Regionalism: Threat to the Republic

Published June 10, 2012 | By Field Searcy

The citizens of Georgia will be voting on a Regional Transportation Referendum on July 31st. Some people call it the TIA or T-SPLOST for Transportation Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax. Actually, it’s not formally a SPLOST as the money can be shifted among projects on the list. Whereas in a true county adopted SPLOST, the county must complete all of the projects on the list approved for the referendum. This Regional Transportation Referendum is for a 1% sales tax on all purchases for 10 years. The state is divided into 12 regions. Every county will vote if they want the tax in their region. From our research, most Georgian’s have not even heard about this referendum.

For Metro Atlanta, not only will the project list not help the congestion problem, if passed, it may permanently prevent us from ever dealing with congestion. 52% of the tax revenue will be used to fund mass transit (bus and rail). Yet, only 5% of the population uses mass transit. Many of the projects are underfunded or only partially funded. You can find out more about the Georgia Transportation Investment Act of 2010 (TIA) and ways to help us stop it here: www.traffictruth.net .

As I’ve been studying this issue more and more, I’ve come to a conclusion regarding the TIA/T-SPLOST. The most important aspect is that it’s a funding mechanism for Regional Governance which is dangerous in the following ways:
1) It’s another level of bureaucracy
2) Another level of taxes
3) Most important, the decision makers are unelected and unaccountable to the people

So, what you are really voting on is a new form of government that’s contrary to our republican form of government which provides for representation and consent of the govern. This is the most dangerous aspect of the Transportation Investment Act and it’s not even being discussed.

I just gave a presentation yesterday in Bartow County on Regionalism: Threat to the Republic – How Regionalism and Public Private Partnerships are tearing down constitutionally limited self-government and genuine free market economics. You can download it here and see a couple of videos on Public Private Partnerships

This is a question for all Georgian’s. Do you want another layer of state government that’s unelected and unaccountable to the people?

Presentation:

Regionalism-Threat-to-the-Republic