Talking T-SPLOST: BOC, IDA director discuss potential impact on local roads

Madison County commissioners and industrial authority executive director Marvin White discussed June 25 the upcoming referendum on the transportation special purpose local option sales tax (T-SPLOST).

The vote on whether to approve a one-cent sales tax for roads will be held July 31. Proponents say the tax will help address road needs.Opponents say the tax is unnecessary.

White pointed out that if T-SPLOST is approved in Northeast Georgia, Madison County will receive over $1.5 million annually and over $15 million over 10 years for local roads. That money will be at the discretion of the county commissioners, not the state.

“This will be controlled locally, not by the DOT,” said White, adding that the annual income off T-SPLOST will equate roughly two mills of property taxes each year.

Dove said there has been a good bit of misinformation in the public, with people believing that local money would go to Atlanta and stay there.

Commissioner John Pethel said he thinks some people hear that the money will be sent to the state and distributed back to the counties and get confused.

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#1 Vote NO on 07/04/12 at 03:12 AM [Reply]

VOTE NO! This is a huge TAX INCREASE!

VOTE NO! NO NEW TAXES! NO TAX INCREASE!

Can't believe our elected representatives are trying to sneak this HUGE NEW TAX INCREASE by us in times like these!

#1.1 Ms.K on 07/05/12 at 05:28 PM [Reply]

This would seem to be the wrong time for this tax. What bothers me is that it is, as you say, sneaky. Maybe the voters are the one's who have caused this convoluted scheme. Roads and other transportation that uses gasoline should be paid for by gasoline taxes only. So, if those taxes are not enough to care for and improve the ones we have, much less construct new ones, then clearly the gasoline tax should be increased instead of these work-around shenanigans attempting to fool taxpayers.

But what knee-jerk reaction do many people have when they hear "higher gasoline taxes"? Oh, the outcry, the moaning, the poor-mes, the how-dare-yous! So politicians who want the people's votes do exactly what the people scream about so they can get re-elected; they arrange for roads to get paved by way of taxes on everything else but gasoline. This is not fair to those who don't use our roads very much while truckers get away with heavy use for very little in taxes because they don't even live here to pay that penney tax. This is wrong!

If we could stop paying for subsidies to the oil companies and such, like somebody here suggested, I would accept a reasonable gasoline tax increase, maybe even without the repeal of the other taxes. People who use the roads should be the ones paying for them. Again, though, now is not the time. We can wait another year or two for the economy to improve and stablize to get roads paved and intersections upgraded.

#2 Ben Had on 07/04/12 at 05:03 AM [Reply]

We need to get some help for our tax addicted commissioners and state lawmakers. No, they can't be cured,but shooting down this tax may be the first step in the recovery process.
They have a long road (dirt) ahead of them.
Tough love. It's the best thing we can do for them at this point.

#3 MC taxpayer on 07/04/12 at 11:28 AM [Reply]

I think this thing if it passes just lets some people be paid for work far more than it is worth and lets others suck my tax dollar up so they work less and contribute less. Post salaries of those that will run the system. I say no to this tax. Madison County great place to live but problem as I see it until the next generation generally male 60 yr olds have passed the county will be viewed as not a place to come to. VOTE NO ON THIS TAX. THIS tax will let things be done just like Sam Bruce road and wasted money .

#3.1 Ms.K on 07/05/12 at 05:10 PM [Reply]

What makes you think that government workers and companies doing business with government are paid too much? Do you have evidence of this? Which generation are you suggesting we lay blame for all our problems? I would agree that it is mostly the ego and power mongering of males that cause many problems, but only those who are 60 years old? Or those 60-something years old? What's that, the greatest generation or the baby boomers? How about looking forward instead of backward and doing your part to make things better. Maybe some of your never-ending unhappiness is your own fault. Now there's a concept!

#4 Joe on 07/04/12 at 07:17 PM [Reply]

The point is I don't trust my local government any more than I do the state. Our fuel tax is high enough and I really don't care if half the roads we have now go back to dirt. They are trying to scare us into voting to give them more money to play with by adding in the mills rating. guess what 65% of the people in this county dont own a home they rent so the mills rate does not effect us but the t-splost
does. I for one do not want my corrupt local leaders to have one penny more from me to spend until they can show restraint and good judement and at this point I don't feel that they can or will.

#4.1 Virginia Moss on 07/05/12 at 04:23 PM [Reply]

People who rent do so from a landlord, the person who owns the property. The landlord pays property tax. The landlord may also pay a mortgage on the property, plus insurance plus repairs and maintenence in most cases, maybe even upgrades. She/he needs to get all those expenses covered in the rent she/he gets plus a profit of some sort. If property taxes go up, the rent goes up; if insurance goes up, the rent goes up. Therefore, all renters pay property tax in their rent unless the landlord is not very bright or is unusually charitable.

#5 mc on 07/05/12 at 08:36 AM [Reply]

look how good our animal control money is spent by MC. I vote no SPLOST.

#5.1 Missy on 07/09/12 at 03:48 PM [Reply]

Mr. White is good enough reason to vote no on SPLOST

#6 Dave on 07/05/12 at 05:31 PM [Reply]

Sure thing people - Give these sewer floaters more money!! Banks County just passed a 1 cent tax to build beautiful new administration offices for a Superintendent that makes $175 THOUSAND for 2800 students under the guise taxes will rise if they didn't. Guess what, evaluations just came out, and yep, someone didn't flush the toilet and those floaters are still stinking the air with an increase in evaluations!! Don't vote no, vote HELL NO YOU GET NO MORE!

#7 Citizen Revolution on 07/06/12 at 11:18 AM [Reply]

I see the true spirit of America is being resuscitated and that in itself is a cause for great hope . The biggest concern of mine is in what White said . That money will be at the discretion of the county commissioners.
That discretion hasn't worked out so well for us in the past has it ?
Kind of like the closet Democrat Governor deal who said he would fight Obama care and now has excepted money from the Feds and is starting to go forward with the implementation of it .
To add insult to injury, Governor Deal brazenly declared that he will begin implementing an ObamaCare Exchange in Georgia shortly after the statewide elections this November. This comes as no surprise as Governor Deal previously took federal grant money to evaluate how to implement these exchanges.
Meanwhile Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens has stated that he also intends to implement an ObamaCare Exchange in Georgia. Incredibly, Mr. Hudgens expects us to simultaneously believe that 1) he will only implement the exchange because he is required to do so by law and 2) he will somehow defy that same law and create a "free market" exchange. You and I know that government intervention does not create a free market!

Furthermore, ObamaCare explicitly states that any exchange setup by a state must comply with all of the rules, regulations, and red tape that the ObamaCare bureaucracy promulgates.

Finally, if there was a silver lining to the Supreme Court's ruling on ObamaCare, it is that the federal government may not punish States that refused to implement ObamaCare exchanges. There is no excuse for Mr. Deal and Mr. Hudgens to implement an ObamaCare Exchange in Georgia!

Helping Governor Deal is his crony Secretary of State Brian Kemp who has placed a pro-tax "preamble" on the July 31st ballot.

Normally language that appears on a ballot must be explicitly enacted by law, but in this case Secretary of State Brian Kemp took it upon himself to insert a "preamble" that advocates for passage of this massive tax.

Brian Kemp's pro-tax "preamble" is deceptive in at least 4 ways:
The actual ballot question clearly lists the region and the state as benefactors of the tax, therefore this tax is not for "local transportation projects."

Taxation does not create jobs. When the pro-tax special interest group "MAVEN" recently claimed that the TSPLOST tax would create jobs, PolitiFact found the statement to be false.

Pro-tax advocate Mike Alexander of the Atlanta Regional Commission has publicly admitted that the transportation boondoggles that would be funded by the TSPLOST would not reduce commute times.

There is no citizen oversight. Instead, the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor (both of whom are advocating for the tax) would appoint unelected bureaucrats to oversee the projects.
This deception is made even more astounding by the fact that Brian Kemp pledged in 2006 to "reduce taxes, not raise them"!

Our forefathers sacrificed greatly and risked their very lives for independence. In their victory, they defeated not only the British military but also traitorous turncoats such as Benedict Arnold.

#8 Anonymous on 07/06/12 at 02:38 PM [Reply]

VOTE NO on the FRANK GINN TAX.

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Talking T-SPLOST: BOC, IDA director discuss potential impact on local roads

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Talking T-SPLOST: BOC, IDA director discuss potential impact on local roads

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