkwy.
-Walk 1/2 mile east via Old Milton Pkwy sidewalk. 5 Seasons will be on your right.
The event is a rail to bus to sidewalk initiative…in North Fulton County. Almost NO ONE does that – at least not by choice.
PSA: If you’re planning on attending the event and traveling by way of the invitation, you’re going to take your life in your hands, especially at 6:30 p.m. when the sun is long gone. Travel with a yellow reflective vest, some good walking shoes, and an umbrella. As people south of gnat line say, ‘We’re prayin’ for ya.’
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Jessica Szilagyi
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This event has been scheduled for about a month. The proposed legislation has been talked about and reported for much longer than that. I’m not sure how that becomes a blindside.
For instance, here’s a Dec 1 2015 article where Bob Gray of the John’s Creek city council decided to take a pre-emptive strike against MARTA expansion. This plan was already being circulated not just among Fulton & DeKalb legislators, but among local elected officials well before that.
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/johns-creek-city-council-slams-the-door-on-marta/npYN5/
Charlie perhaps people in your circles knew Senator Beach was planning to drop a bill that could give 50% of a new sales tax to MARTA and thereby disrupt months of negotiations between Fulton County and all its mayors but I assure you in this neck of the woods it was a blindside to many people including myself and every other elected official I have spoken to.
He certainly didn’t mention it during the North Fulton legislative breakfast I attended the Friday before the legislative session kicked off.
In fact one councilman characterized it today as Senator Beach,”dropped a hand grenade”. We knew there were probably going to be changes which could allow municipalities to agree on a portion for MARTA but based on the senator’s statements he got tired of waiting and took things into his own hands.
There are a lot of people up here who don’t appreciate a state legislator taking it upon himself to interfere with an ongoing negotiation of a complex and delicate local issue that they created in the first place. Myself included.
LOL at any N Fulton resident taking a MARTA train for 45+ mins to North Springs, a bus up 400 in rush hour, and then walking 1/2 mile to get anywhere. Maybe the point is to show just how inconvenient it is to take transit to that area?
If you think that is bad try to use public transportation to get from Marietta to Technology Park in Norcross. It’s in the realm of “you can’t get there from here”. We need a regional approach to public transportation and for that to happen at all MARTA will need to be a key component. The problem is the amount of egos and fiefdoms involved that would keep MARTA from becoming what it needs to be. In the meantime all the “Metro County’s” individual separate bus systems continue to clamor for limited state and federal funds for their own bus systems to nowhere.
Actually, from what I understand, Sen. Beach’s proposed tax would be for 1%, and would have to be approved by the Fulton, DeKalb, and Clayton County Commissions, if they chose to participate. Then, on to the voters for their approval. Think of it as TSPLOST, which, in the end, it is.
So his bill at best could increase sales taxes, not will increase.
“the bottomless pit that is MARTA”
Pre-Keith Parker maybe but certainly not now. And even way back in 2009-it’s founding, the abyss was hardly of its own creation.
Yeah, that’s a pretty weird way to describe a transit system that’s 1) in the green and 2) the only major transit system in the country that receives no significant state funding. How do you know a pit is bottomless if you’ve never thrown much into it?
Kind of silly to refer to this event and the possible legislation as anything related to the word “blind-sided”. I know I registered for the event about a month ago and I knew about it before that. If you feel so strongly about this issue I have no doubt that you would be welcome to attend and have a spirited discussion with the folks arranging the event, although if you haven’t RSVP’d then you might be out of luck because it is sold out.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone blasts an idea, but has no alternative to offer. If you can come up with a better way to bring Atlanta and the surrounding metro areas into the 21st century then I would love to hear it. Times are changing. Transportation is important to young people and businesses that are continuously moving into this area and something has to be done if this state wants that to continue.
What gets tricky with Beach is to sell an incredibly expensive idea for the good of the area and then double down on business tax abatements along the way. The residents and consumers in that path will pay dearly for the progress when the idea was everyone takes a bite.
as a resident of the tucker area. I would appreciate NOT putting the train any closer than doraville. unless you know of some magical way not to drop my property value in the process.
50% to marta? is that true? don’t we already have a lack of funding to schools?
a great way to fund it would be to cut congressional paychecks to pay for the “common good” not taxing those same people who already can’t afford their own transportation.
sounds like a scam to increase their own paychecks while diminishing ours.