Roundtable Misses Self-Imposed Deadline

The Atlanta Regional Commission Transportation for the completion of a draft project list for next year’s TSPLOST referendum.

The Roundtable Executive Committee currently has $6.56 billion worth of projects on the draft list. That list must be reduced to $6.14 billion before it can be presented to the full 21-member ARC Transportation Roundtable. The committee had hoped to complete its work by Thursday, but will now reconvene Monday to finish the list.

“We have made tremendous progress, starting with a and working cooperatively to make some hard decisions to whittle it down to this level,” said Roundtable Executive Committee chair and Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson in a released statement.  “Staff has done yeoman’s work to assist us, but now it is time for us to make some hard policy decisions.”

In order to meet the statutory Aug. 15, 1 p.m. deadline, the five-member Roundtable Executive Committee must slash another $450 million in projects from the draft referendum list. The list must be approved by the full Roundtable and finalized by Oct. 15. The TSPLOST referendum vote is currently scheduled for July 2012, but

H.B. 277, the Transportation Investment Act, contains penalties for regions that fail to adopt the TSPLOST. If a region adopts the TSPLOST, local governments will only be required to pay 10 percent in matching funds for projects receiving funding from the Georgia Department of Transportation. If the region holds a referendum, but fails to pass the TSPLOST, local governments will be required to post 30 percent in matching funds. If the Roundtable fails to reach an agreement on the constrained list and fails to hold the referendum, local governments in the Atlanta region would be required to pay 50 percent in matching funds for state aided transportation projects.

For more information or to review the current $6.56 billion transportation project list, please visit www.atlantaregionalroundtable.com.