On Tuesday, September 22, members of the Gwinnett County Republican Party voted for a resolution that “… urges all Republicans and Gwinnett County residents to join in the vote against the Transportation Referendum” that will be on the ballot in November. Here is the resolution in its entirety:
RESOLUTION AGAINST MARTA EXPANSION
(Gwinnett County Transportation Referendum)
WHEREAS, Gwinnett County public officials have made repeated attempts to bring MARTA into Gwinnett County and have been defeated by the voting public in 1971, 1990 and most recently in 2019 with 54% of the vote; and
WHEREAS, Raymond Hill, a Senior Lecturer at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School states: “The four-mile extension from Doraville into the Norcross area will run about $2.1 Billion, roughly 17% of the $12.1 Billion expected to be collected”, and probably never completed in our lifetime; and
WHEREAS, the proposed $.01 sales tax will go on for 30 years; MARTA’s fleet of rail cars is aging, replacing the cars will cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the very near future. MARTA’s new labor contract – which includes a variety of pay hikes for employees – will cost $41 million over three years; and
WHEREAS, “With decreased farebox and sales tax revenue, we will be unable to sustain full bus, rail, and paratransit service for those customers who rely on us,” said MARTA’s General Manager and CEO Jeffrey Parker in a public statement. “MARTA is strongly urging Congress to provide additional money.”, so they are looking to Gwinnett County taxpayer to bail them out; and
WHEREAS, during a forum hosted by the Gwinnett Chamber in the recent past, the three Republican candidates said they will vote “No” while the three Democrats said they will vote “Yes” on the [transit] referendum; and
WHEREAS, in this current environment of the Wuhan Virus (Covid-19) MARTA ridership has dropped 90%. New York City had the highest death rate in the U.S., and most experts now agree it was public transportation that spread the virus.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the member of the Gwinnett County Republican Party voted against the Gwinnett County Transportation Referendum for the November 2020 ballot; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Gwinnett County Republican Party urges all Republicans and Gwinnett County residents to join in the vote against the Transportation Referendum; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Gwinnett County Republican Party Chairman makes a public statement to the press to urge all voters in the vote against the Transportation Referendum; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution be posted in perpetuity on www.GwinnettRepublicans.com in a readily accessible location as a downloadable document.