GA: Cobb Transit Tax Defeated

Cobb County voters rejected a new 1% sales tax to fund public transportation by a significant margin Tuesday night.

As of midnight, with 99% of precincts reported there were 238,588 “no” votes (62%) and 143,630 “yes” votes (38%) for the tax, according to unofficial results from Cobb Elections.

Results are unofficial until certification by the Cobb Board of Elections, scheduled for Nov. 12.

The tax would have been levied for 30 years and was expected to generate $11 billion in revenue. With the tax’s defeat, Cobb’s sales tax will remain 6%.

“The voters looked at this as being fiscally irresponsible,” said anti-tax activist Lance Lamberton, declaring victory. “And I think this is a vindication (of) the fact that Cobb County still is a conservative county, in many ways. And the argument for the M-SPLOST just didn't hold water. It was asking for too much, and for too long.”

The Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (M-SPLOST) would have brought unprecedented investments in Cobb’s transit infrastructure, aimed at easing congestion, broadening transportation options and spur economic development.

But now the county’s Democratic Board of Commissioners will have to go back to the drawing board.

“We recalibrate … meeting the citizens where they are, but also understanding where we should be as a county,” said Cobb Chairwoman Lisa Cupid earlier in the evening, when initial results showed the tax faring poorly. “This is not an issue that dies today, irrespective of what happens, we continue to move Cobb forward. Cobb has always invested in transportation, we continue to invest in transit.”

Big plans foiled

After years of planning, Cupid and her two Democratic colleagues on the commission, Monique Sheffield and Jerica Richardson, voted earlier this year to put the tax on the ballot.

Supporters argued it was needed to accommodate future population and job growth in the county. Cobb, with 777,000 people, is expected to grow to 914,000 residents by 2050.

The tax would have brought 108 miles of rapid bus routes, half a dozen new transit centers and a countywide system of on-demand “microtransit” service to Cobb. The proposal did not include funding for rail.

It faced criticism and organized opposition from Republican officials and conservative groups.

Opponents said it was not the time for a tax increase, and argued the tax’s unprecedented 30-year length would provide no opportunity for accountability. Previous SPLOSTs in Cobb have been levied for five or six years.

Many critics also questioned the need for transit, saying that most residents prefer to drive themselves. Census data shows the overwhelming majority of residents commute by car.

The county’s existing CobbLinc bus system has seen ridership decline steadily over the past decade, exacerbated by the pandemic.

Lamberton attributed his side’s success to a “great ground game.” While he was initially worried they would be outspent, those fears subsided after businessman John Loud created an anti-M-SPLOST ballot committee which spent more than $200,000 campaigning against the tax.

“The burden of proof is upon those who advocate for an increase in taxes,” Lamberton said. “So they had an uphill battle, and we did everything we could to blunt their campaign. We ran a great campaign. We reached out to people in every single possible way, and we won big time.”

Cobb commissioners allocated $187,000 for a campaign to educate voters about the M-SPLOST (the county cannot use public funds to advocate for the tax’s passage).

Pro-M-SPLOST committees, meanwhile, spent more than $200,000.

Cupid said that “if we had more time to put toward this effort … that could have helped us be more confident at this crossroad.”

Pro-transit activist Matt Stigall noted at Cupid’s election night party that many elements of voter education didn’t ramp up until September, and said it may have been drowned out by attention on the presidential race.

Lamberton noticed that too.

“I think that was a mistake on their part,” he said.

Many voters interviewed by the MDJ during early voting said they weren’t aware of the referendum prior to voting.

Campaigning

The tax failed despite Democrats carrying Cobb. Vice President Kamala Harris won Cobb’s presidential vote with 57% of the vote. Cupid was reelected with 55% of the vote.

Lamberton said he encountered people while campaigning in heavily Democratic south Cobb who were already aware of the tax, and against it.

Cobb has rejected transit expansion previously. It voted against joining Atlanta’s MARTA in 1965. A 1998 sales tax which included transit was also defeated.

Most recently, the county overwhelmingly rejected a regional Transportation SPLOST in 2012.

Going back to the mid-1980s, however, voters have regularly approved sales taxes to fund road improvements.

Cupid said she was disappointed that some business leaders who have campaigned for SPLOSTs before were neutral or opposed to the M-SPLOST.

“To not have a business community aligned when it comes to investing in your infrastructure is a red flag, particularly when you know it helps people get to work and it helps goods get to where they need to go,” Cupid said. “… So that's very disheartening. … To have some of them come out as hostile as they have to this, has been also disheartening, troubling really.”

Loud, one of several former Cobb Chamber of Commerce chairs to come out against the tax, blamed Cupid for that disunity.

“Unfortunately, I think the tough part is, Chairwoman Cupid did not go out and collaborate,” Loud said, “and kind of get out and get in touch with the mayors and get in touch with a lot of the folks to kind of put together a real plan, that could bring to the citizens, to kind of come up with a proposal that could make better sense.”

Stigall said the anti-tax rhetoric was “very loud” during the campaign. He also accused some opponents of employing racist dog whistles, such as suggesting that transit will lead to more transiency, and worse outcomes for public schools.

“Just the negative, a lot of the misinformation that got out there, just a lot of the nastiness and just the bringing down current riders, people who currently take transit, and using them as an example,” Stigall said. “Especially when it comes to the schools. … That's unfortunate, and just disappointing.”

Cupid said Cobb will keep looking for ways to improve transportation, citing a recently launched microtransit pilot program in south Cobb, as well as plans for the state to build toll lanes on Interstate 285.

“Are we going to do it incrementally when the metro area is growing at a faster rate, if we feel comfortable, perhaps being behind?” Cupid said. “... Maybe we make that decision. But I perceive that Cobb County should continue to lead.”

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