A Cobb County-funded survey indicated an uptick in support for the funding of transit in Cobb. The survey, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, targeted nine hundred likely voters though landlines and cellular service over the course of a week. It found that 61-percent of respondents support Cobb County spending more money on transit. 54-percent supported the creation of a new sales tax of up to one percent for 30 years to fund transit projects, including heavy rail and bus. 45-percent of respondents opposed the measure.
Among the 45-percent of respondents who took a negative view of the transit expansion sales tax, the plurality (48%) were opposed because of the increase in taxes. Only 2-percent of respondents cited concerns about crime. Of the 54-percent of positive responses, 32-percent cited a desire for less traffic congestion while 27-percent suggested that people without vehicles need transit.
Interestingly, when the transit question is presented without the 30-year parameter, 59-percent support and 39-percent are opposed. In addition, Bus Rapid Transit enjoyed tremendous support with 65-percent of all respondents in favor and 29-percent opposed.
The survey comes right before the first meeting of the ATL Authority Board created by House Bill 930. You can read a thorough analysis of that legislation here. Among other things, the bill gives the Cobb Commission the option of imposing a 1% countywide sales tax or a special district sales tax to fund transit expansion. A special district tax would only be applied to the parts of the county most likely to benefit from transit. The survey addressed this as well, finding that 36-percent of total respondents would prefer a countywide tax, 31-percent prefer the special district tax, and 30-percent oppose collection outright.
You can read more on this story at the Marietta Daily Journal.
You can also analyze the results for yourself here (please ignore the header and document title – it appears that McLaughlin & Associates may have saved the file under an old file name – this is the correct document).