Category Archives: SPLOST

Candidates Forum today @ HBA 2012-10-18

Candidates Forum, 7-9PM today 18 October 2012, at the Rainwater Conference Center, 1 Meeting Place, Valdosta, GA, organized by the Home Builders Association of South Georgia and NewsTalk105.9 WVGA, moderated by Chris Beckham.

This thing is astonishingly poorly advertised, unless you happen to follow one of the organizing organizations. It’s not in the VDT calendar, it’s not on the conference center’s calendar, and people keep asking when and where is it. Now you know.

Here are videos (from three different cameras) of all the candidate presentations of the 2 October 2012 Meet the Candidates event at VSU. Tonight, if I understand correctly from there being a moderator, they debate. Presumably all the same candidates will be there: Continue reading →

Tired of seeing transparency be a constant source of tension —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on Bees in the library —VDT -jsq

Thanks for bringing up the question of selling the current library to SGMC. I tried to follow your link & did not see any reference on the page it brought up. I personally have been wondering why the taxpayers are not privy to any discussions of SGMC purchasing the property. Since SGMC has already purchased the adjoining properties, effectively land locking the current library, I would think the library board would have quite a bit of leverage toward negotiating price & we the taxpayers have a right to know what is transpiring between them. Everyone I have questioned states they cannot find out any information about proposed SGMC/library negotiations or discussions.

Thankfully LAKE does a lot to solicit transparency within local government entities & boards. I for one am tired of seeing said transparency be a constant source of tension. No one should have to constantly work to elicit information that should be readily available. I personally will not vote for SPLOST VII or any other proposed tax until I see local government become more accountable to taxpayers. SPLOST VII needs to die so a more responsible proposal can be presented. We complain about the federal government not balancing the budget, yet local government entities seem intent on devising lists littered with wants instead of focusing on needs as if the economy is thriving. I am an avid library supporter, but I'm not willing to blindly accept the current library board (or boards) opaque tax payer liability assignments.

-Barbara Stratton

-jsq

Bees in the library —VDT

As its closing argument for SPLOST VII, library bookshelves the VDT argued that the library has bees in its brick walls. Sure and we need a new library. But they didn’t address any of the questions about the Five Points out-of-state architect plan for a new library or about the process by which that plan was produced.

Jason Schaefer write for the VDT 14 October 2012, SPLOST to solve aging library’s problems with modern building,

Plainly speaking, the South Georgia Regional Library is in bad shape. Half of the red-brick building was constructed in 1966, and the other in 1995.

Walking in, the atmosphere seems stuffy and archaic — stained ceiling tiles and old carpet, color-neutral walls and little decoration.

The wiring intended to service the computers is buried in the floor and unable to meet current internet standards, and the machines—35 to process 7,000 logins a month—are all clustered together in one area.

The HVAC system is antiquated, riddled with patches and still slowly disintegrating, and replacement of the system would cost upward of $2 million.

This and their other points are all true, and although I haven’t seen them, I have no doubt this is true, too:

Continue reading →

Library process transparency —John S. Quarterman

John S. Quarterman videoing SPLOST VII Kickoff Speeches It’s good to see that someone responsible for allocating millions of dollars of taxpayer money is willing to answer questions about related decisions, as Kay Harris is doing! It would be even better if there were a regular process by which the taxpaying and voting and library-using public could ask such questions and get answers.

If there were such a process, it’s pretty likely Ms. Harris or the Library Board or the County Commission would have been asked about the architect selection, considering I wasn’t even involved in that selection and my ear was scorched with complaints as soon as it was announced. Maybe Ms. Harris can suggest a way to produce such a process.

Let me take Ms. Harris’ points in order.

“First, they were the only one of the four finalists who did a full cost evaluation of the project, estimating $16 million while others were more than content to use the state’s estimate of $21 million.”

That’s very interesting news, which clarifies for me what she was getting at in the VDT writeup on that selection:

Continue reading →

Why we selected an out of town architect —Kay Harris

Received yesterday on New Library —Kay Harris. My response follows in the next post. -jsq

I was never asked why we selected an out of town architect, but will Kay Harris happily answer that question now. First, they were the only one of the four finalists who did a full cost evaluation of the project, estimating $16 million while others were more than content to use the state's estimate of $21 million. Second, they brought to the project a consultant who is considered the country's leading library consultant; only one of the other four brought in an outside expert. Third, the principals of this firm live right over the county line in Florida—they are within the 50 mile radius that is considered "hiring local", so they are indeed a local firm. They also brought a local engineering firm, from Valdosta, to the table, and have agreed to hire as many subs from the local area as possible. So I truly don't understand the "jab" about hiring non-local… if it was that big a concern, why not just ask me the question? Mr. Quarterman wasn't even in the room at the time I spoke….

-Kay Harris

-jsq

New Library —Kay Harris @ LCDP 2012-10-01

At Monday’s Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting, LCDP Chair Gretchen Quarterman introduced Kay Harris as chairman of the Library Board. You can see that board in action a few weeks ago in these previous videos.

Kay Harris said she was not there as editor of the newspaper, since as such she wouldn’t be allowed (presumably by the newspaper) at a partisan meeting. She was there as chair of the library board. She said this is her fifth year on that board, and her second year as chairman.

Here’s a video playlist.

She said the county put her on that board to move along the library project, which had been in process for some time. She said she had led negotiations with the City of Valdosta for the Five Points process. She mentioned the Five Points Steering Committee, of which she is also a member.

About the current library building and how the new one would be better, she said,

Continue reading →

Kickoff speeches @ SPLOST 2012-09-28

Apparently WCTV’s “at the South Georgia Medical Center Parking Garage”> meant actually in the nearby parking lot, because that’s where we found some city and county employees and a few volunteers standing in the shade of a Valdosta Police van. An invocation and six speeches from five speakers ensued, all in support of SPLOST VII, the Special Local Option Sales Tax on the November ballot. Several of the speakers were not so positive off the podium about the library and auditorium projects, and nobody from the library board spoke.

Here are videos of all of the speeches.

Also the VDT was there, and Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT yesterday, Committee kicks off SPLOST campaign,

The major theme of the event was a firm reminder that SPLOST VII is not a new tax, just a continuation of a penny sales tax that has been in place since 1987.

Fair enough. However, Sam Allen’s second talk summed up what’s wrong with SPLOST VII: Continue reading →

SPLOST VII project totals don’t match

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.

We’ve already seen the WCTV story that quotes a total of $35 million for SPLOST VII. And Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT 5 August 2012, SPLOST project list released: Renewed sales tax would build library, auditorium

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 mystery deepens.

Continue reading →

SPLOST VII campaign kicks off

Update 2012-09-27 8:50AM: Added video, stills, and notes about the County Palace and Internet access.
The seventh Special Local Option Sales Tax, SPLOST, will be on the November ballot. Not to be confused with the just-defeated bogus regional transportation T-SPLOST, or last year’s successful educational ESPLOST, or the currently renegotiating property-tax-relief LOST, SPLOST Campaign SPLOST VII will follow up on SPLOST VI in supporting local infrastructure projects.

Greg Gullberg reported for WCTV today, Campaign Kicks Off For Valdosta Tax (no video appears to be available): The text story link has vanished, but video has appeared.

There is a campaign in Lowndes County to rally for the tax called SPLOST, or the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. It could bring in as much as $35 million, but that is only if voters say it’s worth the extra pennies.

Continue reading →

“It’s almost like they are out to take advantage of the rubes,” —an economist

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.

Scott Reeder wrote for The Atlantic 13 August 2012, Why Have So Many Cities and Towns Given Away So Much Money to Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s?,

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.

Where does all that money come from? Bonds, usually. Which is yet another reason why last legislature’s HB 475 to give unelected bodies bond issuing privatizing power would be a bad idea.

What does all that money go for?

Continue reading →