{"id":281,"date":"2012-12-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-08T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/splost-won-in-houston-county-but-not-in-lowndes-county-why.html"},"modified":"2012-12-08T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-08T14:00:00","slug":"splost-won-in-houston-county-but-not-in-lowndes-county-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/splost-won-in-houston-county-but-not-in-lowndes-county-why.html","title":{"rendered":"SPLOST won in Houston County but not in Lowndes County: why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nWhy did SPLOST in Houston County, Georgia win by a landslide
\nwhile SPLOST VII in Lowndes County lost?\n<\/p>\n

\nHouston County’s SPLOST passed in March 2012 by a landslide.
\nChristina M. Wright wrote for The Telegraph 6 March 2012,
\n
\nUPDATE: Houston officials celebrate landslide SPLOST approval<\/a>,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\n\u201cThis is a \u2018thank you\u2019 for the voters,\u201d said Houston
\nCounty Chairman Tommy Stalnaker as Warner Robins Councilman Paul
\nShealy presented the black and white sign. \u201cThey are the real
\nvictors of this thing tonight.\u201d…\n<\/p>\n

\nUnofficial results showed the SPLOST received 10,029 \u2018yes\u2019 votes
\nto 4,799 \u2018no\u2019 votes. More affirmative than negative votes were
\ncast in every precinct.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s 67.6% to 32.4%, and a difference:
\nHouston County local elected officials
\nthanked the voters.
\nLowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk,
\nwho rushed through a SPLOST vote a year early,<\/p>\n


\n
\nblamed local mayors<\/a>,
\n
\n<\/a>
\nwhile County Commission appointee Library Board Chairman Kay Harris
\n
\nblamed the loss on the “give yourself a raise” opposition signs.<\/a>
\nOnly Valdosta Mayor John Gayle seemed to get it that
\n
\nthe project lists might have been a problem.<\/a>
\nAt least one library board member suggested doubling down on the
\nmethods that lost this time, by having the cities and the county
\ngo ahead and draw up new project lists and try to ram them through again.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe mayor and some of the library board did get it that they didn’t
\nexplain what SPLOST was well enough to the voters.
\nIt’s not clear the county did, even though the county website
\nless than two weeks before the election belatedly clarified
\n
\nthe division of funds between the proposed new library at Five Points
\nvs. Parks and Rec.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile in Houston County:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nWith two previous SPLOSTs mainly dedicated to road projects,
\nStalnaker has said he and officials in Centerville, Perry and Warner
\nRobins have purposely diversified the 2012 project list.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAlmost a quarter of the proposed Lowndes County SPLOST VII
\nwas for road projects (none for public transportation, and none
\nfor the airport),
\nmore for buildings, and
\na bit more than a quarter for water projects.
\nNone was for buyback of houses near Moody AFB.
\nNo funds were for fast Internet access.
\nEven incoming county Chairman Bill Slaughter
\nin candidate forums<\/a>
\nequated infrastructure with roads and bridges.
\nHouston County’s
\n
\nSPLOST project list<\/a>
\ndoesn’t seem to include public transportaton, but
\nit does include
\n$0.4 million for airport facility improvements
\nand $2.525 million for a wide area network.\n<\/p>\n

\nHere’s perhaps the biggest difference:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nIn public hearings<\/strong> last fall, officials from the county,
\nCenterville, Perry and Warner Robins laid out their plans for the
\ncapital improvement funds expected from the 2012 SPLOST. The 2006
\nSPLOST ends in September; the now-approved 2012 SPLOST will begin in
\nOctober.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nSee that difference?
\n
\n<\/a>
\n“In public hearings”.
\nIn Lowndes County the closest thing we had to SPLOST public hearings
\nwas
\n
\nthe public-not-invited kickoff speech PR event 28 September 2012,<\/a>
\nending with
\n
\n“we’re not here to debate”<\/a>.
\nWhen I asked later why the Library Board hired an out-of-town
\narchitect,
\n
\nLibrary Board Chairman Kay Harris considered that a “jab”,<\/a>
\nalthough to her credit she did try to answer the question.
\nLater,
\n
\nlibrary staff were very forthcoming in response to an open records request.<\/a>
\nUnfortunately,
\nthat didn’t really answer the question, either.
\nThey<\/strike> The library board
\nhad a systematic scoring sheet<\/a>,
\nbut there’s no evidence that they followed it.
\nThat’s just a symptom of the larger problem:
\nlocal government bodies here don’t have processes to involve the voters,
\nor to make decisions in a way the voters trust.
\nLowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk was right about
\n
\nthis part:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nVoters are disenchanted with the way their local governments have gotten
\ngreedy and they’re tired of the arguments over money. They voted SPLOST
\ndown because they don’t trust us with their tax dollars, and it’s a
\nreal shame.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nWhat neither he nor Harris nor possibly Gayle seem to get is that
\nthe voters are
\n
\ntired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, over in Houston County:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nNotable projects expected to impact residents throughout the county
\nand its cities will be an $8.2 million upgrade to the county’s E911
\ncommunications system and a contribution of about $7 million to
\naddress encroachment north of Robins Air Force Base. Overall, about
\n$60.3 million would be spent on countywide projects.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nStalnaker said the landslide approval of the SPLOST renewal showed,
\nin part, residents are \u201cready to do away with that
\nencroachment problem.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nVoters in Houston County want to protect their Air Force Base.
\nI’d bet voters in Lowndes County want that, too.
\nThey seemed happy with the Moody Activity Zones (MAZ)
\n
\nback in 2005 and 2006<\/a>
\nwhen there were multiple public meetings about the Comprehensive Plan,
\nwhich includes those zones.\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nBut the County Commission has on the agenda for Monday and Tuesday
\n
\na zoning code amendment and a rezoning next to the base<\/a>
\nNow, while it’s not clear we even need more subdivisions,
\n
\nwith housing prices still dropping.<\/a>
\nFor a developer for whom the county
\n
\nalready granted approximately $130,000 in road construction labor back in 2007,<\/a>
\nonly slightly farther from the base.\n<\/p>\n

\nChairman Paulk
\n
\nbet $150 million on SPLOST and lost.
\nDo we want to bet the $400 million of Moody’s economic value to our community<\/a>?
\nAre more favors to a developer next to the base worth that risk?
\nIf we do, will we be dedicating penny tax dollars years from now to buy back
\nthe houses we let him build now?\n<\/p>\n

\nHow about we start trusting the voters by involving them in selecting
\nSPLOST project lists, and by not railroading through SPLOST votes
\nand developer favors.\n<\/p>\n

\nMaybe if enough people call or write their County Commissioners
\nthe Commission will make the wise decision Tuesday:
\ntable or deny that text amendment, and deny that rezoning.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why did SPLOST in Houston County, Georgia win by a landslide while SPLOST VII in Lowndes County lost? Houston County’s SPLOST passed in March 2012 by a landslide. Christina M. Wright wrote for The Telegraph 6 March 2012, UPDATE: Houston officials celebrate landslide SPLOST approval, \u201cThis is a \u2018thank you\u2019 for the voters,\u201d said Houston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,48,40,552,14,49,16,70,1148,2,19,20,88,570,571,21,22,73,52,3,54],"tags":[8736,679,1221,258,1191,8720,8717,8777,8704,8721,8706,8728,1192,8820,1222,8701,8699,10,8709,1190,1200,259,8702,8710,405,12,7,8734,8783,8784,1223,8711,8712,653,8731,8724,1207,8700,6,8726,1199],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-code-enforcement","category-community","category-comprehensive-plan","category-economy","category-elections","category-environment","category-ethics","category-fpsc","category-government","category-history","category-law","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-military","category-moody-afb","category-planning","category-politics","category-safety","category-splost","category-transparency","category-valdosta-city-council","tag-activism","tag-ashley-paulk","tag-bet","tag-bill-slaughter","tag-bubble","tag-code-enforcement","tag-community","tag-comprehensive-plan","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-environment","tag-ethics","tag-foreclosures","tag-fpsc","tag-gamble","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-history","tag-housing","tag-houston-county","tag-john-gayle","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-library","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-military","tag-moody-afb","tag-paul-shealy","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-richard-raines","tag-safety","tag-splost","tag-tommy-stalnaker","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-warner-robins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}