Atlanta City Council and advocates question transportation budget

“I’m disappointed with this budget,” Council Member Byron Amos told transportation officials during their budget briefing Thursday. Amos also serves as chairman of the transportation committee.

“People know we have the money, but we haven’t seen the projects come to fruition,” he said.

The proposed budget also increases the department’s staffing by just two positions, while other departments are adding dozens of jobs to bolster their workforces. The 2025 budget increased transport staff from 374 to 376, while salary funding is also expected to decrease.

This compares to departments like Corporate Asset Management which is expected to add 55 more employees, Planning is expected to increase by 43 positions and Parks and Recreation is expected to add 42. The Executive Branch – made up of the Mayor and his senior civil servants – is also proposed to add 49 new positions.

Department leaders told council members during their budget briefing that capital from the $750 million Moving Atlanta Forward infrastructure and TSPLOST bond program gives the department the funds it needs to execute his long list of projects. Both were adopted in May 2022.

“We believe this budget supports our mission,” Transportation Commissioner Solomon Caviness told the council.

Officials also said the bonds will help hire additional project managers and fill 46 vacant positions in the department.

But the numbers don’t add up to some council members, whose concerns about the department’s ability to complete its project are only heightened by the city’s growing population and major upcoming events like the FIFA World Cup in 2026.

Especially since the ministry faced a budget reduction of almost 12% in the current financial year, which followed significant reductions made in previous years.

Council member Alex Wan questioned whether the department could complete multimillion-dollar capital projects planned for the coming year with a continued lack of investment.

“I’m not convinced that your budget request is really going to help move things forward,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to me because we took money out of your account (and) it’s stable compared to last year.”

Rebecca Serna, executive director of the nonprofit PropelATL, said the millions approved by voters two years ago to improve transportation infrastructure around the city present a unique opportunity to accelerate projects — but it can’t happen without the manpower to do it.

“We have all this capital money. And there are so many requests from communities for traffic calming measures, even for really basic things, across the city and in every neighborhood,” she said. “There’s a lot of money to build safer streets, but we really need people there. »

People like experienced project managers, in-house traffic engineers to speed up the design process, and maintenance teams.

Advocates also drew stark contrasts between Atlanta’s transportation budget and those of other similar cities. Serna said figures from the National Association of Transportation Officials show the median transportation budget for its member cities is about $160 million, or about three times Atlanta’s budget.

“The administration’s focus on affordable housing is critical,” she said. “And what we want them to see is that affordable transportation goes hand in hand with that, because those are two of the most important factors in families’ budgets.”