An educational campaign for the 1%, 30-year transit tax on the ballot this November is getting a $50,000 funding boost.
On Nov. 5, Cobb residents will vote on approving the Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (M-SPLOST), which would collect $11 billion over three decades to overhaul the county’s public transportation system.
If approved, Cobb’s sales tax would rise from 6% to 7%.
At its Thursday meeting, the Cumberland Community Improvement District Board approved a $50,000 funding request from the Cobb Business Alliance for the organization’s educational campaign on the tax.
The vote was 4-0-1, with members Stephen Gentry and Trey Conway absent, and Matthew Teague abstaining.
“There’s a lot of work to be done ... in order to get the public informed that this is even on the ballot,” said Board Chairman Bob Voyles. “... I think it’s critical that we make sure the public is aware that it’s out there.”
This is the second funding push the Cumberland CID has given to the alliance.
In June, the board approved a separate $50,000 request for the same educational campaign.
The Town Center CID also gave $60,000 to the organization for M-SPLOST education, according to Croy Engineering President Greg Teague, one of the leaders of the alliance.
Before that, the Cumberland and Town Center CIDs also gave $50,000 each to Cobb County for its separate educational campaign in December, as the MDJ previously reported.
In total, the Cumberland CID has given $100,000 to the Cobb Business Alliance and $50,000 to Cobb County for two separate educational campaigns. The Town Center CID has given $60,000 to the Cobb Business Alliance and $50,000 to Cobb County.
In January, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a $287,000 contract with consultant Kimley-Horn for the educational campaign. The county’s campaign is funded by $100,000 from the CIDs and $187,000 from the general fund.
Under state law, the county can conduct a campaign to educate the public on the specifics of the M-SPLOST, but cannot advocate for passage or defeat of the referendum.
Teague told the MDJ at the group’s kickoff event last week that the organization is not taking a position on the M-SPLOST.
The alliance’s campaign, Teague said, will be focused on raising awareness of the referendum. According to a recent poll by the group, 67% of respondents were unaware that the M-SPLOST will be on November’s ballot.
Teague told the Cumberland CID board that because of the presidential election, the group has no concerns about voter turnout. But there is fear that voters will become fatigued by a long ballot that the M-SPLOST will appear at the bottom of.
“There are three statewide questions that are preceding our question, and all of them are tax-related. ... Even if we get people to know that it’s on the ballot, we have to help them distinguish from all the other noise that’s on the ballot,” Teague said.
The group plans to target voter blocks with different forms of messaging, including direct mailers, text messages and videos clipped for short-form social media platforms like TikTok.
Teague said the campaign’s focus has largely been on digital communication, knowing that more traditional advertising streams are saturated with political commercials.
“We’re 40 days away from the election. We’re not gonna be able to compete with the presidential (campaign advertisements) in terms of getting TV spots and radio spots, so what we want to do is focus on social media and digital,” Teague said.
If the referendum is approved, the M-SPLOST would be used to construct 108 miles of rapid bus routes, half a dozen new transit centers and a county-wide system of on-demand “microtransit” service.
The tax has been criticized as unnecessary, too lengthy and wasteful by opponents and conservative groups such as the Cobb GOP and the Cobb Taxpayers Association.
“We feel that the M-SPLOST is a solution looking for a problem. That the need simply is not there,” said Lance Lamberton, chairman of the anti-tax group, in an interview with the MDJ last month.
But its proponents, including Democratic Cobb Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, say it will aid economic development and improve a service that is necessary to many Cobb citizens.
“We know that there’s opportunity to make that existing system more efficient, as well as to add additional transit investment that will augment that experience for our citizens,” Cupid said in a July interview with the MDJ. “... People are making life decisions on connecting from point A to point B, and it makes sense to make sure that that’s stable. Not just from an accessibility perspective, but from a funding perspective.”
The M-SPLOST will be on the Nov. 5, 2024 ballot. To learn more, visit mdjonline.com/transit.
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