T-SPLOST ‘extraordinarily wasteful’

AJC’s Tom Sabulis interviewed Lance Lamberton, founder of the Cobb County Taxpayers Association, via email about the July 31 transportation tax referendum.  Below is a sample of the Q & A:

Q: How are you telling Cobb residents to vote on the T-SPLOST, and why?

A: Cobb Taxpayers Association is recommending that Cobb residents vote “No” on the TIA [Transportation Investment Act] referendum. There are many reasons for this recommendation, but most prominent among our objections is that it is a misallocation of resources. More than 50 percent of the money would go toward mass transit projects which would benefit only about 5 percent of commuters, thereby doing little or nothing to alleviate traffic congestion, but will do a great deal to line the pockets of builders and developers who own property adjacent to proposed transit projects.

Q: What about improvements along Cobb Parkway included on the project list? And I-75 at Windy Hill? Won’t they help?

A: Yes, but do we need a 10-year tax with lots of wasteful projects included in them to achieve those improvements? Cobb County routinely passes countywide SPLOSTs laden with pork barrel projects. Why couldn’t those intersection improvements be included in those project lists rather than dog runs, sidewalks to nowhere, or new billboards and concession stands at county parks that are only a few years old? A better way to go would be to pay for those improvements with bonds, and take advantage of historically low interest rates and the county’s Triple-A bond rating; provided this is done without a tax increase.

Read the entire interview: Click Here