Residents across the county will vote on the 30-year, 1% sales tax to fund public transit projects, which if approved would raise the sales tax from 6% to 7%.
(Learn more: mdjonline.com/transit)
Known officially as the Mobility Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (M-SPLOST), the tax would collect $11 billion to construct 108 miles of rapid bus routes, half a dozen new transit centers and a countywide system of on-demand "microtransit" service.
The new website, cobbcounty.org/msplost, includes maps, definitions, a breakdown of the proposed projects, the ballot language, voting information and more.
Cobb commissioners previously voted 3-2 along partisan lines to hire an outside consulting firm, Kimley-Horn, to conduct an education campaign on the tax.
By law, the county can conduct a campaign to educate the public on the specifics of the M-SPLOST, but cannot advocate for passage or defeat of the referendum.
Kimley-Horn is being paid $287,000 by the county. The funding for the campaign came from $187,000 of general fund reserves, plus $50,000 contributions from the Cumberland and Town Center Community Improvement Districts.
According to the agreement between Cobb and its consultant, the campaign will include regular meetings with county staff, accounting, messaging, branding, talking points, social media, videos, flyers and postcards. The consultant will also help organize town halls, open houses, and meetings with community groups, city officials, state lawmakers, multicultural groups, transit riders and transit operators.
If approved, Cobb expects to spend $14.5 billion over 30 years. Of that, $10.9 billion (79%) would come from the transit tax. The remainder would come mostly from federal funding.
The M-SPLOST would fund the construction of seven bus rapid transit (BRT) routes and three arterial rapid transit (ART) routes.
BRT would operate mainly in new dedicated travel lanes. ART would operate in some dedicated lanes, but would otherwise mix with traffic.
Those routes would cost an estimated $6 billion to build, while $5 billion more would be split between local transit expansion and vehicles, facilities and amenities.
Just over $3 billion is estimated to cover transit technology; more localized, on-demand transit known as microtransit; and improvements to roads, sidewalks and trails.
M-SPLOST supporters say transformational change is needed to accommodate population growth, provide more transportation options, ease congestion and spur economic development.
Opponents, however, criticize the tax for its length and cost, unprecedented in the history of Cobb’s SPLOST referendums, and have questioned whether the system would be widely used.
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