Transit Advocates in Clayton Make Push to Join MARTA

August 15th, 2012

Following the resounding defeat of metro Atlanta’s T-SPLOST, transit advocates are setting their sights on a new goal – Clayton County joining MARTA.

At a county commission meeting last night, a handful of supporters urged commissioners to put the issue before voters in November.

They showed up wearing buttons reading “Bring back the buses,” referring to C-Tran, which county commissioners in 2010 voted to shut down due to budget issues.

“I want tranit to be reinstated because when you don’t have it, you can’t move around. I want it on the agenda,” said Benjamin Oye, who is with the advocacy group Friends of Clayton Transit.

Oye and others want Clayton to join Fulton and DeKalb in helping fund MARTA. Joining MARTA would mean paying an additional one percent sales tax, estimated to raise more than $35 million a year, more than enough to reinstate Clayton’s bus service.

They’re asking county commissioners to put it on the ballot in November.

Speaking during a brief public comment period, state representative Roberta Abdul Salaam of Atlanta says it’s a way to move forward post-T-SPLOST.

“We have the opportunity to do something that no other county in the state does. We have a Plan B in place. I simply ask and request respectfully that the county put it on the county agenda.”

Clayton commissioners appear reluctant.

Commissioner Michael Edmonson pointed to the recent T-SPLOST referendum, which the county voted down 54 percent to 46 percent.

“I’d be happy to look at the information but I’d have a hard time supporting something – to raise sales taxes – a few weeks after the county overwhelmingly voted ‘no.’”

Commission chairman Eldrin Bell also appears opposed, saying he’s not for “piecemeal solutions” to Atlanta’s regional transportation problems. Bell faces an August 21^st runoff.