Vote 'NO' on SPLOST on November
8, 2016
Mismanagement of current SPLOST Pork-projects:
| Subject: SPLOST flummoxing the voters |
This is Viewpoints for
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Flummoxing the voters
The author of a recent editorial (“The sales tax that never goes away,” 6/24/2016) is all giddy in tone with the second to last line: “Much of the improvements” (referring to projects financed from the Bibb County SPLOST taxes) “will be paid for by people who don't live here.” Is the author referring to the Georgia Tech 2009 economic study that our local politicians use in selling SPLOSTs to us?Refresher: That study reckons that non-Bibb County folks pay 74 percent of our SPLOST revenues from purchases they make in our fair county. I have not read that report but wonder how was 74 percent concocted? What is the methodology?
More importantly, I am absent of the logic in making that point and I don't believe the percentage either. Plus, what does it save me in any purchases?
Listen folks, I go to the IMAX theater and pay a sales tax for the ticket. After the movie I go across the street to get a New York pizza at Johnny’s and buy a bottle of Chianti at Wine Styles and, you guessed it, I pay a sales tax. In my nine years here no one from Monroe County, Timbuktu or even my old hometown of Hoboken has walked in and reimbursed me 74 percent for the sales tax I paid.
So, what is the point and why would I care that over 70 percent of any SPLOST revenue comes from outside Bibb? Is there any logic in the line of selling our SPLOSTs with out-of-towners financing them for my enticement to vote for a SPLOST?
Finally, in my research I have found that the 74 percent figure is inflated; using proper methodologies, out-of-towners pay 22-34 percent of sales tax revenues in most states, cities and counties.
Bobby Komlo
Macon
http://www.macon.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article87225402.html
Editor: Special to the Telegraph,
SPLOST's.
Governmental
officials say that they desire Citizen input on
upcoming SPLOST's.
by elected
officials and their desire for flexibility without
assurance of transparency in face of the
history of many
elected leaders insistence on obfuscation of their
actions even though
challenged with
RFI's. from
The
potential for 3 SPLOST's, Consolidated Bibb ;
BOE ; and Regional Transportation being
presented to the public
for vote after
the BOE property millage increase and County
service fees increases is difficult to accept with the
continuing
economic doldrums many citizens continue to
experience. Officials have a significant task /
responsibility
if they expect
any SPLOSTS's to receive approval. (Throwing potential
crumbs to varying continuances will be seen
as "bribes" for
votes.)
I have voted in
favor of all prior SPLOSTS with the exception of the
recent Regional Transportation SPLOST because
I did not trust
GDOT or the probable consultant "Moreland,etc."
to be sensitive to the needs and desires of the
community,
telling us what
was best for our community, results now
confirmed by the disastrous consequences which can be
seen through
the
I have discussed
SPLOSTS with a number of people and they have
indicated varying reasons why they will not vote
for any new
SPLOSTS. My affirmative support and vote will be
determined by specific general concerns.
1. Every SPLOST
shall have a "Sunset Date".
2. BOE
Board shall update the Community on closure of
Dallemand era legal actions with full disclosure
relating to "Missing funds", and actions taken
to retrieve same.
3. Legal
flexibility wording developed by lawyers and
"real" citizen oversight shall be fully explained to
public prior to vote.
4.
Prohibition of
professionals
that are more sensitive to the community, and not so
"connected" to GDOT through employees employment,
etc.)
"Bluntly",
Citizen taxpayers of
and the funds
raised will not be a cash cow "piggy bank" for elected
officials to utilize as they desire.
Do not tell us
that "someone else" will be paying much of the taxes
without acknowledging that our Bibb sales receipts
will have no
such tax reduction in bill owed including a SPLOST'
tax.
Arthur D. Brook
478.742.7986.
SPLOST money
If the Macon-Bibb County government would like to encourage voters to say “yes” to a new SPLOST, it would be helpful for the SPLOST website (launched 10/23/15) to contain information about what specific projects have been completed and at what cost from the last SPLOST and possibly have a comparison list of the intended projects and projected costs. If this information were provided to The Telegraph, the paper might then run a story about this.I have been disappointed at times in the past with what I perceive to be a bait and switch use of taxpayer funds and some deafness to allowing sufficient lead time for citizens to provide input on projects before they become written in stone.
I understand our elected officials receive the power to make administrative decisions once voted into office and that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. However, I would think that the establishment of 10 categories for use of SPLOST funds would give our officials sufficient leeway, without having to resort to uncommitted money.
Stella Tsai, Macon
|
Subject: SPLOST Oversight - Park Flooding
article Sr Citizen Center
location |
June 27, 2016 8:00 PM
Flooding concerns could capsize plans for senior
center at Central City Park
Two committee members raise concerns
about future senior citizens center siteCentral City Park drew support from numerous seniors for its new location
The $2.7 million facility is expected to open in 2017
Sizemore Group project manager Bruce Morris discusses latest designs for Macon senior citizens center. Stanley Dunlap sdunlap@macon.com
By Stanley Dunlap
sdunlap@macon.com
Two members of a special sales tax committee say they’re concerned that the planned site of a Macon-Bibb County Senior Citizens Center is susceptible to flooding.
The Macon-Bibb County Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax Advisory Committee discussed Monday the plans to build the new senior citizens center in Central City Park likely to open in 2017. The committee agreed to provide information about potential flooding to the County Commission, which approved the master plan for the 11,000-square-foot facility in December.
Engineering drawings for the center are expected to be completed in about 30 days.
Committee members Lindsay “Doc” Holliday and John Swint said they want commissioners to reconsider placing the facility inside the park. Another viable option is the nearby corner of Walnut and Seventh streets, which is on higher ground.
Holliday cited a Macon Telegraph article where a government official said that the July 1994 flood could have been worse around Central City Park if the breach of the levy had been in a different location. The flooding led to homes, businesses, roads, bridges and more being wiped out around sections of Macon.
“We’re putting ourselves and our future in an unnecessary hazard,” Holliday said. “It doesn’t make sense putting millions of dollars and people’s lives down there.”
The majority of seniors who have been involved in the process of the new center have been adamant about wanting the building to be inside Central City Park, Macon-Bibb SPLOST coordinator Clay Murphey said.
The site is not on a floodplain, and there’s no guarantee that the area would face severe flooding, Murphey said.
“(The Senior Citizens Center) has had a constituency that has followed it, has been kept on it and been very vocal,” Murphey said.
The process of getting a new center has faced several challenges “to the point where it almost felt like the project was snake-bitten,” said Jeffery Monroe, chairman of the SPLOST Advisory Committee.
“It seems as though once the Central City Park site was mentioned, that was something (seniors grabbed) onto,” he said.
The county currently has $2.7 million set aside for the center. The building would feature rooms for various programs, a warming kitchen and dining room. There also would be an exercise room, multipurpose room and space for arts and crafts.
The outdoor space would include a gazebo and garden.
Stanley Dunlap: 478-744-4623, @stan_telegraph