TSPLOST failed for a myriad of reasons - now what?

By Terry Bond

People throughout the Atlanta region were pretty clear on their position concerning TSPLOST, and there were a myriad of reasons this tax didn’t fly – too much transit and not enough roadway … too much roadway and not enough transit … doesn’t do anything to actually relieve traffic congestion … why should my purchase of milk and bread be taxed to improve roads … pretty much every reason you can think of. For myself, I’ve been torn on which way to vote for months and didn’t make my final decision until just before I voted.

So, we said NO to TSPLOST. Now what? What is it we really want for our hard earned money before we would be willing to spend it on transportation? 

Do we want traffic congestion relief? How about less air pollution? Atlanta is always in the top 10 cities in America for longest daily commute times and air pollution problems. These are not top 10 lists I want to be on.

The sad truth is that we will never be able to make our roads wide enough to keep up with our congestion problems if the only thing we do is widen roads. But that seems to be about the only thing our representatives in government can agree to do.

Maybe the State should restrict themselves to the development of financial and regulatory incentives designed to attain significant reductions in air pollution and improve efficiencies in transportation and let the creative forces of the people of Georgia figure it out.

Georgia relies primarily on the consumption of imported oil to satisfy its transportation energy needs. Let’s just start there. Let’s just develop and implement mechanisms to reduce our dependence on oil and other imported petroleum-based products in Georgia.

The State Legislature must begin to seriously consider an assessment on the carbon content of fossil fuels (oil and coal). This will create incentives for investment and development of low and zero carbon alternatives, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions while generating funds to provide further incentives for consumers to opt for cleaner alternatives.

Georgians consume a large quantity of gasoline for motor vehicle use.  According to recent statistics, there are over 9.8 million motor vehicles on Georgia’s roads and highways. Georgia’s drivers consumed over 4.5 billion gallons of gasoline in 2010, which in turn generated over 40.396 million metric tons of CO2.

A carbon assessment even as low as $1.00 per metric ton of CO2 would generate $40.396 million dollars of additional revenue annually while only increasing the price per gallon of gasoline by $0.009. This type of carbon assessment could also be increased annually to ensure an on-going assessment of our carbon reduction efforts.

This type of carbon assessment means that the consumers who are causing our congestion and pollution problems become directly responsible for the cost of creating the solutions. The revenue generated by this carbon assessment should be, in fact must be, tied directly to the region where the assessment is collected and used to fund programs directly targeted at reducing Georgia’s carbon footprint.

Terry Bond is a resident of Midtown