Category Archives: ESPLOST

“No other state has had a positive outcome for a charter-positive ballot initiative” —former T-SPLOST proponents now pushing charter schools

The same people who pushed the failed T-SPLOST tax referendum
on the July primary ballot are now pushing the charter school referendum
on the November general election ballot.
Four of their leaders are the same specific individuals,
including one from right here in Lowndes County.
They’re pushing something they admit has failed in every other state.
Let’s not be the first to fall for it.



According to the

Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA),

No other state has had a positive outcome for a
charter-positive ballot initiative

So even one of the major proponents of charter schools admits
no other state’s voters have thought they were a good idea.
Their slides
lay out a pair of statewide major money campaigns to push the referendum anyway.

We know about this because these slides fell into the hands of
the AJC, and
Jim Galloway published them today, saying:

Continue reading →

Charter school bait and switch

Proponents of the state-forced charter school constitutional amendment

Mr. Moneybags
on the November ballot have a

website
that is full of bait and switch.
Most of it is about what they claim are the benefits of charter schools.
But that’s not what the referendum is about.
Local school boards can already authorize charter schools,
and many of them have.
The referendum would change the Georgia Constitution to authorize
an appointed state board to force charter schools on local elected school
boards that don’t want them,

granting more money per student than in public schools,
with

the difference to be made up from local property and sales taxes.
The most substantive thing I have found on the proponents’ website
says that last is not so, but unconvincingly.

Tony Roberts, President of Georgia Charter Schools Association wrote
to All Charter School Leaders and Board Members
7 August 2012,

Response to Letter from Herb Garrett of Georgia Superintendents Association,


Tony Roberts
One final, but important point, local school superintendents and
board members were adamantly against any local dollars going to
charter schools that were denied by a local school board. The final
version of HB 797 was negotiated to ensure that was the case —
the language is written right there into the law. So, to recap, they
insist on no local money going to state-approved charters, and then
get upset about the state money going to charters.

Curiously, he doesn’t cite that purported language.
The closest thing I can find in

HB 797
is

a paragraph I already quoted:

Continue reading →

Public schools to be treated less favorably than state-dictated charter schools?

Do you want to pay more local taxes for state-dictated and state-run
charter schools?

Ellis Black (R-174)
In

HB 797,
one of the state laws we’re being asked to ratify with the charter school referendum
on the ballot in November,
in addition to the magic accounting rules that would

grant charter schools much more money per student than public schools,
it would create a state-wide charter school board that will take away
all oversight from the local school board for any charter schools the
state imposes on any locality.
Yet it does not provide additional state funding for the extra
money per student for charter schools, and it does
explicitly address assessed valuation of local taxes.

The state takes all control over local chartered
schools from the local school board in section 2A(7), last paragraph:


Amy Carter (R-175)
The local board shall not be responsible for the fiscal management,
accounting, or oversight of the state chartered special school.

Yet the state provides no additional funding for the additional money
per student for charter schools:


Jason Shaw (R-176)
2A(5) No deduction shall be made to any state funding which a local school
system is otherwise authorized to receive pursuant to this chapter
as a direct result or consequence of the enrollment in a state
charter school of a specific student or students who reside in the
geographical area of the local school system.

(6) Funding for state chartered special schools pursuant to this
subsection shall be subject to appropriations by the General
Assembly and such schools shall be treated consistently with all
other public schools in this state, pursuant to the respective
statutory funding formulas and grants.

The bill also inserts each of those paragraphs again elsewhere,
in case the point wasn’t clear enough.

So where is the extra money to come from?
Here’s a hint:

Continue reading →

Georgia Trend Propagandizes for T-SPLOST

When did state tax policy become a plaything for companies, instead of a source of services for taxpayers? There’s a lot of fudging in the T-SPLOST article in the current Georgia Trend. I guess that’s not surprising when it’s mostly about the viewpoint of the CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.

Ben Young wrote for Georgia Trend June 2012, Transportation Game Changer: July’s statewide referendum will determine Georgia’s economic future. There’s a lot at stake for all 12 regions.

“The reason our port is the fastest growing is because our road and rail network is so efficient,” says Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic De-velopment, another top RTR advocate. “If Zell Miller and other former administrations hadn’t done something to make the port more of a growth engine, we would now have little to no success in advanced manufacturing.”

Yet the rest of the article is all about roads, with little or nothing about rail, except for metro Atlanta and Charlotte as a comparison. Where are the rail projects linking Valdosta to Atlanta and Savannah, or the Valdosta MSA commuter rail or bus system? Nowhere in T-SPLOST.

It is also unclear how Georgia can sustain growth in logistics-related sectors that depend on moving goods quickly and efficiently — sectors believed to be leading us out of the recession — without strengthening the highway network, which has suffered due to lower gas tax revenues. Without an additional tax, there is no way to keep up what we have, much less build anything new, proponents say.

Um, then maybe the governor shouldn’t have refused to extend Georgia’s gas tax by 8/10 cent (almost as much as proposed the 1 cent T-SPLOST tax, but on gasoline, not on everything including food). And note “believed to be” and “proponents say”. Later in the same article:

People are desperate for more transportation funding and the improvements it will bring, but the referendum itself is complex.

Who are these unnamed “people”? The same “proponents” by whom things are “believed to be”? Isn’t it wonderful to base tax policy on hearsay?

If Georgia was serious about creating jobs to lead us out of the recession and into a national and world leader, Georgia legislators

Continue reading →

Wiregrass Technical College @ VLCIA 15 March 2011



Wiregrass Technical College wants to expand onto some land owned
by the Industrial Authority, using
SPLOST funds.

Chairman Jerry Jennett:

The point is they’re landlocked.

And so what you want to do is you want to take what your tract is now
and have the ability to expand your building in the future.
You want to move your training facility now and….

More transcription after

the video:





Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director,

Allan Ricketts Program Manager, 15 March 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Roy Copeland:

Continue reading →

ESPLOST Passed



If you go to lowndescounty.com, pull down Government at the top,
select Board of Elections, then

Election Results, you can select a format for displaying
election results.
And the results at 8:50 PM 15 March 2010 are:

BOE SALES TAX QUESTION VOTES
YES 82.66% 2,931
NO 17.34% 615
Total Votes: 3,546

I think it’s safe to say
ESPLOST passed.

-jsq

ESPLOST Election Today



If you’re not yet convinced to get out and vote today to continue
the 1% ESPLOST local sales tax that pays for school buildings, books,
band instruments, and sports equipment for the Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia school systems,
here are two Facebook pages:

And
where you can vote.
And here’s
lots of detail on where the money goes.
The two school boards are setting a standard for local government transparency in posting a detailed notice in the newspaper five times,
holding information sessions, going to other people’s meetings and speaking,
handing out flyers, etc.

-jsq

Precincts for ESPLOST election

Local precincts have been changed yet again since the last election.
Here are the precincts for the ESPLOST election
on March 15th.
According to the Board of Elections,

Lowndes County Polling Places:

To find your polling place go to

Secretary of State Poll Locator

Click Precincts for Map Locator and Driving Directions provided by Google Maps.

The version of their precinct list below actually has map links for each precinct.
I have omitted the photographs of the polling places.


Precinct 1 		Newsome St. Church, 202 S. Newsome St., Hahira

Precinct 2 		Old Pine Grove Elementary School Gym, 4023 Pine Grove Road, Valdosta

Precinct 3 		Westminister Presbyterian Church, 3019 Country Club Road, Valdosta

Precinct 4 		Northside Baptist Church Gym, 200 E. Park Avenue, Valdosta

Precinct 5 		Jaycee Park Activities Building, 2306 Jaycee Shack Road, Valdosta

Precinct 6 		Naylor City Hall, 8753 Georgia Highway 135, Naylor

Precinct 7 		Wood Valley Community Center, 1907 Gornto Road, Valdosta

Precinct 8 		Rainwater Conference Center, One Meeting Place, Valdosta

Precinct 9 		New Clyattville Fire Station, 5080 Madison Highway, Clyattville

Precinct 10 		Mildred Hunter Community Center, 509 S. Fry St., Valdosta

Precinct 11 		Dasher City Hall, 3686 US Hwy 41 S. Dasher

Precinct 12 		South Lowndes Recreation Center, 6440 Ocean Pond Ave, Lake Park

-jsq

Against taxes –Nolen Cox



Speaking to the Lowndes County Commission on 8 March 2011,
Nolen Cox said businesses produce money and government consumes it,
and he doesn’t like taxes.

He appears to be opposed to the ESPLOST election.

He’s the same fellow who

introduced
the topic of

climate change denial
in a Lowndes County Commission meeting.

Here’s

the video.





Regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 8 March 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

ESPLOST election, now through 15 March 2011

Update 7 Mar 2011: election date fixed in this post title and text.

Here’s how to announce public finances:

To be published on February 11, 18, and 25, 2010 and March 4 and 11, 2010.

That’s five times the Lowndes County Board of Elections
is publishing the details of the ESPLOST one percent sales and use tax for educational purposes.


This is significant money: not more than $165 million dollars over five years,
$94,875,000 for Lowndes County schools, and $70,125,000 for Valdosta schools.
There are only two main ways of raising money for public schools:
sales taxes, or property taxes.
The local school boards use both.
This is the sales tax part.

Well, there is a third way.

Continue reading →