By Maria Saporta

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens hopes the state will help the city fulfill its top priorities, and he is working hard to have good relations with Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, House Speaker Jon Burns and other elected leaders.

But he’s not stopping there.

“We also are asking the federal government to skip the state and just send direct money to us,” Dickens said Tuesday at his annual visit with the Atlanta Press Club for a Newsmaker luncheon. “That’s what we want.”

He pointed to an announcement from just the day before. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and the mayor unveiled a $30 million grant from the bipartisan infrastructure bill to make bicycle and pedestrian improvements in downtown Atlanta along the Pryor Street and Central Avenue corridors. “The federal government can give us our own allocation without going through the state,” Dickens said.

Dickens, however, hopes the state will work with the city to help him gain traction on several of his top priorities. During the lunch he explained that the state holds the city’s charter, so the city must get state approval to enact certain policies.

Mayor Andre Dickens takes questions from journalists during a media roundtable on Feb. 1 in the old City Council Chambers in the historic City Hall. (Photo by Maria Saporta.)

Dickens gave the example of inclusionary zoning – considered one avenue to get more affordable housing units in the city. Atlanta would need state approval to pass an inclusionary zoning law citywide. The BeltLine overlay district, for instance, has an inclusionary zoning requirement that Dickens helped get through when he was a council member.

Another example Dickens mentioned was investment in transit and MARTA. In recent weeks, MARTA has acknowledged that it has a shortfall, and it won’t be able to build out all the projects that were promised in the More MARTA plan.

City voters approved a half-cent sales tax in November 2016 for More MARTA, which was…