{"id":547,"date":"2012-08-24T09:05:28","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T13:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/wsj-misunderstands-why-t-splost-was-defeated.html"},"modified":"2012-08-24T09:05:28","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T13:05:28","slug":"wsj-misunderstands-why-t-splost-was-defeated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/wsj-misunderstands-why-t-splost-was-defeated.html","title":{"rendered":"WSJ misunderstands why T-SPLOST was defeated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nInaccurate labelling is the reason T-SPLOST was defeated,\nalong with Atlanta is not all of Georgia,\nbut the Wall Street Journal doesn’t understand that.\n<\/p>\n

\nCameron McWhirter wrote for the Wall Street Journal 1 August 2012,\n\nTea Party Ties Up Tax to Ease Atlanta Traffic<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nATLANTA\u2014Money and heavyweight endorsements don’t secure an\nelection \u2014 especially when you propose higher taxes in a\ndeeply conservative state with a robust tea-party movement.\n<\/p>\n

\nA plan for a transportation sales tax was endorsed by Georgia’s\nRepublican governor and the Democratic mayor of the state’s largest\ncity. It was backed by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the\narea’s top businesses. It was pushed by top political consultants\nfunded by more than $8 million in corporate and other donations.\n<\/p>\n

\nThose against the plan were a loose coalition of tea-party\nactivists, some environmentalists and a local branch of the NAACP.\nTheir total raised? About $15,000.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut David slew Goliath.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nThat’s lazy reporting.\nThose “some environmentalists” included the\n\nGeorgia Sierra Club,<\/a>\nan organization which reportedly has\nmore members than the state Democratic Party.\nAnd that’s just in Atlanta.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nOpponents in our region included\nDemocrat Ashley Paulk,\n\nwho was on the T-SPLOST executive committee<\/a>\nand is the current Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission,\n\nDemocrat Gretchen Quarterman,<\/a>\nwho is the Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP)\nand\n\nis running for Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission,<\/a>\nas well as\n\nNolen Cox, Chairman of the Lowndes County Republican Party (LCRP)<\/a>,\nand Roy Taylor,\nLRCP First Vice Chair and well-known Tea Party activist,<\/a>\nalong with a wide range of other opponents.\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nLook at the difference between that Region 11 T-SPLOST vote map and this map of\nthe Atlanta Metro T-SPLOST vote.\nAtlanta metro is clearly centered around Atlanta.\nRegion 11 isn’t an economic region:\nthe vote was split right down the middle between No on the east and west\nand Yes in between.\n<\/p>\n

\nRegion 11 throws together three population centers:\n\nLowndes, Tift, and Ware Counties,<\/a> with their largest cities Valdosta,\nTifton, and Waycross.\nLowndes and Tift are at least connected by I-75, and they and most\nof the ones around them voted against\n(Ben Hill, Turner, Berrien, Cook, Lanier, Echols, and Brooks).\nWare County and all the counties east of it (Pierce, Brantley, and Charlton)\nvoted against.\nIn between there’s a complete barrier of counties that voted for T-SPLOST\n(Irwin, Coffee, Bacon, Atkinson, and Clinch).\nThose No counties completely separate the eastern Ware County group\nfrom the western Lowndes-Tift group.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe perception around here is that T-SPLOST was made up to affect\nmetro Atlanta, and the rest of the regions were\n\n\nthrown together just\nso there would be regions to pretend that it had something to do\nwith the whole state.\nThe WSJ (and the AJC) reinforces that impression when it only\nreports about Atlanta Metro:\nthe WSJ article doesn’t even report on any T-SPLOST vote results outside\nof the Atlanta region.\n<\/p>\n

\nFew people believed the scare tactics that T-SPLOST was essential\nand there would be no Plan B.\nMany of the projects in Region 11 were\n\nunnecessary at best,<\/a>\nsome apparently\n\ndidn’t even need new funding.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nYes we can\n\nmake a Plan B.<\/a>\nHow about we do something to deal with sprawl and to get our unemployed\nto work, like maybe\n\npublic transportation?<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nAnd the article concludes:\n<\/p>\n

\n

\nJoseph Crespino, an historian at Emory University and an expert on\nsouthern conservatism, said the vote reflected deep voter distrust.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThese [voters] are people who are suspicious of public\nofficials using their money wisely,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nLots of Georgians including liberals and independents,\nare suspicious of the Georgia Department of Transportation\n\n<\/a>\nusing their money wisely, and for good reason.\nThe Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)\n\njumped up costs for three Region 11 projects\nby 50%, 70%, and 131.5%<\/a>\ngiving no reason for that to the public.\nGDOT left\n\ntwo Interstate highway projects on the Region 11 T-SPLOST list<\/a>\neven though\n\nGeorgia gets $2 billion in federal funding for such projects.<\/a>\nGDOT that apparently\n\nrequires Lowndes County to approve an over-budget bid to do “value renegotiation”.<\/a>\nGDOT that\n\nwouldn’t even consider federal high-speed rail funds.<\/a>\nI could delve into GDOT’s internal budgetary problems,\nbut probably you get the point already.\n<\/p>\n

\nIndeed, there’s a\n\nT-SPLOST trust problem,<\/a>\nlargely because there’s a GDOT trust problem.\nAnd a huge part of that trust problem is exactly treating Atlanta\nlike it’s all that matters, for public transportation and for everything else.\nWhy should people in south Georgia vote for a tax that was designed\nto benefit Atlanta and cede local control over it in our cobbled-up\nregion to Atlanta?\n<\/p>\n

\nHow about a state-wide transportation strategy?\n\n<\/a>\nHow about passenger rail from Atlanta to Valdosta and Savannah\nand on to Orlando and Jacksonville?\nHow about a Valdosta metro bus and commuter rail system?\nHow about\n\nimprovements to the Valdosta airport?<\/a>\nHow about high speed rail from Atlanta to DC?\nGeorgia would already be working on that if not for GDOT.\n<\/p>\n

\nWSJ quotes someone as saying,\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n…many saw the road projects as government aid programs \u201cfor\nconstruction companies and real estate moguls,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nAround here that perception is not limited to people of any particular\npolitics, because there’s so much evidence that it’s true.\nThe problem is not government.\nThe problem is that T-SPLOST\n\nwas pushed by corporate interests<\/a>\nat the expense of the people of Georgia.\nThat is the source of mistrust.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe solution is to elect legislators who will represent the people,\nnot corporations.\n<\/p>\n

\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n

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