With the latest defeat of two transit referendums in Cobb and Gwinnett counties, local leaders must again grapple with the dilemma that has perplexed the Atlanta metro for decades: Traffic is bad and worsening, but voters don’t see dramatic public transit expansion as a solution.
Officials had hoped this would be the year to reverse more than a half century of opposition, but voters in both counties resoundingly defeated the separate measures to impose 1% county-wide sales taxes to fund transit expansion.
The Gwinnett referendum’s defeat marks the fifth time voters have rejected penny sales taxes for transit since 1971. It lost by 28,000 votes. The margin was much worse in Cobb, where the sales tax question only prevailed in one precinct, and that by six-hundredths of a percentage point. It lost by a whopping 95,000 votes.
Transit has always been controversial in the suburban counties, with race often playing a major factor in the outcome. But economic considerations seemed to have led the opposition this year.