Readers Agree With Blogger Opposed to TSPLOST

Last week Patch blogger Mike Lowry, an opponent of TSPLOST, laid out what he believes is wrong with the referendum and criticized news media for promoting it. 

In part, his blog said, "The hard truth is that the TSPLOST is a massive tax increase that puts a gusher of funds into organizations that have little real budget oversight, to fund projects that, with only a handful of exceptions, will do little for congestion relief and much to enhance property values for the major developers funding the campaign. 

"Our news media collectively owes their audience a much more professional investigation and presentation of the hard facts."

Officials say, if passed, the penny sales tax from TSPLOST would generate $8.5 billion in 157 transit and road projects over 10 years. They add that studies show average commuter time would be reduced by 24 percent or 15 minutes in either direction. “The value of time saved is $9.2 billion, which will go back in pockets of commuters,”  said Tad Leithead, during a Sandy Springs roundtable discussion in May.

Below are a three of more than 20 comments on .

Tom Miller wrote:

In my opinion everyone in North Fulton should vote NO on TSPLOST on July 31st because it does not widen GA 400. The big unreported story is that TSPLOST doesn't widen the interstates because GDOT's plan, approved by GDOT Commissioner Brandon Beach and others, is that ALL widenings of Atlanta metro interstates will be toll roads ("manages lanes"). The Gwinnett I-85 HOT toll road that opened last year was just the first step. GDOT voted that there will be no more "free" lanes added to our interstates. If you vote for TSPLOST, you will be throwing away 1% of the money you spend. Then expect to get toll roads or sit in traffic in the current "free" lanes.

This isn't rocket science. The roads are full so build more roads.

R. Anderson wrote:

What's wrong with our news media? The main problem is lack of money to do investigative reporting. People aren't buying newspapers or watching local television news. Or listening to local radio stations. There's too much competition, revenues are falling, and local media has to make cuts somewhere. So soft news is chosen over hard news. We know more about Brangelina and TomKat than we do about TSPLOST, TIA, etc.

Erik Fernald wrote:

…The voices against this are the from the populace, the ones for it are mostly from the powerful who want to control more of our money. TSPLOST is just the beginning, if and (hopefully when) this gets voted down, there are more things like this coming down the pipe. Just get ready to see how the money comes out of your pocket if you own anything. The most recent example is ad valorem, take a look on your birthday, the tax has only gone down $14 on our vehicle since we purchased it 4 years ago. It is valued at 52% of what we paid for it yet the tax is almost at 99%. I am a republican, but this is a sorry excuse for leadership here, republicans included. Maybe I should change my status to independent. These guys are not getting the job done and are the main proponents of garbage like this TSPLOST.

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