This afternoon the Regional Transit Committee (RTC) of the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) (the successor of the Transit Planning Board and Transit Implementation Board) gave their seal of approval to draft legislation that would create a Metropolitan Transit Authority for Atlanta. Members of the Committee lauded themselves for reaching this point as a region.
Of course this legislation has to pass the Georgia Legislature and be signed by the Governor in order to take effect. The RTC members are correct that the effort for regional transit has been six years in the making. The push to introduce legislation this year is in part due to the upcoming regional sales tax referendum. Advocates of the referendum hope that having a regional transit agency to receive the transit funds will give the voters confidence to pass the measure.
The draft legislation sets up a Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) for the Atlanta region and the ability for other parts of the state to set-up their own Regional Transit Authorities (RTA). The MTA in Atlanta would take on transit planning, receive any new transit funds – including any funds from the regional referendum, and operate new regional service. The existing operators (MARTA, Cobb, Gwinnett, GRTA, and Cherokee) would remain in place, unless they chose to turn over their service to the MTA. MARTA would keep its sales tax funding.
The MTA would be controlled by a board made up of two representatives of each county (one commissioner and one mayor), the Mayor of Atlanta, and one appointee each from the Governor, Speaker of the House, and Lt. Governor. The board would set up its own by-laws based on the existing RTC adopted policy of weighted voting by population and funding. The MTA would include the 10 county ARC area with the option of the first ring of surrounding counties to join at a later date.
In addition, the bill ends some of the restrictions on MARTA, including allowing it to operate rail outside of Fulton and DeKalb.
The RTC is sending the legislation to the Regional Transit Governance Commission set-up by the legislature last year. At this point it doesn’t have a sponsor and has not been formally introduced as a bill.
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