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STATE REP.
MIKE JACOBS
GUEST COLUMN
MARTA needs to change
with new year
A new year means a new start, and MARTA is fortunate
to have new leadership at the helm — General Manager Keith
Parker. The highly-acclaimed administrator has a good manage
ment record in which he worked to improve transit in his previ
ous cities of San Antonio and Charlotte.
Parker’s appointment couldn’t have happened at a more
crucial juncture for MARTA, its patrons and its taxpayers, as
MARTA’s financial stability remains in limbo. Just last week,
MARTA said it was entertaining yet another 25-cent fare hike
to balance its books.
With new leadership at MARTA, it’s time for MARTA’s
management and board of directors to embrace creative ideas
to ensure the transit system is still with us in the future. The fis
cal solution is not continued fare hikes or calls for taxpayer in
fusions of cash into the beleaguered system. Instead, MAR
TA needs to embrace the 114-page roadmap put before it by
KPMG last fall in an audit that outlines smart choices to get its finances in order.
For example, one of KPMG’s suggestions was that MARTA should outsource seven
“back office” business functions to one or more private operators including payroll, em
ployee records and accounts payable, for a projected savings of $17 to $27 million over
five years.
KPMG’s auditors also offered the idea that MARTA hire private contractors to operate
five other services such as cleaning, customer care and the highly expensive paratransit bus
service, which serves disabled citizens with a virtually personalized service. This could re
sult in an additional $43 to $ 115 million in savings over five years.
Of course, MARTA’s union is opposing such ideas including the concept of shifting the
employees’ retirement plan to a 40 lk plan — the type of retirement system found virtually
everywhere outside of government service and gaining widespread acceptance in govern
ment, as well. MARTA could save $59 million with modest changes to its healthcare plans
and $34 million if it gradually moved to a 401k, according to KPMG.
MARTA’s union contract expires this summer. Now is the time for its board to extract
concessions to bring transformational change to a culture at MARTA that yields high ab
senteeism and a disregard for efficiencies. The board can’t expect to keep squeezing money
from cash-strapped patrons, and state leaders have said they won’t consider funding MAR
TA until there is dramatic change in how it operates.
And the future isn’t pretty for MARTA, either. MARTA’s debt service is 40 to 45 per
cent of its annual prior year sales tax revenues. In comparison, the state is constitutionally
limited to a 10 percent debt service. The annual debt service for MARTA is projected to
escalate annually for at least the next 10 years.
Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and
expecting different results. With Keith Parker at the helm, we may get great ideas to lead
MARTA out of its financial mess, but this requires a board willing to support those ideas.
That’s why it is essential we restructure the MARTA board so that the new cities in Fulton
and DeKalb counties have representation on the board.
Cities are closest to the people in making transportation policy, and citizens in Sandy
Springs, Brookhaven and Dunwoody have chosen to give their cities the power to speak
on their behalf in this regard.
Many of these much-needed changes could be led by Parker and the MARTA board.
Other changes will require action in the General Assembly, which is likely to occur in this
year’s legislative session. With MARTA’s union contract expiring this summer and a new
general manager, the time is right to embrace change at the South’s largest transit system.
MARTA cannot sustain itself with continued red ink. More of the same policies will
only cause more pain for patrons and taxpayers. The time is right for MARTA and its lead
ers to truly lead MARTA into the 21st Century.
State Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven) is chairman of the MARTA Oversight Committee
(MARTOC), a joint committee of the Georgia House and Senate. Rep. Jacobs can be reached
at (404) 656-5116 or repjacobs@gmail.com.
Do you have something to say?
Send your letters to editor@reporternewspapers.net
8 | JAN. 25 —FEB. 7, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
STREET TALK
Oc£A
Q: What would you do
to improve MARTA?
Asked at MARTA stations
and stops in the Reporter
Newspapers communities.
“I think it works pretty well.
My experience has been
good.”
Ritbert JameJ
“Extend it out to Exit 17.
I have to drive all the way
down here to get the train. It’s
a pain in the shorts.”
Jeff Camp
“More trains and buses -
especially on the weekend.”
Stacy Dalla.i
“More buses on this line [85
in Sandy Springs] because we
wait for too long.”
Netty Ekouba
ss
