Which Do You Need More? Money or MARTA?

Do you remember that 1985 Dacula Elementary PTA meeting when we were asked to actively campaign and vote for the SPLOST? I do. Do you remember how they told us we could vote SPLOST away one day? I do. Do you remember how our county leaders would "court" our votes by telling us we would be getting something in the new plan? Remember how Dacula was the last Gwinnett city to get a new school building and library? I do.  

If you are new to Gwinnett or you just have the baby boomer memory, then here is an explanation of SPLOST in their own words:

“One penny from most retail dollars spent in Gwinnett County pays for specified capital improvements throughout the county. The Georgia legislature gave counties the option of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, commonly known as SPLOST, starting in 1985. 

"It requires voter approval of specified capital improvement projects and a defined end date of no more than six years. School boards got the option to use SPLOST programs for school construction in 1997, and municipalities got a required share of county SPLOST revenues starting in 2005.

"Gwinnett's current five-year SPLOST program went into effect in April 2009 after voter approval in the November 2008 general election. It will expire in March 2014. It is expected to raise about $730 million to be shared between county and city governments and used for transportation, parks and recreation, public safety, libraries, courthouse facilities, city administrative facilities, city water & sewer capital facility and city parking facilities.”

Notice the word “transportation.”  WE ALREADY HAVE A TAX IN PLACE FOR GWINNETT"S TRANSPORTATION NEEDS! Why should we vote ourselves another tax? The Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable or ARTR, is gearing up and it looks just like its past sister SPLOST in many ways! We already have SPLOST for transportation revenue. Are we citizens so stupid that we are going to say yes to a duplicate tax and then give 85 percent of the funds away to other counties and Atlanta? 

Let's see ... $730 million projected and since 1985 we have received only around $3.6 million? What has Dacula done with our share of the collected SPLOST funds so far? Based on current estimates, the City of Dacula has approximately $1.632 million in 2005 SPLOST proceeds. We also were allocated $2.184 million in 2009 SPLOST funds that are still on reserve. We still have more coming that is allocated to us for years 2009-2011 and again from 2011 until 2014. WHAT? We have three million in our bank account that has not even been touched with more in the way and they are still asking for more tax money from us! Are they trying to get the ARTR tax in place before we finally vote to kill SPLOST?  

How can it be that our property millage rates were raised two months ago because the city needed to find $20,000? Did they forgot to look into the SLPOST purse?  I am sure it has to do with government regulations! I say we have a lot to ponder. I am not against progress yet, we have plenty of schools. We have four parks near by. Our high school theaters are better than most college theaters. We have fire stations and libraries a plenty. I guess we could use the “CVS Development Method” and put a school, fire station, and library on every corner! 

Why are Americans like that undisciplined friend that spends without need or without any money by running up their credit cards? You know who I mean, the women in debt, out at Dillards, buying another pair of shoes to add to the 60 pairs in her closet. Maybe it is the man in debt, buying his newest toy, the 78-inch 3DTV to replace his 3-year-old 56-inch HDTV! What is missing in our lives that requires so much emotional spending? Those same men and women are now taking our money and their spending mentality to the ARTR tax. They are working hard to get our leaders to vote with them by throwing us a bone of improvement.  What size is that bone being thrown our way? A huge 15 percent our the total 100 percent collected from our pockets out here in Gwinnett.   

Many that moved into our area are now gone with the building boom leaving a broken housing economy in its wake.  In my view, we have a vote ahead of us. There are four different way to view SPLOST and ARTR.  One, keep SPLOST and use it ONLY for Gwinnett’s transportation needs, (we get 100 percent instead of only 15 percent of the collected ARTR funds.) Two, kill SPLOST by not voting for it again in 2014 and let the economy stabilize before we tax ourselves again. Three, vote for ARTR and keep SPLOST so we will get double tax! And finally four, kill SPLOST and do not vote for the new ARTR tax or TSPLOST.  

We could stop the spending and learn to live with what we have until this current economical down turn is over.  What a novel idea. It is as if the government keeps building things it can not even afford to maintain. OOOPS! Sounds a lot like MARTA and the problems Atlanta is experiencing. ARTR is a plan to get Gwinnett citizens to bail out the problems MARTA is now experiencing. Without us joining MARTA, they will not be able to continue due to lack of funds from a city that has taxed it citizens into withdrawing from the City of Atlanta and forming their own city governments, i.e. Sandy Springs. Without those cities' revenue, ARTR has come calling to the surrounding 11 counties to pull their bums out of the fire!   

Our economy is down and heading even lower. There are thousands of foreclosed homes, being held by the banks, waiting to be dumped on the market to further decrease our home's values. Our employment rate is over 10 percent with two years of no solutions being offered by our leaders. I say let’s take a tax break and let our economy recover. Why can't we put a moratorium in place and let the dust settle so we can better asses our true needs. When SPLOST and ARTR started we were in a bounding economy. Things have changed in our homes and in our communities, we must be brave enough to change with the economic times we are living in.  

I don’t want to hear how government spending will get the economy going.  Your government gave $20 MILLION to refit northwest homes with insulation for energy savings. THREE homes have been done in the last three years! If you can’t pay your house payment, you don't go out and buy insulation to get a tax benefit!  

Which do you need more, money or Marta? How did we in Dacula become involved in the MARTA System? Why are we being asked to “save” the failing Atlanta MARTA system? Stay tuned for the answer.