VOTE NO on TSPLOST aka TIA

Though I favor regional votes vs a statewide vote on the T-SPLOST I do oppose the T-SPLOST - particularly for south coastal Georgia.

It should tell you something that the sponsors
1- changed the name from TSPLOST to TIA (Transportation Investment Act).
This is straight out of the Obama playbook and is a fallacy that it is a known net investment.  It is a transfer of spending from A (anywhere else anybody might spend their $$) to T (transportation contractors and heavy users).

2- added a biased preamble to the ELECTION BALLOT

 Special interests will deceive you if you let them.

If you're not convinced yet to vote against taxing yourself more with every purchase - on top of your gasoline tax - please consider these sources from Dale Provenzano, Republican candidate for Glynn County Commission District 2 (Dale is unopposed) and current State Representative Ed Setzler.



Dale published this tonight in the Coastal Tea Party Facebook group.

As we get ready to vote in the primaries tomorrow, I am thankful for the friends and supporters that helped me run for County Commissioner! I pray that I will live up to your expectations, and will be thinking about all the other candidates that have put themselves in the "line of Fire" to represent government in some form. Hopefully, everyone has or will vote!!

I also want to state my total commitment to the defeat of T-Splost! I won't go into all of the reasons this insidious tax needs to be defeated, but it does represent the largest tax increase ever on the citizens of Georgia!! If it was only 1 penny, then how come they have 18 billion dollars worth of projects to pay for.

I want some of these projects to be completed! I want people to go back to work! I want my friends to stay in Glynn County. I want Georgia to CONTINUE to have a transportation system we can be proud of for our future growth!! But this tax is not the solution, and it is not the proper funding mechanism for our State. We can do better!

I am upset that bad information has been put out for the public. It is amazing how GDOT has a website that explicitly lists all projects, rules, revenue, expense, and allocations...and yet there seems to be different interpretations of the results.

Finally, I am angry that our State Legislature and Governor, has pitted businesses, friends, neighbors, and citizens against each other over the passage of this bill....because they were not willing to do the tough work in fixing the problems with GDOT and properly funding them! Just think, if all the time, money, and sweat had been used to unite Georgia in fixing problems instead of dividing us, we would be well ahead of the Nation in returning our State to prosperity!!! I pray that come Wednesday morning, we will put his vote behind us and work to put people back to work!!

From: EDsetzler@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:19:51 -0600
Subject: Serious Questions about July 31 TSPLOST


Dear Friends,

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 back side 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.

Predictably, there is no real funding to get the counter-TSPLOST
message out because this is a classic case of concentrated benefits,
dispersed costs.  There really is no one big entity that stands much
to gain from opposing TSPLOST, just voters who have become ever
accustomed to the call that "it's just one penny, you'll never miss
it."

In conclusion, I could under different circumstances support a sales
tax vote if the project list provided good value in actual traffic
relief.  A laser-focus on traffic relief was the solemn commitment of
those who proposed this regional sales tax referendum to the
legislature.  Unfortunately, these dollars were repurposed by powerful
in-town interests to become what is in essence an $8 Billion
bait-and-switch that only the voters of the 10-county metro region can
stop between now and July 31.  Do not believe this is the only chance
we have - we CAN come back in two years and get this list right.
Cries of "There is no Plan B!" or "Now is your only chance to buy!"
are the tactics of high pressure salesman that benefit greatly from
your uncertainty.  Two years is not too long to wait to address a
traffic problem that has been 50 years in the making.  Let's come back
in 2 years with a project list that is worthy of our support.

I urge you to educate yourself, share this message with all of your
friends, and vote NO on July 31.

If you would like to investigate these issues further, I encourage you
to contact me personally or check out a short but substantive
informational video on the web, presented by a retired Army logistics
officer Mr. Bob Ross of Fayette County.  The link is as follows:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DoirHD2hu0&feature=player_detailpage

Thank you for your consideration and I am deeply honored to serve you
in Georgia legislature.

Very Respectfully,

Ed Setzler
State Representative
Georgia House of Representatives
(770) 420-0520
www.EDsetzler.com