T-SPLOST is a misnomer: it's not a Special Location Option Sales Tax, since it's voted on as a region.
I think maybe we should have a gasoline tax to pay for roads.
Here's the video:
Not a special Local tax: it's a Regional tax –Nolen Cox
T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC),
Corey Hull,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
Someone asked:
If Lowndes, Tift, and Ware vote against it, and the other fifteen counties vote for it, that’s a majority.
Corey Hull:
As long as they reach 50% + 1 in voters.
Questioner:
Those three counties, which would probably be the three donor counties in this region… they could kill it for our region if it was a large turnout.
Roy Taylor:
A large county like we could kill it for everybody.
The referendum is still on for July (during the primary, with less turnout) not November (during the general election).
T-SPLOST regions are an intermediate level of government in which all the people in the region vote together, not by counties.
Gretchen Quarterman asked:
When the 18 counties vote, is it county by county, say Atkinson votes yes, and Lowndes votes no, and if there were 9 counties that voted yes and 9 counties that voted no, or is it the total of all the voters together, and then we say there were 400,000 voters and it’s a simple majority.
Corey Hull answered:
It’s a simple majority. It’s the latter of how you described it, it’s all the voters together.
Here’s the video:
How do we vote on T-SPLOST?
T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC),
Corey Hull,
Nolen Cox, Gretchen Quarterman,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
Lowndes County would be a T-SPLOST donor county: it would put more money into T-SPLOST than it would get back for projects.
Somebody (I think it was Robert Yost) asked whether 
Lowndes County would be a donor county for T-SPLOST. Corey Hull said yes, that was the case. Someone else noted:
Atkinson County that’s been coming over here spending our money all these years, gets a little of it back.
And the smaller counties get penalized a lot more if they vote against T-SPLOST, because they depend much more on LMIG. So T-SPLOST among other downsides is a scheme to pit smaller counties against larger ones in the T-SPLOST region.
Here’s the video:
Lowndes County donor county
T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC),
Corey Hull,
Nolen Cox, Gretchen Quarterman,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
Corey Hull explained what the state of Georgia has in store for us if we vote down T-SPLOST:
If the voters do not approve the referendum, then all local governments must match their LMIG funds a rate of 30%. And then we have to wait 24 months to start the process over again. And when I say start the process over again, I mean start the process over to enact this tax.
Nolen Cox, Chairman of the Lowndes County Republican Party (LCRP), remarked:
Is that commonly called a stick?
Gretchen Quarterman, Chairman of the Lowndes County Democratic Party (LCDP), observed:
It looks like a baseball bat.
Now I doubt either were speaking in an official capacity, but I know from talking to them that both individuals oppose this tax, and I’m pretty sure most people in their local parties do, too.
Here’s a longer explanation of what happens, including what LMIG is, April 2011 LCDP meeting.
Here’s the video:
T-SPLOST: stick or baseball bat?
T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC),
Corey Hull,
Nolen Cox, Gretchen Quarterman,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
County Manager Mike Fletcher waved around a copy of the revised
contract with Scruggs Company for the new Moody AFB gate,
but said he had not provided it to the Commissioners.
I wonder if they’ll see it before they vote tonight?
He said it was 226 pages long, but most of that was DOT boilerplate,
and only something like 20 pages was the actual county contract.
Seems like they could read that much by tonight.
So could we, the public, if it was somewhere we could see it.
He also didn’t say what happened to the $128,497.05 cost overrun. The Commissioners asked no questions.
Here’s the video:
Commission had not seen Moody AFB gate contract with Scruggs before Work Session @ LCC 2012 01 23
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 January 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
-jsq
Discrepancy? What discrepancy?
Staff presented the agenda item “7.b. Entrance Gate at Davidson and Roberts Roads”:
Lowndes County received a $2M grant from the Federal Highway Administration for construction of a new Moody AFB entrance gate, the gate to be located located at the intersection of Davidson and Roberts Roads. $477,991 of this money has already been taken for the railroad crossing improvements, leaving a balance of $1.52 million. The low bid is from Scruggs Company, $1,648,497.05.Wait, what? The low bid is for more than the funds available? Surely somebody will explain that?
Nope, no discussion. Instead, Commissioner Crawford Powell said:
I’ll make a motion we approve the bid as presented by staff.Commissioner Evans seconded, and they all voted for it. Hey, what $128,497.05 discrepancy?
Here’s Part 1 of 2:
Commission voted for $128,497.05 road cost overrun without discussion @ LCC 2012 Jan 10 Part 1 of 2:
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 January 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
If we look at the previous morning’s work session (9 January 2012),
we do find a bit more information.
The grant was presented as involving both the Federal Highway Administration
and Homeland Security, and:
Mr. Fletcher has additional information.Continue reading
Another issue here is that there will be no public hearing on this issue unless someone ASKS for it. Without a hearing, it just goes forward with no other public information about being presented. Anyone may ask for a hearing, but I would especially think that there are people who really need a functional system that is not just focused on people who have access to Medicaid as a payment source due to illness or disability. Requesting such a hearing before January 24 would give the opportunity to have all this information presented and for questions to be asked and answered.
-Jane Osborn
Lowndes County officials assure citizens who use the county’sThat may make MIDS the biggest bus system in the county. VSU may have more busses. Does Moody run busses?current transit program that they will not be affected if the proposed Valdosta-Lowndes County Transit Service Plan is implemented in the area.
The current Lowndes County 5311 Transit Program falls under the jurisdiction of the Georgia Department of Transportation. Ten percent of the program is subsidized by the state and 80 percent is subsidized by federal funds. Lowndes County provides 10 percent of the cost of each bus.
Lowndes County’s 5311 Transit Program was implemented in December 2001 with only three buses. The program now includes six buses that provide transportation throughout Lowndes County.
More about MIDS: Continue reading
Here are the notices about public transportation that was supposed to be done some time ago. I am trying to figure out how the county will compensate private providers for all this transportation.Good question. I can’t answer it, but maybe I can point at some related information that might help.
She was referring to two public notices in the VDT of that same day,
Exhibit 8B,
which is about the MIDS service,
which is one of the ones in the list in
Exhibit 8A.
If you call MIDS, a small van will pick you up and deliver you,
all for a flat fee, if I understand it correctly. It’s the closest
thing we have to a bus system around here.
It looks like MIDS comes up for renewal about every two years, according to the agendas: Continue reading