GRTA Head C. Ross Wants to Raise Georgia Gas Tax to Pay for Mass Transit

ATLANTA (AP) Georgia should consider hiking its lowest-in-the-nation gasoline tax to pay for better public transit, especially in traffic-choked metro Atlanta, the state transportation czar said Wednesday.

City-to-city rail lines are still years away, and the state should focus first on smaller steps like bus systems and high-occupancy highway lanes, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority chief Catherine Ross said.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Ross suggested studying a gas tax hike as one way to pay for the improvements. The tax, 7.5 cents per gallon, is the lowest in the country.

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``The highest-growth counties in the country are here, and we have the lowest gasoline tax,'' Ross said. ``It's catching up with us.''

Ross was careful to avoid directly backing an increase in the gas tax, saying it ``has to be examined in the future at some point.''

Her suggestion conflicts with the views of Gov. Roy Barnes, who says he opposes raising the tax for any reason.

Barnes created GRTA in 1999, soon after he was elected, to help bring metro Atlanta counties in line with federal clean-air standards. Ross is the agency's only executive director.

Atlanta has a national reputation as a city helplessly in love with cars, clogged by traffic and plagued by dirty air. It consistently ranks with Los Angeles and Houston atop national smog surveys.

Terry Lawler, president of Georgians for Better Transportation, a group that traditionally backs road projects, said Ross was ``absolutely right'' about keeping a gas-tax hike as an option for raising money for transit.

``The biggest challenge we have now is a lack of funds,'' he said.

Just last month, GRTA herded 11 county governments into accepting a regional bus system. GRTA quickly bought 48 buses and applied for federal grant money to start the service, and Ross pledged to ``transform metro Atlanta'' in 18 months.

Fayette County, southwest of Atlanta, and Cherokee County, to the northwest, have not adopted the system, and Ross was critical of those county governments.

``Everyone who contributes to our dirty air and those two counties certainly do ultimately must have a responsibility to help clean it up,'' she said. ``Until they step forward, they're not good regional partners.''

She predicted the bus system would eventually expand to those counties, and beyond the 13 that traditionally define metro Atlanta.

With rail systems years away GRTA and two other agencies are still in negotiating phases, and none seems willing to commit to a startup date Ross said she wants to see more steps like the metro bus system.

She also pointed to expansion of high-occupancy vehicle lanes, which encourage carpooling to cut pollution, and to smarter land use.

She declined to take a position directly in favor of or against the proposed Northern Arc, a swath of highway that would stretch across Atlanta's extreme north suburbs. Supporters have said it will relieve the traffic congestion created by rapid growth in the north, while opponents contend it only encourages sprawl and environmental damage.

``The facts are still being compiled,'' Ross said of the highway, which is up for a vote this fall by the influential Atlanta Regional Commission. ``It's premature to have a decision without facts in front of you.''

As for metro Atlanta's car-friendly reputation, Ross said she has seen evidence the city and suburban populations are ready for new options.

``I think we're seeing a culture change,'' she said. ``I think it's a sea change in terms of attitude. Who among us doesn't want to breathe clean air? I do.''

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~~Democrats~~ communists at it again in GA. GRTA (a creation of Democrat Roy Barnes), head Catherine Ross (where do they get these communist a$$holes? Do they hire former USSR apparatchicks? I suppose that most bureaucrats qualify anyway) thinks that George'as "ultralow" gas tax should be raised to pay for her idiotic mass transit schemes
Undoubtedly the media are in favor of it as you can see from the article, not one quote from anyone stating what a dreadful flop mass transit is.
Not a single solitary statement of how mass transit does not meet the needs of 90% of the commuters in the Atlanta area.
Not one word on how mass transit is just another step on the way to total control of the civilian populace

this link?

-The Thoreau Institute Urban Growth and Transportation Studies--

has a lot of info & opinion refuting the "urban sprawl," "Lite rail/mass transit" and related items...

And more here:

-Independence Institute--"Rights" Research

Light Rail- Boon or Boondoggle? The Quest for the Holy Rail....

"Mass Transit" is so beloved by people who wish to control the way everybody else lives, and spend other people's money.

Just watch after the November Elections, Roy Barnes will be raising the Gas Tax in Georgia. King Roy will say anything to get elected & then will change after the election. I wish my fellow Georgians believed in the 2 party system in Georgia. The republicans have never seen the light of day in the Governor's mansion.

ROBBERS ACCESS TO NICE SHOPPING AREAS. NO ONE WOULD BE SAFE IN THE AREA.

Well yes, but rapists and robbers can be controled by more people getting and carrying firearms

My biggest objections to this are:

Mass transit doesn't work in Atlanta. It is a solution that fails to fit the problem. If it were not for MASSIVE infusions of taxpayer $$$$ the entire transit system would be totally bankrupt. Of course being a government system, they can just loot the pockets of those who don't use the system, don't want the system, and realize that the system is primarily designed as a jobs program to reward those who vote for bigger government.
By chosing to use cars rather than the slow and dirty transit system, Atlantans are making an informed choice that they would rather spend the time stuck in traffic in their own car than waiting for and riding on MARTA. WHen you penalize people for making this choice, people like Komrad Ross are saying that we consumers don't know what's best for us. Her soviet style central planning for transportation will be better in the long run. Better for a Soviet life style to be sure, but Komrad Ross that isn't what we want in the USA. Maybe you should move to China or Russia (or Washington DC). Your ideas are much more in keeping with those than the people you want to control here in Atlanta

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