The following is from a Georgia CP e-mail. See my explanation of the issue in the comments.
Residents across the 10-county Atlanta region including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties, as well as the City of Atlanta have the opportunity to vote on a referendum that would fund $8.5 billion in transportation improvements through a regional one percent sales tax. You can view the Transportation Investment Act of 2010 here: http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/hb277.htm.
The Atlanta Regional Commission’s web site in support of the Act is here: http://www.metroatlantatransportationvote.com/. There has been a heated debate over this referendum. State Representative Ed Setzler (Cobb County-District 35) made the following comments on July 14th that are representative of the concerns of the Constitution Party of Georgia:
I have been getting a lot of serious questions about the upcoming July 31 transportation referendum (TSPLOST). As many of you know, I serve on the House Transportation Committee and have worked diligently for years to help the Atlanta region find real solutions to its traffic problems. It is with this commitment to actually solve our traffic problems while not wasting taxpayer money that I STRONGLY OPPOSE PASSAGE OF THE TSPLOST REFERENDUM ON JULY 31.
The $8.4 billion TSPLOST project list selected in 2011 by a group of 21 local officials is such a profoundly poor use of a 10 year sales tax that if we consume the $3,500 each metro household will pay for these projects, metro Atlanta will never catch up in finding the money required to address traffic congestion. The fatal irony of the TSPLOST vote is that what is being sold to you as traffic relief is largely a bail out for MARTA and a funding mechanism for billion dollar mass transit projects that only 2% of us will ever use. Please don’t be fooled by this very slick and well-done advertising campaign. The powerful interests funding this unprecedented effort have so much to gain from TSPLOST’s passage that they will stop at almost nothing to gain your support.
Think about it – spending $8 Million in advertising to secure $8 Billion in targeted construction that means that it will cost TSPLOST proponents only $1 of private advertising for every $1000 in tax payer funded projects they will receive if the referendum passes on July 31. Imagine an 8-year-old child that invests $5 in advertising for a Saturday lemonade stand and from that tiny investment receives $5,000 in business. Dollar for dollar, that is the same 1000 to 1 pot of gold that proponents of the TSPLOST know is on the backside of this rainbow, if they can only convince you that the July 31 project list is worthy of your support.
This project list is a trap for taxpayers that consumes 52% of the money on rail transit projects, many of which are initial phases multi-decade projects that will require your support again and again every 10 years and will do practically nothing to reduce traffic. Even the AJC reported on May 20, 2012, that regional planners concede that the TSPLOST project list will do little to reduce commute times. Hijacked by powerful in-town interests, the TSPLOST ignores recent compelling studies that propose intersection improvements and even express bus projects that provide a reasonable return on our investment. Instead, the TSPLOST funds $120 million per mile pet projects such BRT/Light Rail to Cumberland Mall and the Atlanta Beltline, a project of great political interest to in-town leaders that will do absolutely nothing to reduce traffic. Furthermore, the TSPLOST brazenly commits $600 million to bail out the existing MARTA system, a concept that the legislature intentionally tried to prohibit in passing the enabling act (continue reading at… http://www.gaconstitutionparty.org/Setzler-TSPLOST)
It is for these reasons above and others that the Constitution Party of Georgia recommends voting NO on the TSPLOST.
For more information on the TSPLOST:
Peach TEA Party Review: http://peachteapac.lifeandlibertytracker.org/blog/repeal-transportation-investment-act-2010
Transportation Leadership Coalition: http://www.traffictruth.net/
It is hard for people who don’t live in Georgia to understand what a big issue this has become in the State. The CP statement highlights the 10 County Atlanta region, but this is actually a statewide measure. The state has been divided into several regions each of which is going to vote on the 1 cent sales tax increase that will fund transportation projects in their region. Each region can independently accept or reject the tax. (This seems an odd way to do it, but I’m sure it was done this way so as the rest of Georgia wouldn’t vote down a tax that it would correctly perceive as primarily intended to benefit the Atlanta Metro area.) The CP release is correct though that this has primarily been an Atlanta area debate. In my region it hasn’t been a very big deal, but the Atlanta airwaves have been FLOODED by advertisements mostly in support. The anti-tax and TEA Party groups have come out strong in opposition. There was a near mutiny in one of the TEA Party groups when a prominent TEA Party leader suggested she might support the tax given certain conditions.