Cobb Taxpayers Association, a local anti-tax group, launched its campaign against a proposed transit sales tax with a kickoff event at Grace Resurrection Methodist Church Saturday.
In November, residents across the county will vote on the Mobility Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax (M-SPLOST), which, if approved, would raise the sales tax from 6% to 7%, collecting $11 billion over three decades.
The event brought together community members concerned about the 30-year, 1% sales tax that would fund public transit projects, including 108 miles of rapid bus routes, half a dozen new transit centers and a countywide system of on-demand “microtransit” service.
Not affiliated with the church, the event offered a platform for local conservative leaders to voice their concerns. Among the speakers were state Sen. John Albers, R- Roswell, National Rifle Association President Bob Barr, and Cobb GOP Chair Salleigh Grubbs. They presented a unified message, warning the M-SPLOST was a costly and inefficient proposal that would burden taxpayers without delivering the desired outcomes.
Cobb resident Norman Black attended the kickoff because of his concerns about the tax’s financial impact and its effectiveness.
“There’s an energy that is generated hopefully, and we can get off to stopping this nonsense,” said Black, expressing the shared sentiment of many other attendees.
Lance Lamberton, chairman of Cobb Taxpayers Association, hosted the event, encouraging volunteers to engage in phone banking, door-to-door canvassing, and other campaign efforts to defeat the tax.
Critics of the M-SPLOST, including Sen. Albers, called the public transit system in Cobb and metro Atlanta inefficient, adding that transit ridership has steadily declined over the years. Speakers like Denny Wilson, a south Cobb activist, referenced seeing empty buses around the county.
Earlier this year, the MDJ reported that ridership across the overall Cobb bus system declined by 73% from 2013 to 2022, going from 3.7 million annual trips to just shy of 1 million annual trips.
In 2022, the county had an average weekday ridership of 3,180 trips.
Another ridership metric, annual passenger miles, was down 82%. Use of metro Atlanta’s second largest transit system has dwindled despite Cobb becoming more urbanized, and as its population has grown by 8%.
Supporters of the tax, though, have countered arguments by saying a greatly enhanced system would attract more riders.
Albers argued that the sprawling layout of the region makes mass transit impractical compared to more centralized cities like New York or Chicago.
He further criticized the 30-year duration of the tax, calling it one of the largest tax increases in Cobb history.
Alicia Adams, candidate for the Cobb Board of Commissioners in District 2 who fought against the county’s “home rule” map, said that the tax sounds great in theory but would eventually become a nightmare.
Adams argued that while public transit is necessary, committing to a 30-year tax without better data on its usage would be detrimental to future generations.
“We’re going to pay money to something we don’t know about and our children are going to pay for it,” Adams said.
Jim Jess, chairman emeritus of Franklin Roundtable, a conservative group with roots in the Tea Party movement, said the tax would cost nearly $367 million per year of its duration.
“For that kind of money, you could get every single one of them a chauffeur and a driver for 30 years,” Jess said.
Former Congressman and NRA President Barr echoed concerns about government overreach, framing the tax as a subtle attempt at increasing control.
“Every dollar that they take from our pocket removes the power that we have to exercise our God-given human rights,” Barr said.
Opposition to the M-SPLOST extended beyond partisan lines, with Yashica Marshall, a Democratic candidate for the Cobb BOC in District 4, joining the conversation.
Marshall said saying no to the tax was not saying no to public transit. She believed the issue was less about helping the community and more about power, calling the tax a “burden on every generation that follows after us.”
She called out examples from the county’s M-SPLOST website story map, which shared present-day and future scenarios with the tax.
One of those scenarios mentioned a student traveling from south Cobb to Kennesaw State University and stated, today, the trip would take 25 to 55 minutes by personal vehicle, but in the future, with high capacity transit, would take about 50 minutes.
“You’re telling me now I can get there in 25 minutes but I have to give you $14 billion in order to get there in 50 minutes,” Marshall said. “What kind of sense does that make?”
M-SPLOST supporters say transformational change is needed to accommodate population growth, provide more transportation options, ease congestion and spur economic development.
As Cobb County residents prepare to vote on the M-SPLOST this November, both sides of the debate are ramping up their efforts.
On Wednesday, the Cobb Business Alliance, a pro-M-SPLOST group, will kick off their campaign. The event will feature several elected officials, community leaders, transit advocates and voters sharing how the M-SPLOST referendum could decrease congestion, invest in transit and move Cobb forward.
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