Vote NO on T-SPLOST vote July 31
Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 4:47pm
Submitted by Letters to the ...
Submitted by Letters to the ...
Our nation appears rudderless when you look at the trillions of dollars of stimulus money frittered away, the farm subsidies given to millionaire famers in the midst of top-dollar markets and our money wasted on “green” businesses which fail with little in the way of realistic business plans.
Special interests demand these programs so they can get fat and rich off of us, regardless of their failures. Remember, they do not give the money back.
Mass transit, especially rail, is another way of swindling our tax dollars to help special interests get rich while the taxpayers go deeper in debt. When all of the metro Chambers of Commerce sent their paid lobbyist, Terry Lawler, after me in the newspapers to attack me, you had better pay attention.
What is wrong with this picture: “Since 1982 government mass-transit subsidies have totaled $750 billion (in today’s dollars), yet the share of travelers using transit has fallen by nearly one-third,” (Why your highway has potholes, Wall Street Journal, 4-16-12).
On May 18, 2010 in Boston, the head of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Peter Rogoff, noted “there were more than $78 billion in deferred maintenance costs for public transit agencies in the U.S., and three-fourths of those costs were associated with rail systems,” (cascaedpolicy.org). “Mr. Rogoff pointed out that many local transit districts were seeking large federal grants for new rail lines, even though their overall levels of service were shrinking. He asked rhetorically, ‘If you can’t afford to operate the system you already have, why does it make sense for us to partner in your expansion?’”
MARTA is approaching $3 billion in deferred maintenance and they are losing around half-a-billion a year in operations. To make it worse, on July 31, they want you to vote to expand mass transit region-wide, blowing out the dam and flooding us with more transit debt.
You need to be alarmed because state and regional leaders cannot tell us how we are going to pay the billions of dollars of future expanded operations and maintenance costs year-over-year. And I did mean to say “we,” as in the citizens of Fayette County. The July 31 referendum, if it passes, will pull us into a regional transit system with costs beyond our means to pay.
Our county has covertly been walking hand-in-hand with the more urban counties in the region, sucking us into something we do not want and cannot afford. For years then-Commission Chairman Jack Smith and then-Mayor Ken Steele kept telling everyone they opposed mass transit in Fayette County.
However, they always voted in favor of it (with plans that included Fayette County) at the regional government level. Go see The Citizen article, “Commission Chairman Smith explains his ‘Yes’ vote for mass transit in Fayette.”
Chairman Herb Frady, Commissioner Lee Hearn and Commissioner Robert Horgan kept the prospects of mass transit in Fayette County alive by voting against the 2011 county resolution asking that we be removed from all regional, state and federal mass transit plans.
Out of desperation to get former Mayor Steele re-elected, Chairman Frady, then-Mayor Steele and the county administrator drove up to Atlanta and demanded that the Concept 3 regional mass transit plan be altered with no transit projects shown in Fayette.
They did this in direct violation of the previous 3-2 board vote keeping all plans intact. Chairman Frady and the county administrator disobeyed a direct order from the Board of Commissioners in order to get their cohort re-elected, planning on restoring the plans back later.
For the record, the official action of the Board of Commissioners still stands in favor of remaining in the transit plans. There has been no vote to the contrary even though I have asked for one.
Certain local interests have begged Jack Smith to run for the Board of Commissioners again, just two years after being unseated. Smith, development banker and transit voter, was most infamous for accelerating the West Fayetteville Bypass boondoggle project against the will of the people.
The Road to Nowhere has been one of the largest scams in county history.
With Chairman Frady opting to not run for re-election, the special interests need a solid vote they can count on to accompany Commissioner Hearn and Commissioner Horgan to push the passage of Phase III of the West Fayetteville Bypass.
The state and regional leaders want Fayette County locked into a regional transit system only because they need our money to keep the failing enterprise afloat financially.
Fayette County does not have to be in a debt-ridden transit system and we do not have to be forced into the Phase III of the West Fayetteville Bypass boondoggle. The choice is yours.
Candidates Randy Ognio and David Barlow have been solidly opposed to the devious status quo for years. Candidate Chuck Oddo is a political newcomer who will stand by the citizens as well.
We have a great thing going in Fayette County; let’s not watch it go away.
Steve Brown
Fayette Commissioner, Post 4
CommissionerBrown@fayettecountyga.gov
Peachtree City, Ga.
Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:30pm
#2
Get the true facts on the regional TSPLOST
On June 5th, the Fayette Tea Party sponsored a debate on the forthcoming TSPLOST. I had hoped to provide a link to that event so all could see the issues that were discussed and documented. I'm hoping to have that site available just as soon as it's uploaded to U-Tube. In the meantime, I urge all readers to click on to Bob Ross' "Vote No on TSPLOST" presentation. In it, you will learn why most folks you talk with in this area are NOT going to vote in favor of TSPLOST. Any comments you would care to make after viewing the 11 minute presentation that will generate some meaningful discussion would be appreciated.
The weblink is http://youtu.be/6DoirHD2hu0.
Sat, 06/23/2012 - 3:51pm
#3
Smith, The Chamber of Commerce, and T-SPLOST
During the June 19th local Commission Candidates' Debate many of the questions dealt with the upcoming July 31 vote on the Transportation Investment Act better know as the Regional T-SPLOST.
Jack Smith continually defended the transportation tax against all naysayers. However toward the end of the debate, one citizen asked Mr. Smith how he intends to vote on the Regional T-SPLOST. He said that he has not decided how he will vote.
Think about it, folks. As our Fayette County Commission Chairman, Jack Smith was the county representative with the Atlanta Regional Commission. Former Fayetteville Mayor Ken Steele was the county representative on the ARC's Regional Transportation Roundtable.
In a June 20, 2012 Political Insider article by Jim Galloway, it says the Atlanta Regional Commission is "the planning agency that attempts to coordinate growth in the 10-county metro area. The agency also did much of the behind-the-scenes footwork on the transportation sales tax."
In the June 23, AJC, there is an article titled, "Fayette chamber backs transportation plan." It further says, "The Fayette County Chamber of Commerce's board of directors has come out in support of the transportation referendum being voted on July 31."
Jack Smith is the 2012 Fayette Chamber of Commerce's Businessman of the Year Award recipient. The regional Chambers of Commerce are among the financial supporters of an 8 million dollar advertising campaign pushing the T-SPLOST down our throats.
And, Jack Smith says that he hasn't decided how he will vote on the T-SPLOST? Right!
He also said that he wasn't for mass transit in Fayette County, but as our representative with the Atlanta Regional Commission's Concept 3 Plan, he voted in favor of having mass transit in Fayette County.
Toward the end of the June 19th Commission Candidates' Debate, a citizen pointed out to Mr. Smith that the local Chamber of Commerce is one of the promoters of the T-SPLOST and that Mr. Smith is a member of that local organization and asked, "Aren't you, Mr. Smith?" Jack Smith didn't reply. He just sat there with a "cat that swallowed the canary" grin on his face.
On June 5th, 2012, the Fayette County Issues Tea Party sponsored a T-SPLOST Debate that was filled to capacity at the Harvest Christian Community Center. In an unofficial poll of the audience, approximately 95% of the audience indicated they opposed the Regional T-SPLOST. Six people stood in support of the T-SPLOST and 2 were undecided.
Apparently, Jack Smith and the Fayette Chamber of Commerce are totally out of touch with Fayette voters.
Fayette voters, we've got to be very careful when we go to the polls on July 31st.
Once again, Jack Smith is speaking the double-talk of seasoned politicians! Remember when he said the West Bypass was for traffic relief, and at the same time he was helping plan a high-density WFB development and also sat on the Board of Directors for the developer's Bank of Georgia?
Promotors of the Regional T-SPLOST are using the same double-talk in their 8 million dollar ads to convince us we should tax ourselves for a potential 30 years and possibly forever with a Regional Transportation Tax.
One of the final quotes in Jim Galloway's article came from former Cobb County Commission Chairman Bill Byrne. He said, "When you take an approach of regionalism, or regional government, you lose the concept of local control."
Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:36pm
#4
Commissioners Debate...Ginga1414
I was at the Debate as well. Ginga you are spot on with your comments. I hope Fayette citizens will do their research before touching that screen!
My vote will go to Oddo, Barlow, and Ognio!
Sun, 06/24/2012 - 8:38pm
#5
It wasn't just Smith
I was there as well- Horgan gave the same answer. When asked if they supported the TSPLOST, both said they haven't decided. There is no way that this is true. They are both well informed enough to know the pros and cons, but neither was man enough to step up and say that they supported the new tax. That would have cost them votes. It was most disappointing that neither man would stand up for their beliefs.
Tue, 06/26/2012 - 9:28am
#6
Smith and Horgan Are Funny, For Sure
Smith sat before a packed house at the Harvest Christian Church and tried to defend every negative comment any of the other candidates made about the Regional T-SPLOST. He tried to defend the thing against all audience questions and comments. He carried on like that for a good half hour and then toward the end of the gathering he said that he hasn't decided whether or not he will vote for the transportation tax.
Yes, that is hypocrisy and arrogance.
Mr. Dienhart is right about Horgan. He also said that he had not decided whether or not he would vote for the Regional T-SPLOST.
It was quite obvious from the Commission Candidate Debate that if Smith is re-elected, we will experience the same Jack Smith arrogance we all experienced the last time he held a commission position.
If Horgan is re-elected and Frady is no longer there to dictate the vote, will Horgan find his own voice?
Personally speaking, I'm in favor of "out with the old and in with the new."
Tue, 06/26/2012 - 10:08am
#7
I wouldn't count on Horgan finding a voice...
and if he does, I'm not sure that we will like what we hear. Horgans poor judgement is not only well known, it is near legendary...
Mon, 06/25/2012 - 11:51pm
#8
Too darn funny! Horgan and Smith
Jack Smith, as our regional government representative, pushed forward a regional transit plan (including Fayette County), a resolution in favor of regional transit governance and approved the poor projects (52% of them transit projects) in the RTR TSPLOST list and now HE CANNOT PUBLICLY SAY WHETHER HE IS IN FAVOR OF THE TSPLOST OR NOT. Totally hypocritical.
Robert Horgan is another one. He voted down an opportunity to officially take Fayette County out of the regional and state mass transit plans.
Both guys rammed the West Fayetteville Bypass down our throats (a project that has not received a single positive comment from a citizen at a public meeting).
They are not about preserving our current quality of life, ladies and gentlemen of Fayette County.
Wed, 06/20/2012 - 2:48pm
#9
Bravo
Well said. I hope people are listening!!!
Whoa, Georgie Porgie----- I know it wasn't real bright for Horgan to be running down the road burning a number with expired tags but come on--- you question HIS judgment ? Wow that's priceless.