{"id":466,"date":"2012-09-26T20:25:40","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T00:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/splost-vii-campaign-kicks-off.html"},"modified":"2012-09-26T20:25:40","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T00:25:40","slug":"splost-vii-campaign-kicks-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/splost-vii-campaign-kicks-off.html","title":{"rendered":"SPLOST VII campaign kicks off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<strong>Update 2012-09-27 8:50AM:<\/strong> Added video, stills, and notes about the County Palace and Internet access.\n<br>\nThe seventh Special Local Option Sales Tax, SPLOST,\nwill be on the November ballot.\nNot to be confused with the just-defeated\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/08\/wsj-misunderstands-why-t-splost-was-defeated.html\">\nbogus regional transportation T-SPLOST<\/a>,\nor last year&#8217;s successful\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/03\/esplost-passed.html\">\neducational ESPLOST<\/a>,\nor the\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/08\/lost-lawsuits-ahead.html\">\ncurrently renegotiating property-tax-relief LOST,<\/a>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/video\/?autoStart=true&#038;topVideoCatNo=default&#038;clipId=7770626\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8177\/8029510340_b38486796e_m.jpg\" alt=\"SPLOST Campaign\"><\/a>\nSPLOST VII will follow up on SPLOST VI\nin supporting local infrastructure projects.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nGreg Gullberg reported for WCTV today,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/home\/headlines\/Campaign-Kicks-Off-For-SPLOST-Tax-In-Valdosta-171386041.html\">\nCampaign Kicks Off For Valdosta Tax<\/a>\n<strike>\n(no video appears to be available):\n<\/strike>\nThe text story link has vanished, but\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/video\/?autoStart=true&#038;topVideoCatNo=default&#038;clipId=7770626\">\nvideo has appeared.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">\n<script type='text\/javascript' src='http:\/\/WCTV.images.worldnow.com\/interface\/js\/WNVideo.js?rnd=113385;hostDomain=ww2.WCTV6.com;playerWidth=616;playerHeight=357;isShowIcon=true;clipId=7770626;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=MINI_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=fixed'><\/script><a href=\"http:\/\/ww2.WCTV6.com\" title=\"\"><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nThere is a campaign in Lowndes County to rally for the tax called\nSPLOST, or the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. It could\nbring in as much as $35 million, but that is only if voters say it&#8217;s\nworth the extra pennies.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<!--more-->\n<blockquote>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/8029515139\/\" title=\"Jerome Tucker\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8443\/8029515139_2432502dbc_m.jpg\" alt=\"Jerome Tucker\"><\/a>\n&#8220;When you talk about economic development you are not going to be\nvery successful at it without the development of infrastructure. And\nthis tax gives us the opportunity to provide this infrastructure,&#8221;\nsaid Jerome Tucker, Campaign Organizer&#8230;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe funds provide $16 million dollars for the City of Valdosta and\n$18 million for unincorporated areas of Lowndes County. Some major\nprojects including adding two new roundabouts to the Five Points\nProject Area in Valdosta. An area where current intersections are\nranked an &#8220;F&#8221; by G-DOT.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/8029529247\/in\/photostream\/\"\ntitle=\"Lowndes County Palace\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8461\/8029529247_7e1a6a1cc2_m.jpg\"\nalt=\"Lowndes County Palace\"><\/a>\nThe video slowly zooms in on the County Palace,\nwhich was largely paid for out of SPLOST VI funds,\nwhile Gullberg leads up to this:\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nBut not everyone is convinced voters are getting what they think.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nMaybe voters would like to know what they&#8217;re getting?\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\n&#8220;The biggest concern that I have is how did the project list get\nmade,&#8221; said Gretchen Quarterman,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/8029515389\/sizes\/m\/\" title=\"Gretchen Quarterman\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8312\/8029515389_8e246b3055_m.jpg\" alt=\"Gretchen Quarterman\"><\/a>\nValdosta community activist. &#8220;There\nreally wasn&#8217;t a lot of citizen input. And I&#8217;m very interested in\ntransparent and accessible government. And there are some projects\nthat I think should be on the list that are not.&#8221;&#8230;.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nHow about some 21<small><sup>st<\/sup><\/small> century infrastructure,\nlike fast Internet access everywhere?\nThat&#8217;s not on the SPLOST VII list, but a humongous new library building\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/07\/library-board-selects-out-of-state-architect-for-local-library-lcc-2012-07-24.html\">\ndesigned by an out-of-county and out-of-state architect<\/a> is.\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nThe &#8220;SPLOST Seven Public Awareness Committee&#8221; will be hosting a\npublic event Friday to promote the various projects planned in the\ncity and county. It will be at the South Georgia Medical Center\nParking Garage at 10 am.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nMaybe they&#8217;ll explain what&#8217;s on the list and why.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Update 2012-09-27 8:50AM: Added video, stills, and notes about the County Palace and Internet access. The seventh Special Local Option Sales Tax, SPLOST, will be on the November ballot. Not to be confused with the just-defeated bogus regional transportation T-SPLOST, or last year&#8217;s successful educational ESPLOST, or the currently renegotiating property-tax-relief LOST, SPLOST VII will [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,14,49,2,132,88,21,22,52,3,54,177],"tags":[8736,8704,8721,8701,8699,10,291,8702,12,7,8734,8711,8712,8724,1671,1157,8700,6,8726,8748],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-elections","category-government","category-internet-access-speed","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-planning","category-politics","category-splost","category-transparency","category-valdosta-city-council","category-wctv","tag-activism","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-jerome-tucker","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-splost","tag-splost-seven-public-awareness-committee","tag-splost-vii","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-wctv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-7w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","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=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}