A former City of Atlanta transportation official plans to press MARTA to explain what he says is an unexplained spending of over $50 million on “enhanced” bus routes that created little or no increases in bus service.
Douglas Nagy, a former Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT) deputy commissioner, said he will press the MARTA Board of Directors about the issue in public comments at its Nov. 9 meeting. “If the money didn’t go to expanded bus service, where did it go?” he asked.
MARTA said it believes Nagy’s overall calculation is based on a category of costs the agency is “working to true up” against actual expenditures, with the remaining money going back into “More MARTA” reserves. Nagy said that’s a “partial response” that leaves “mystery” about many details, including what the final numbers are.
Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman said that Nagy’s observations are in line with the council’s own concerns about the sales-tax-funded “More MARTA” expansion and improvement program in general and bus spending in particular. Earlier this year, MARTA agreed to a program audit that is still underway.
“One of the fundamental questions of the audit is around understanding how all the ‘More MARTA’ dollars have been raised and spent, including specifically around the enhanced bus service, which consistently has been higher than initially expected,” said Shipman. He said he hopes the audit will show “how that money was spent.”
More MARTA projects – all entirely within the City of Atlanta – are funded by a 0.5 percent sales tax approved by voters in 2016. Amid renewed public controversy in recent months over the lack of delivery, MARTA has rearranged 17 projects into two “tiers,” or phases. The agency estimates it can deliver the first-tier projects by 2028.
However, skepticism has bubbled in such institutions as the City Council, the Mayor’s Office, and sometimes…
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