There was a dropoff in the first week of early voting,
but it picked back up last Friday and this week.
Daily and Total voting in Lowndes County Georgia by 25 October 2012:
Date
Daily
Total
October 15, 2012
1636
1636
October 16, 2012
1225
2861
October 17, 2012
956
3817
October 18, 2012
643
4460
October 19, 2012
1433
5893
October 23, 2012
1449
9173
October 24, 2012
1363
10536
October 25, 2012
1408
11944
Data courtesy of Tiffany Linkswiler, Lowndes County Board of Elections.
SPLOST VII’s $22 million for a new library and parks and rec
goes about 2/3 for the library and 1/3 for parks and rec,
and the latter doesn’t all go to parks and rec at Five Points,
according to a mysterious red-letter note that has sprung up
on the Lowndes County website.
The front page of
lowndescounty.com
has sprouted this undated and unsigned
clarification under the SPLOST VII heading:
Exhibit A
(Please note that the $22 million proposed by Lowndes County for the
Library and Parks & Recreation, represents a division of
approximately $14.5 million for the Library and approximately $7.5
million for Parks & Recreation. In addition, the $7.5 million
proposed for Parks & Recreation is not allocated for parks and
improvements at the 5-Points site. Parks & Recreation will use these
funds for improvements in other areas of the county.)
payment of bond debt for acquisition and construction of and
equipping a new library facility and parks and recreation facilities
$ 22,000,000
Can somebody explain why the new library and Parks and Rec were lumped together
in the first place?
At least the county is sort of trying to explain the difference now.
They didn’t include the pie chart with their clarification.
It would be easier for people to vote for SPLOST VII if they knew
what they were getting.
So far, that’s difficult to tell from what’s been published.
Many questions remain to be answered.
The county projects penny sales tax collections through SPLOST VII
to total at least $150 million during a six-year period, a sum that
could fund a library complex, an auditorium, the installation of a
mandated public safety radio system, an array of municipal water and
sewage improvements, new equipment for police officers and
firefighters, and road maintenance projects.
There is not adequate funding for these projects if the SPLOST
referendum does not pass, according to city and county planners.
$150 million is not $35 million.
$150 million divided by six is $25 million, not $35 million.
The same people who pushed the failed T-SPLOST tax referendum
on the July primary ballot are now pushing the charter school referendum
on the November general election ballot.
Four of their leaders are the same specific individuals,
including one from right here in Lowndes County.
They’re pushing something they admit has failed in every other state.
Let’s not be the first to fall for it.
No other state has had a positive outcome for a
charter-positive ballot initiative
So even one of the major proponents of charter schools admits
no other state’s voters have thought they were a good idea.
Their slides
lay out a pair of statewide major money campaigns to push the referendum anyway.
Looks like history may repeat itself like last decade,
now that LOST negotiations between the cities and the county have failed.
Except this time apparently the law has changed so they can’t sue each
other directly.
Instead next it goes to
Superior Court “baseball arbitration”.
However, I bet that still involves lawyers at taxpayer expense,
not to mention the Court’s time.
It’s sort of sad because it is a waste, if you will, of taxpayer dollars.
That the elected officials can’t get together and come to some agreement
to say that they all understand how the money has to be divided up
Yeah, it’s sad that more money has to go to lawyers
insted of being spent on services.
I continue to think the local governments could spend their time together
better
trying to increase the size of the pie instead of squabbling over slices of it.
Do big box stores count as development? Are they worth millions in tax incentives and bond investments? Maybe we can find something better for local industry and jobs.
Rumors have been flying for years about a Bass Pro store coming to Valdosta, like this one on a Georgia Outdoor News forum:
01-22-2008, 09:05 PM, bear-229 ive heard the land has been bought. very close to the new toyota lot but it has not made it to the “new locations” on the web site
That’s on James Road, in that huge proposed development that Lowndes County approved around that time.
Both Bass Pro Shops and its archrival, Cabela’s, sell hunting and fishing gear in cathedral-like stores featuring taxidermied wildlife, gigantic fresh-water aquarium exhibits and elaborate outdoor reproductions within the stores. The stores are billed as job generators by both companies when they are fishing for development dollars. But the firms’ economic benefits are minimal and costs to taxpayers are great.
An exhaustive investigation conducted by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity found that the two competing firms together have received or are promised more than $2.2 billion from American taxpayers over the past 15 years.
The second of two meetings on the Lowndes County Commission According to the calendar for Monday morning, 11 June 2011, is about SPLOST, and also involves all the cities in the county.
SPLOST Meeting/ (6/11/2012)
The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners along with the City of Valdosta, City of Hahira, City of Dasher, City of Lake Park and City of Remerton will be holding a SPLOST meeting on Monday, June 11, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building.
SPLOST is not to be confused with LOST (created by the legislature), nor with ESPLOST for educational purposes, and certainly not with T-SPLOST for transportation.
As of July 1, 1985, Georgia law enabled local jurisdictions to use SPLOST proceeds for capital improvement projects that would otherwise be paid for with General Fund or property tax revenues. SPLOST stands for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. This is a one-cent sales tax, which the State of Georgia allows counties to collect to fund specific improvement projects. SPLOST must be approved by voters in a general referendum in order to be enacted and last for a maximum of 60 months (five years) or until the total amount of revenue specified in the referendum is reached. The SPLOST projects and the amount of money raised by SPLOST were identified prior to voting on the SPLOST referendum. The proceeds of the tax must be spent for capital (non-operating) items by the county government and participating municipalities within the county.
That page also includes a list of SPLOST projects completed by January 2010.
The five local cities (Valdosta, Hahira, Remerton, Dasher, and Lake Park) presented their case in terms of changed demographics from the 2000 to the 2010 census. Much of the presentation was explained by Hahira City Manager Jonathan Sumner.
Lowndes County wasn’t interested in discussing, and is waiting for arbitration, which will happen in 60 days (presumably from when they started negotiating). The VDT writeup protrays that as a surprise, but it’s what County Chairman Ashley Paulk has been saying since before these negotiations began.
I would have preferred to hear what services the cities do now or could with more tax revenue provide that would benefit the entire county.
Even more, I think the local governments could spend their time together better talking about how to increase the pie, for example through solar energy for municipal revenue
or through county-wide fast Internet broadband access, either of which would help attract knowledge-based jobs, which would provide employment and increased tax revenue.
However, I salute the cities and the county for being transparent about their positions, as you can see in these videos.
Videos of Mayors and County in Hahira LOST Negotiation, Mayors and County in Hahira, Lowndes County Commission (LOST), Hahira, Lowndes County, Georgia, 2 May 2012. Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
The local cities want more LOST money from the county.
Imagine if they and the county spent this much effort
bringing in new industry such as solar to increase the pie!
Several recent elections here have been decided by less than 100 votes.
Your vote counts!
