Campaign for the 2012 Transportation Referendum in Atlanta,Georgia

Following the national trend toward funding transportation with local sales taxes, the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan region voted on an $8.5 billion referendum in July 2012. Despite bipartisan and biracial support from the political elites and an $8 million campaign by the business community, the referendum failed with less than 40% of the vote. Although the majority of residents in the metropolitan Atlanta region agrees that there is a transportation problem, not everyone agrees on how to define the problem or the solutions. An examination of three competing discourses—congestion, choice, and equity—framing transportation in Atlanta explained why the referendum failed. Polling data, participant observation, and examination of campaign materials were used to describe the interplay of the discourses and their public acceptance. Recommendations are offered for building consensus around transportation moving forward in Atlanta and other regions, and what this consensus will mean for the growing trend of using sales tax referendums to fund transportation projects is addressed.