Opponents call for Cobb County, Georgia, voters to oppose Mobility SPLOST

MARIETTA, Georgia — A group of elected officials and community leaders gathered to oppose a proposed Mobility SPLOST voters will decide when they head to the polls in November.

County leaders want residents to approve the M-SPLOST to fund a 30-year, $4.5 billion bus rapid transit plan. The 1% M-SPLOST could generate $11 billion or more in tax revenue for the county over 30 years, and county officials could seek to leverage additional federal dollars.

“We need some new transportation solutions,” John Loud, president of LOUD Security Systems, told Sightseers’ Delight. “But this is not the right plan, this 30-year boondoggle for busses. This is bad for Cobb.

“…In this case, there’s a list that they’re going to project for the next 30 years,” Loud added. “This is what we think transportation is going to look like. Look, we all know AI and electric and so many things are changing, but … three weeks or three months later, a new leader can come in and completely change the list. So, there is no committed list.”

But Greg Teague, CEO of Croy Engineering, told Sightseers’ Delight that Cobb County officials have approved a list and that Cobb officials and the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority would have to approve changes to the list.

“Because we have this project list published up front, and you’ve identified what the cost of delivering it is, we were able to look at it and say, ‘How long of a duration is it going to take to be able to fund these improvements?'” Teague told Sightseers’ Delight. “And that’s exactly where the 30 years comes from.”

The M-SPLOST ask comes as ridership on CobbLinc, the transit system serving one of metro Atlanta’s largest counties, declines. According to the Marietta Daily Journal, CobbLinc’s annual ridership declined by 73% from 2013 to 2022, while annual passenger miles were down 82%.

To jump start the process, if approved, county officials said they would issue $950 million in general obligation bonds. According to the county, projects to be funded by the tax include 73 miles of bus rapid transit, 34 miles of arterial rapid transit and countywide microtransit.