Fatal Flaws of the T-SPLOST

The T-SPLOST is only a good deal for taxpayers if taxpayers get $6 billion of good traffic congestion relief projects for their $6 billion in taxes

Too much of the money goes to projects that will do little or nothing to alleviate traffic congestion. Billions are going to economic development projects and other poor projects that will do little to alleviate traffic congestion. Taxpayers should not be required to pay taxes toward projects that promote the redevelopment of selected parcels of private property, but do little to alleviate traffic congestion.

Tax Trap #1 - The T-SPLOST is being billed as a 10-year tax that will pay for transportation projects and then end. However, some ultra-expensive projects are only partially funded. These projects are not going to be left unfinished. After taxpayers have made the down payment on these projects, we will get the bill for billions of additional dollars to complete these projects. The T-SPLOST will become Atlanta’s version of The Big Dig.

Tax Trap #2 - The projects list is loaded with projects that will require massive future operating costs, with absolutely no identified source of funds to pay for these future operating costs. These projects will trap the region into massive permanent future tax increases to pay for these operating costs.

On balance, the TSPLOST projects list is a bad deal for taxpayers.

The Atlanta region gets one shot at a major tax to alleviate traffic congestion. The region cannot afford a projects list that will cannibalize future dollars that could otherwise have been used for other projects that actually would alleviate traffic congestion. The projects list will actually financially obstruct the region's ability to fund future projects that would alleviate traffic congestion.

The pro-TSPLOST claim that voters must approve the TSPLOST because there is no Plan B, is very close to an outright lie. There is a Plan B built into the legislation that authorized the TSPLOST. The Transportation Investment Act, which authorized the TSPLOST, provides that if the voters in any region vote down the TSPLOST, that region can put together a better projects list and bring it back to the voters in 2 years. That is a Plan B. And Plan B is the better choice for taxpayers on July 31.

Ron Sifen