Do you ever wonder what your regular SPLOST 1% sales tax goes for?
Some of it goes to buy vehicles for Valdosta Public Works.
Here’s the video:
6.a) Four F-650 Trucks for Public Works, some from SPLOST @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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Public Notice of a Public Comment and Review Period and Public Open HouseContinue reading
In accordance with requirements set forth in 23 CFR 450.316, 42 USC 2000d, Executive Order 12898, and Executive Order 13166, and other laws and regulations; the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO) has developed the Draft Public Participation Plan (PPP) which includes a Limited-English Proficiency Plan and Title VI Compliance Plan, for the Valdosta Metropolitan Planning Area which includes all of Lowndes County and portions of Berrien and Lanier Counties.
This PPP is available for public review and comment from April 15, 2011
He says there’s a lot more to learn,
T-SPLOST has got a good regional executive committee,
etc., but:
Right now, I do not have a good or warm fuzzy feeling about this. That could change.And previously he said if it did change, he would come back and tell us about it.
That was Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC), talking at the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP) monthly meeting about T-SPLOST.
Here’s the video:
Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: Questions.
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Gretchen Quarterman, Chair of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
thanks
Corey Hull of VLMPO and says the next speaker will give us
some inside knowledge about T-SPLOST.
Ashley Paulk, Chairman of the Lowndes County Commission (LCC)
is not a fan of T-SPLOST.
He says:
He made that point at least three times.Y’all know I’m on the executive committee, so I guess I should be a salesman. But I’m sorry. Y’all know me pretty well, I’ve got to really be not just a little bit correct, but it’s got to be good for the people. I think what disturbs me, is when you’ve got to put something in the law that’s a stick, carrot and stick, you don’t do what I’ve said you’re going to get punished.
He also doesn’t like Continue reading
OK, so
the regional executive committee selects from the T-SPLOST lists
submitted by the local jurisdications and boomaranged through GDOT.
Then what?
Corey Hull of VLMPO says:
Public meetings will be held in August and September before the regional transportation roundtable meets before October 15th; that’s what their deadline is to vote….Here’s the video:The referendum will be in the summer of 2012 … July or August 2012….
Then the tax begins January 2013.
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: Ashley Paulk talks about the T-SPLOST executive committee.
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Corey Hull of VLMPO explains that next they go to GDOT and then back.
Here’s the video:…
On June 1st or thereabouts, the executive committee that Chairman Paulk is on is gonna receive the unconstrained project list. It won’t be … constrained to the amount of money the economists say we will receive.
…
It is that executive committee’s responsibility to go through and select projects and select the projects off that we can afford for the region.
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: Referendum in 2012.
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That’s Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant Program (LMIG). So if they get $100,000 from LMIG they’ll have to match that with $50,000. This will affect smaller communities the most, since they use the most LMIG funds proportionally. And the most likely way to raise the funds to match is to raise property taxes.If the regional transportation roundtable does not agree on a list to present to the voters by October 15th of 2011, then each jurisdiction in this region must match their Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant … at a rate of 50%.
So what if there is a list on the ballot but the voters vote it down? Continue reading
The 75% pot of T-SPLOST funds is what the project lists recently
submitted by Lowndes County
and the City of Valdosta are about,
according to
Corey Hull, continuing his presentation on T-SPLOST at the Lowndes County
Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting.
Those are projects of regional significance that the local jurisdictions want the voters to actually vote on that project.The other 25% goes to local jurisdictions, like this:
| $1,300,000 | Lowndes County (unincorporated portion) |
| $600,000 | Valdosta |
| $30,000 | Hahira |
| $5,000 | Dasher |
| $14,000 | Lake Park |
| $9,000 | Remerton |
Here’s the video:
Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
explains T-SPLOST (HB 277) and the Transportation Investment Act of 2010
at the monthly meeting of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP),
Gretchen Quarterman (Chair), Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Next: penalties if the voters don’t approve.
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Continuing:
You’ve heard Corey Hull of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Metropolitan Planning Organization (VLMPO)
give a brief version of T-SPLOST at VLCIA.
Here he talks at greater length at the
Lowndes County Democratic Party:
T-SPLOST Business plan —Corey Hull of VLMPO at LCDP (Part 2)
Corey Hull continued
his presentation on T-SPLOST at the Lowndes County
Democratic Party (LCDP) meeting by talking about
the statewide business plan for the state of Georgia.
It is not a project list; it’s estimates of how much money is needed
and how much money can be raised.
The plan identifies
$35 billion to meet the needs in Georgia today.
However, $72 billion are needed to meet the transportation
needs to sustain Georgia’s economy into the future.
Of course, that’s according to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT),
which notoriously is not interested in trains or other mass transit:
if it’s not a road or a road bridge, forget it.
And $1 billion is needed here in Lowndes County.
Lowndes County’s transportation plan through the
Metropolitan Planning Organization
has about a billion dollars in projects.
A billion dollars right here in Lowndes County?
Continue reading
T-SPLOST Explained —Corey Hull of VLMPO at LCDP (Part 1)
T-SPLOST is a ten-year one-cent sales tax,
organized in twelve regional taxing districts,
through committees composed of county chairs and city mayors,
plus an executive committee with some of them plus 3 people from the
legislature, which funnels transportation funding requests to GDOT,
which picks, and then sends to a referendum in 2012.
Got all that?
No?
Well, Corey explains it much better than I do.
So who are these regional commissions?
Continue reading 
The Georgia legislature passed what was then known as House bill 277
called
Transportation Investment Act of 2010….
It created or proposed a one percent sales tax for transportation purposes
throughout the state of Georgia.
It creates
twelve special transportation taxing districts
that are based on the boundaries of the regional commissions.
And that is where the connection with the regional commission stops.
They are not the same body….