Vote “NO!” on T-SPLOST

Radio Commentary, WMVV 90.7, WMVW 91.7 New Life FM, July 6, 2012

By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim.  T-SPLOST,” short for “transportation special local option sales tax,” will be on the Primary Ballot on July 31^st.  T-SPLOST is a one-percent sales tax that will last for ten years, probably longer.  Transportation spending will go up 96-percent to pay for $6.14 billion in traffic relief for a 10-county metro Atlanta region and will increase in other regions, as well. 

During the debate in 2008-09, state leaders agreed a constitutional amendment would be required to create multi-county regions where a single regional vote would be binding on all counties involved. Since then, legislative staff attorneys issued a written opinion questioning the Transportation Investment Act’s constitutionality, but the constitutional problem remains.

No county can opt-out of T-SPLOST, if a majority of voters in the region vote for it.  Slick political maneuvering blocked an opt-out vote and the Transportation Investment Act passed, allowing a single region-wide vote to control all counties in the region, although a majority of voters in some of the counties might have rejected it in some of the counties.  That’s particularly unsettling, since 100-percent of the 180 representatives in the 2009 legislature supported an opt-out. 

Districts that reject T-SPLOST will be penalized.  They’ll lose 20-percent of road maintenance funding, meaning local governments would pay triple what they pay now for maintaining their roads simply because they reject T-SPLOST.

The projects list shows more than 50-percent of the $6.14 billion will pay for projects that do little to relieve traffic congestion.  However, that won’t stop the flow of money.  The additional penny sales tax will cost each metro Atlanta household an average of $3,000 over ten years.

On February 8^th, Representative Ed Setzler introduced H.B. 938 to authorize neighboring counties to form a transportation district and opt-out of proposed projects that weren’t to their liking.  His bill, also, required a project/cost list to be approved or rejected by counties before they signed a transportation district agreement and MARTA would not receive T-SPLOST funds.  His bill died. Now, it’s up to us to vote NO on T-SPLOST July 31^st.  For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.