Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says he has cleared his scheduled to get Atlantans to approve more spending on transportation projects.

That apparently meant Sundays too.

“This is about us. This is a regional challenge,” Reed said Sunday at the annual meeting for the American Public Transportation Association.

Transit leaders from across the country met at the downtown Atlanta Sheraton hotel to look at the current trends in public transportation. The TSPLOST dominated most of the discussion.

“If we’re successful here, then the nation is going to take notice and we’re going to be a model for national reform,” Reed told Channel 2 Action News.

Reed says the city risks being left behind economically unless voters approve the TSPLOST package on July 31. That would authorize $6 billion in transportation spending for metro Atlanta.

Reed said the transportation spending is important for the city's tourism industry, which affects thousands of jobs.

It seems leaders from other states have his back.

“The Chinese, the Europeans and the Japanese are all going ahead of us with transportation and we seem to be going back. This is an effort to move us into the future,” said Oregon official Greg Evans.

Opponents of the referendum include a unique coalition Tea Party groups, the NAACP and other city politicians have urged voters to reject the measure, saying it would increase the sales tax and would provide too much funding for road projects.

Among them is state senator Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta).

"You should know while Cherokee County will be paying one percent, you will be paying 2 percent," he told a group gathered inside a barber shop over the weekend.

The latest poll commissioned by WSB-TV earlier this month found 56 percent are opposed to the sales tax, while 33 percent said they would support it.