Atlanta: Lawmakers make step toward privatization at MARTA

[marmar]

By Steve Visser
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


MARTA, the backbone of public transit in metro Atlanta, on Thursday moved a step closer to privatization in an effort to put the troubled agency on a firmer financial footing.

Legislation was passed by state representatives that required the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority to privatize major functions — from payroll and cleaning to paratransit services. The reform also requires moving new employees from a pension to a 401(k) retirement plan and capping the heavily indebted agency’s bond debt at 35 percent of sales tax collections. Some aspects may run afoul federal rules, putting critical federal grants at risk.

The bill was approved by a vote of 113-57, with mostly Republicans voting in favor and Democrats voting against, and sent to the state senate, which can modify it.

“Marta should be the crown jewel of Georgia’s capital city poised for growth, ” said state Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-Brookhaven, who chairs the legislative oversight committee for MARTA. “Instead, it is an authority that is mired in the business practices of the 1970s.” .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ajc.com/news/news/transportation/lawmakers-make-step-toward-privatization-at-marta/nWWpz/

[Laelth]

1. This stinks. I truly loathe Georgia's Republican legislature. n/t

-Laelth

[nxylas]

2. "Mired in business practices of the '70s"

Says politician mired in the ideology of the '80s.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. You're Six Decades Off

I would respectfully point out that you're at least six decades off. The ideology that the Teabaggers are pushing was actually formed back in the 1920's and began to assume a recognizable form back in the late 1950's and early 1960's. HL Hunt and other right-wingers had come up with what they wanted to do even before the end of LBJ's administration. All they lacked was a suitable power base, which they acquired, then built on, when Ray-gun took over the GOP after 1976.

What the Teabaggers are pushing is NOT new. This is the same old, same old right-wing crap I remember hearing on the right-wing religious radio stations in my youth and reading in old right-wing polemics I found a Half Price Books back in the 1970's.

[nxylas]

4. The people pushing it now were probably mostly inspired by Reagan

Yes, his ideology predates him, but it's the Reagan presidency that most of the current generation of baggers hark back to as the golden age politically, with the 1950s serving the same function culturally. Not trying to start an argument here, since I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I think my choice of words/decade is defensible.

[Vogon_Glory]

5. We're Not Quarreling

I'm not trying to start a quarrel here (I don't have the time to pursue one on this topic), but I strongly believe that the "privatization" stuff that the wingers and the tea-nuts are pushing isn't this new, new ideology that they claim is still shiny and still reflecting the so-called glory years of Ronald Ray-gun. It's older, wheezier and still the same old bs that right-wingers have been pushing even before Barry Goldwater ran for President in 1964, and that's a point we should keep making to not-so-active moderates and progressives and the (admittedly very few) still-thoughtful Republican voters.

What the wing-nuts are pushing is the same short-sighted, thoughtless, selfish package that puts ideology over objective observation that right-wing Republicans have been pushing for much longer than the mere thirty years they've been claiming.