A Regional Quagmire

Atlanta's Major Regional Issues

Bobby L. Hickman

August 6, 2007

With 28 counties, 160-plus political jurisdictions and more than five million residents in the metropolitan Atlanta area, finding regional solutions to economic development issues is all the more difficult.

“Getting things done in metro Atlanta is a challenge,” says Bill Linginfelter, 008 chairman of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. Top issues such as traffi c congestion and water quality “ are regional in nature and demand regional solutions. Roads and rivers don’t stop at county lines. You just can’t solve a problem in Fulton County or the City of Atlanta, and leave Clayton, Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb and everybody else out of it.”

The Atlanta metropolitan statistical area (MSA) stretches from the Alabama state line to the Appalachian foothills. The federal government defines an MSA as a “core area containing a substantial population nucleus, together with adjacent communities having a high degree of economic and social integration with that core.”

However, the MSA is not a political entity: There is no regional government, no “mayor of metro Atlanta.” The MSA includes a variety of political entities, each with their own tax structures, local procedures — and conflicting priorities and political agendas.

“To cut across so many political jurisdictions takes somebody or some group who can bring everybody to the table,” Linginfelter says. “Since there’s no single elected official, the business community tries to find that collaboration” through chambers of commerce and similar organizations

.

When a company looks at the metro area for possible relocation or expansion, officials say, political and business leaders do a good job  of pulling together to sell the area’s  strengths to individual prospects. The greater challenge is tackling longerterm issues that threaten the area’s  future growth.


Top of the list

Traffic congestion is at the top of everyone’s list. And it’s already having an effect on luring new businesses. Traffic was a major reason Mead- Westvaco chose Richmond rather than Atlanta when it relocated its headquarters from Connecticut last year. Some CEOs complain behind the scenes if they had known how bad Atlanta traffic really was, they might not have come here. And site selection companies that help companies relocate say some corporations will no longer consider coming to Atlanta because of its “worse than LA traffic” reputation. So, it’s impossible to know how many other opportunities for economic expansion have been lost because traffic kept Atlanta from making the “short list.”

Linginfelter, who chairs the chamber’s committee on transportation policy, also is Wachovia’s Georgia CEO; Wachovia has some 5,000 employees in the Atlanta area. “But it doesn’t matter if you have five employees or 5,000: getting people to and from work is critical.” Traffic “has everything to do with the attitude you have with people you work with, their attitude toward your customers, and employees having a reasonable work/life balance.”

And when someone is driving along Interstate 285, he says, they don’t really care if they’re in Cobb or Fulton or DeKalb. They just want to get where they are going in a reasonable amount of time.

To find more funds to address traffic congestion, the chamber and other groups are working with the General Assembly. “Over the past five to 10 years, Georgia has ranked fourth from the top of the list in population growth,” Linginfelter says. “But we’re fourth from the bottom in transportation funding for infrastructure to handle that growth. We’ve a victim of our own success; now we need to do some catch-up.”

The result was House Bill 434, an initiative that would allow any region’s voters to raise funds for transportation projects. The plan – sort of a regional SPLOST – has support across party lines, from rural and urban legislators, and from 22 regional and statewide organizations, including the Georgia, Augusta and Savannah chambers. The Legislature is studying that bill, along with a similar proposal for a statewide referendum on additional taxes for road improvements. Action is expected in the 2008 session.

One area where Olens has seen conflict within the ARC is when governments try to lure existing companies away from their neighbors.

Still, the proposal only aims to keep congestion at present levels for the next 20 years. Linginfelter says,

“We aim to keep it from getting bad enough for people to say, ‘I’ve got to move.’ It’s already a sticking point for companies that want to move. We don’t want to get to the point where companies routinely say they’re not coming to Atlanta because of traffic – or worse yet, that they’r e picking up and leaving.”

Similar efforts are underway to address other regional growth and quality-of-life issues, such as water quality and the fate of Grady Hospital. Providing a clean and adequate water supply will require solutions beyond the Atlanta area, Linginfelter adds. “Eventually we’re going to have to build a partnership beyond our own state; that’s the only way it’s going to get done.”


The economic engine

Atlanta is considered the economic engine for Georgia and the southeastern United States. Since the 1970s, the growth around Atlanta has been so significant, regional interdependencies have grown around jobs, shopping and entertainment. Because of that, Linginfelter says, “The trend in the political community is more toward regionalism. I’ve seen leadership more willing to work together over the last 25 years than in earlier years. I wish I could say there is 100 percent regional cooperation but that’s not accurate. Still, the trend is more strongly toward working together.”


Sam Olens, who chairs the 10- county Atlanta Regional Commission and the Cobb County Commission, sees healthy working relationships among the various government bodies and the chambers to address economic development issues. “I don’t really see the number of entities being involved hindering our ability to get done what needs to get done,” he says.

However, one area where he has seen conflict within the ARC is when governments try to lure existing companies away from their neighbors. Olens has tried several times without success for the ARC entities to sign an intergovernmental agreement that would limit the use of economic incentives. “Economic incentives should rarely be used for existing businesses moving within our region,” he says. “There are some local government officials who totally support me. And there are some who feel that’s their business, and that such an agreement is not appropriate.”

Aside from the ARC and chamber cooperation, there are 18 to 20 counties in the area that work together on air quality issues. Within Cobb, Olens says, the county and Marietta have a good working relationship on economic issues. He adds the various counties and cities do not compete against each other for potential new businesses coming to the area: “We’re all there to bring jobs to the region.”

Counties now Part of Atlanta’s Ever-Growing MSA
                                                                                             

1. Barrow                                   
2. Bartow                               
3 . Butts                          
4. Carroll
5. Cherokee
6. Clayton
7. Cobb
8. Coweta
9. DeKalb
10. Douglas
11. Fayette
12. Forsyth
13. Fulton
14. Gwinnett    
15. Hall
16. Haralson
17. Heard
18. Henry
19. Jasper
20. Lamar
21. Meriwether
22. Newton
23. Paulding
24. Pickens
25. Pike
26. Rockdale
27. Spalding
28. Walton