Citiwire.net

For Release Sunday, May 30, 2010
© 2010 Washington Post Writers Group

Atlanta — “Sodom and Gomorrah,” Biblical cities destroyed by God for the sins of their inhabitants, is a term the rural politicos used to apply to villify Atlanta. At county barbecues, they’d rail against the alleged debauchery of Georgia’s lead city.

Habits persist: Even today, the state of Georgia does little for the city that put it on the world economic map. The story’s not totally unique: there’s perennial suspicion, especially in rural and small town areas, of America’s top cities and metropolitan regions — even as these “citistates” become the engines of creative activity that drive entire statewide and U.S. economies.
But in Georgia, the ice has started to melt. With strong bipartisan support from a conservative Republican governor and a liberal Democratic mayor, and with a determined chamber of commerce president leading the campaign, the Georgia Legislature has finally agreed to let the Atlanta region — and in the process others around the state — to vote on whether they want to add a penny sales tax for transportation improvements.

For the Atlanta region, this is close to a make-or-break move. With its spectacular economic growth of recent decades, the area has been convulsed by world-class traffic gridlock. The region’s roadway and anemic public transportation systems lag so seriously that Metropolitan Atlanta is becoming three or four “truncated” labor markets, very difficult to commute in or among. The situation threats to trigger some corporate move-outs and represents a red flag for potential new employers.

But the state government, up to now, hasn’t seemed to care — a reflection, it seems of its rural, anti-Atlanta prejudices. And those prejudices are ingrained. Case in point: while state governments nationwide provide some 15 percent of their cities’ operating budgets, for Atlanta the figure is just 2 percent, according to consultant firm Bain & Co. and National League of Cities reports.

The traffic impasse became a cause celebre for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and its president, Sam Williams. He recounts how “We beat the drum for four years” to get permission for a regional transportation sales tax add-on, enlisting aid of the Georgia State Chamber, top Atlanta corporations, county officials and mayors, plus Chamber allies in such regions as Savannah and Macon.
A pointed message was also telegraphed to would-be candidates for state office: Their position on transportation funding would be a “litmus test” of whether they could expect campaign support from the business community.

Then Williams and his allies claimed a dollars and cents carrot — that the new transportation funding would add, in 10 years, some $8 billion to $9 billion of private sector investment that otherwise couldn’t be expected.

But the Atlanta-versus-the rest of Georgia issue kept thwarting legislative action.

Gov. Sonny Perdue gets credit for suggesting the compromise that finally worked: to allow any one of 12 regions across Georgia to decide on an added transportation tax themselves. A “roundtable” of local mayors and county officials will select potential projects, negotiating with the state transportation department to assure they seem reasonable. Then there’ll be a regional referendum to approve or reject the plan and the 10-year, one-cent sales tax add-on to finance it.

Passage of the bill was touch-and-go to the last minute, complicated by issues over funds for MARTA, the Atlanta region’s long-underfunded and troubled rapid rail system.

But a key role was played by Atlanta’s new mayor, Kasim Reed, a diplomatically skilled veteran of 11 years in the legislature. Reed, an African-American, is so respected that he was the first Atlanta mayor to be invited to speak from the well of the State House of Representatives — now Republican controlled.

Reed acknowledges “We were on the brink of failing again” this April. But Williams says Reed’s intercessions — including cell phone calls corralling votes as he walked to the Georgia State Capitol the night of the vote — made a critical difference in passage.

What does the Georgia breakthrough mean for the rest of America?

First, bipartisanship can be developed, “Tea Party”-like nihilism averted, if a governor and legislative leaders work hard to make it happen.

Second, mobilizing a metropolitan business community behind reform makes a major difference. It’s worth noting Williams visited metro cities from Phoenix to Denver to San Diego asking business and political leaders how to make breakthroughs. They invariably face uphill battles against their state governments, he notes.

Third, the idea of staging “roundtables,” not just in the biggest metro but in regions across a state, is extraordinarily promising. It requires clear local discussions on major issues; it obliges citizens to debate — and decide whether to tax themselves. Big metros trying to tax themselves for major needs no longer look like outliers. And regional decision-making becomes a new norm.

That’s a fascinating model for these times, ideal for transportation, maybe fresh water supply systems and other major issues. Thanks Georgia.

Editor’s Note: For further coverage of new Georgia law and its implications, check the Stateline story, Georgia Lawmakers Break Transportation Gridlock, by Daniel C. Vock.

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