Civic League to Host TSPLOST Forum

The Civic League for Regional Atlanta is hosting a forum in June to focus on the penny sales tax up for vote in July.

"Making Sense of the 1 Cent: A Dialogue on the Economic Impact of Regional Transportation Investment," will take place on Tuesday, June 12, and is part of the Civic League's Movers, Shakers & Policymakers series.

The line-up includes Leonardo McClarty, president, DeKalb Chamber of Commerce; Julianne Thompson, co-founder, Georgia Tea Party Patriots; Mike Alexander, research division chief, Atlanta Regional Commission; John Keys, consultant representing Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities and Statewide Independent Living Council of Georgia; Colleen Kiernan, executive director, The Sierra Club of Georgia.

The event is $30 and will include a continental breakfast. Admission is free with a new or renewed Civic League membership. Current members can buy tickets for $20.

The forum will feature John Robert Smith, a former small-town Mississippi mayor who is now president of Reconnecting America, a national nonprofit that helps communities overcome development challenges. He is a former chair of Amtrak and the current co-chair of Transportation for America.

"We're about transforming those neighborhoods or regions into really thriving places that our people choose to live and to work and to play,” Smith said in a recent interview. "And transportation's at the very center of that; it looks different in different states and cities and regions, but it's also about riding something you can afford to a place where you can actually afford to live."

If you go: Making Sense Of The 1 Cent, Tuesday, June 12, 7:30am - 10am at the Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter Galleria, 6345 Powers Ferry Rd. Register online or call 404 221-1553.