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Hey reader, it's Matt. This is the Rising Report.
The More MARTA audit—ordered by the City Council in 2023—was this week's top story in Atlanta. Just about every headline had the $70 million figure. Was that accurate or sensationalized?
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- The More MARTA program is a mess. At least everyone agrees on that much.
- Georgia Dems are trying to remove third-party candidates from the ballot.
- The Atlanta City Council takes aim against hookah bars and vape shops.
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The More MARTA plan from 2018.
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More MARTA, more problems
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Remember that half-penny sales tax you voted for back in 2016? The one that promised a shiny new transit network for Atlanta. A new audit says More MARTA, the program funded by that tax, was shortchanged by $70 million.
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Insert a mental record scratch here. Yep, that’s MARTA. You’re probably wondering how it got here.
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Some history: 71% of Atlanta voters (myself included) approved the More MARTA sales tax. The plan released in 2018 (shown above) was ambitious: 21 projects, including light rail transit (LRT) lines for the Beltline and Campbellton Road. The price tag? A cool $2.7 billion, to be collected over 50 years.
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The Grand Plan Hits a Snag
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Fast forward to 2022, and things started going off the rails (pun intended). The Summerhill bus rapid transit (BRT) line's cost ballooned by 50%. MARTA warned of more cost overruns to come. Plans were scaled back.
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The transit system soon left the rail behind—literally. In February, MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood told the City Council Transportation Committee that the transit authority was dividing More MARTA projects into two tiers.
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Greenwood said the nine tier-one projects could be completed by 2028, and tier-two projects would be pushed to 2035 or later. Some of the projects were scaled back. Campbellton Road LRT? Replaced with BRT. Beltline rail? Moved to tier two and would only happen if funding were available. The only LRT that remained was the streetcar extension.
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The City Council demanded an audit. The transit authority initially fought against it, saying it was unnecessary; however, MARTA relented and agreed to the audit in March 2023.
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The audit: More questions
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Time jump to this week when the City released the independent audit report of More MARTA. The city press release said, “More MARTA Atlanta is due roughly $70 million.” That figure crept into nearly every headline about the audit.
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But how did they get that number? It's based on a complex calculation of auditors' estimates of the cost of operating More MARTA vs. MARTA's own estimates. The problem? MARTA's own records are a mess.
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For 2017-2019, no one at MARTA can even explain how they calculated costs, but the transit authority says the auditors should not have applied post-COVID calculations to pre-COVID operations. Auditors say MARTA overcharged the program $44.1 million in those three years.
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MARTA made calculation errors in 2020 and 2021, overcharging the More MARTA program $16.3 million. Auditors say that MARTA's accountants caught those errors... but didn't correct the books.
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And in 2022? MARTA initially said operations cost about $12.5 million. After the audit started, they revised that number to about $2.5 million.
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MARTA says it will transfer the 2022 difference of $9.9 million to the city.
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State Representative Deborah Silcox—a Republican representing much of Northwest Atlanta and the chair of the legislative committee that oversees MARTA’s budget—wrote a letter Wednesday to MARTA’s Board of Directors. She questioned the impartiality of the city-ordered audit and expressed concern about auditors applying post-COVID calculations to determine 2017 to 2019 operating costs.
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“To ensure that the audit findings are accurate and reliable,” Silcox wrote, “I would like to formally recommend that the Board of Directors engage KPMG, a leading international auditing firm, to conduct an independent review of Mauldin & Jenkins' work.”
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Whether or not MARTA conducts a second audit, the transit authority and the City Council must work together to move forward. The city's auditors recommend amending the document that governs the relationship between MARTA and the City to streamline points of contact, oversight, and reporting.
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Ultimately, transparency and accountability are crucial to ensuring the success of More MARTA and delivering on the transit improvements Atlanta residents voted for.
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Where to plug in: MARTA’s board meets at 9:30 a.m. today (Thursday, Aug. 22) and will likely discuss the audit. Here’s the link to the live stream. The City Council Transportation Committee meets Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 10:00 a.m.
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Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Challengers seeking to throw Robert F. Kennedy Jr. off Georgia's November ballot told a judge on Monday that the independent presidential candidate must be disqualified...
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What did the Council do this week?
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- Approved a $300,000 fund to support legacy businesses operating in Atlanta for 25 years or longer (down from the $1.8 million fund initially proposed).
- Approved $13 million from the Housing Trust Fund to pay for affordable housing and housing security programs.
- Adopted a $17.50 minimum wage for city employees and changed how city employees are classified. Unions representing city employees took issue during public comment with the classification changes, but the Council did not address those concerns during the meeting.
- Introduced legislation prohibiting Hookah Bars from operating within 2,000 feet of public or private elementary or secondary schools.
- Introduced legislation prohibiting tobacco and vape shops from operating within 2,000 feet of public or private elementary or secondary schools or 2,000 feet of other tobacco or vape shops.
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Where to plug in: The hookah bar/tobacco and vape shop legislation will be heard by the Zoning Committee on Monday, Aug. 26, at 11:00 a.m.
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There will be no Rising Report newsletter next week.
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I'm finally going on a real vacation! This is not to say that I haven't taken any vacations since ACPC became a funded news organization in early 2023. I've been on a couple of family vacations, which are pretty different from jetting away with just your significant other.
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We're headed to the cooler climates of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca mountains and then to a little surf town off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Have you been to Oaxaca de Juarez or Puerto Escondido? Send me your restaurant recommendations!
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See you in two Thursdays.
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Stories from our friends
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Historically, the county certification has been a purely administrative function. Adding the phrase “reasonable inquiry” opens the door for well-meaning or nefarious actors to investigate any irregularity in a county’s election results that could then hold up certification at the local, state, and potentially the federal levels. In a statement submitted to the SEB opposing this rule change, the ACLU of Georgia wrote, “Certifying election results by a county is an administrative task. Doing anything more than this is an overreach by county boards and beyond the scope of their authority.”
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Where to plug in: Many people are unaware of the election board's recent decisions. Talk to your friends and coworkers about what's happening. Check your voter registration status at https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/.
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Georgia is one of at least 12 states that opted out of Summer EBT in its first year, according to the USDA’s website. By leaving federal dollars on the table, an estimated 1.2 million eligible children across the state will miss out on money next summer that might have assisted in paying for groceries in their homes. It happens as the cost of groceries has climbed by roughly 25% since February 2020, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and as nonprofit organizations are seeing an increase in demand for food assistance.
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That unease over the war in Gaza was more widely reflected in a recent poll in swing states commissioned by the Institute for Middle East Understanding and conducted by the firm YouGov. The poll found that 39% of Democrat and independent voters in Georgia said they would be more likely to vote for Vice President Harris if she committed to an arms embargo against Israel. 44% were more likely to vote for Harris if Biden secures a ceasefire, while just 2% would be less likely.
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