MARTA CEO Speaks to BBA in Support of Transportation Tax

CEO and General Manager Beverly Scott Thursday morning gave an empassioned plea for the to be decided in a July referendum.

"There is a fundamental difference between a tax and an investment," Scott said, listing cities from Houston and Dallas to Charlotte and Salt Lake City that have invested more in transportation than Atlanta in recent years. She spoke at the weekly breakfast meeting of the Buckhead Business Association.

She said that Atlanta's MARTA system was born at the same time as San Francisco and Washington D.C.'s mass transit systems, but that while they have extended their systems throughout their regions, "we are here at one-half the buildout of our original vision."

The Atlanta metro area, with the investment represented by the transportation tax,  is at the "game changing time," she said.

Scott also had some news for Buckhead, enthusiastically announcing that the groundbreaking for the will be at 1 p.m. March 7. She cited Buckhead CID Executive Director Jim Durrett, a MARTA board member, for the CID's support of the $24 million project, which will allow pedestrians to cross Ga. 400 to the MARTA Buckhead Station.

The project, which will connect Stratford Road and Tower Place Drive and establish a new entrance for the MARTA station, will be finished in the fall of 2013, she said. The project is being done under a partnership of MARTA, he Buckhead CID, Georgia Department of Transportation, State Road and Toll Authority, Federal Transit Administration and the city of Atlanta

In other comments, Scott, who will be leaving the MARTA post at the end of this year, said in response to a question that she wants to accomplish the removal of the state requirement that 50 percent of MARTA's budget be spent on operating expenses and 50 perecent on capital improvements. "These old MARTA financial restrictions need to go," she said. "The statutory requirement is crazy."

She also said that in her final year, she is conducting an audit of MARTA operations to seek improvements. Earlier, she said that she had cut $100 million from the MARTA budget.

Will you support the transportation referendum or oppose it? Tell us in comments.