TSPLOST Continues to Vex Voters

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As the July 31st election inches closer, the TSPLOST controversy seems to grow more heated by the day. The transportation referendum will appear on the July ballot, when voters will have the option to vote for or against the one-percent-ten-year TSPLOST. In one sense, the tax operates much like other special local option sales tax programs, meaning a one percent sales tax will be added to purchases in the region that votes for the tax. However, voters seem to bristle over another tax no matter how minimal it seems. So, is TPSLOST controversial simply because it’s another tax? Or is the controversy deeper?

During the Fannin County Republican Meeting last month, State House Speaker David Ralston (R- Blue Ridge) declined to voice his view on the tax, emphasizing that he supported the process.

“I think it’s up to every Georgian to decide what sort of transportation future they want for their area and they’ll make the right choice,”

Ralston said. When asked to respond to the regional structure, the Speaker said,

“Highways don’t end at county lines; they’re not going to end at region lines.”

The program is partitioned into regions consisting of several counties. These counties in their respective regions were asked to select transportation projects that could potentially be funded from TSPLOST revenue. The fear, though, among voters in rural counties, like ones in the new Ninth District, is that revenue from the tax will be redistributed and funneled down to Atlanta for train projects.

Ninth District Candidate Rep. Doug Collins(R-Gainesville) said this is not the case.

“The money raised in those districts,”

he said at a recent visit to Gilmer County,

“do not go to Atlanta, they do not go to MARTA…100 percent of the money goes to the district.”

Upon hearing Collins response Gilmer County Resident Phil Forest said,

“That’s one point of view.”

Forest’s opposition to the tax is not simply because it is another tax, although he says he’s opposed to it as any other tax.

“The way the program is set up, it’s going to be lopsided in its application,”

he said, elaborating,

“If we’re going to spend money in Gilmer County it ought to stay n Gilmer County.”

Within the TSPLOST regions, counties do not necessarily retain the full revenue from the tax, due to donor counties. A portion of the revenue from donor counties is redistributed to other counties within the region. In a talk last month, Pickens County Commissioner Robert Jones said his county

“may have a few issues with it.”

Pickens, he said, is deemed a donor county.

“On a ten year SPLOST,”

he noted,

“you should collect $60 million.”

However, given the current TSPLOST or Transportation Investment Act (TIA) structure, Jones said Pickens is expected to receive only 48 of the $60 million. Jones also criticized the projects that have been approved for the program. One of his approved projects, the widening of Highway 53, he said, should have been funded by other means.

“Now they’re talking about using our TIA (Transportation Investment Act) money to build this (the widening of 53), instead of going back to the money that was originally tabled about in 1988—that’s another issue I’ve got with it,”

he said.

Additionally, Transportation Coalition LLC, addressed some other issues and misconceptions regarding the tax. For instance, according to its website, the Coalition challenges the claim of the TSPLOST as a temporary tax.

“Some ultra-expensive projects are only partially funded. Two examples: (1) Project TIA-GW-031 for the I-85N corridor states that the $95 million project only pays for studies and reviews: no construction, facility, or capital equipment purchases in 10 years of funding. The project construction is planned for the year 2040 (2)Project TIA-CL-002 for Atlanta to Griffin rail states the $20 million project pays for planning, preliminary engineering, and rail readiness activities. The project construction is planned for the
Year 2040,”

the website states.

The division in the issue is in its support by the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce and, most significantly, its opposition by state and local Tea Party Groups.

Georgia Chamber Representative Joselyn Baker tells FYN that the chamber is very much in support of TSPLOST, saying,

“We believe it is one of the most important economic development opportunities our state has seen in some time.”

In fact, the chamber feels it is so important that it has created Connect Georgia 2012, a program and campaign to promote the referendum. The local chambers, here in North Georgia, however, are reluctant to comment either way on TSPLOST. One local chamber representative commented that he has never heard of a state chamber supporting a tax referendum like this before.

On the other end of the spectrum is the Tea Party. Director of the State of Georgia Tea Party Bill Evelyn calls TSPLOST and all forms of SPLOST, Socialism in its purest form, technically speaking, a redistribution of wealth. As Evelyn explains,

“TPSLOST is part of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 program. Agenda 21 is the integration of economic, social and environmental policies to reduce consumption and human population, achieve social equality, and to preserve and restore bio-diversity. Individual property rights are abrogated to the state and wealth redistribution in the means by which these objectives are accomplished.”

If it continues on its current course, the TSPLOST issue will continue to be divisive, dominating public debate and local politics from now until July 31st and, perhaps beyond.

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