There have been several arguments made for and against the proposed Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. 

I have had constant discussions with friends on both sides of the issue and I conclude that the negatives outweigh the positives on this new proposed tax. You are being asked to vote “yes” or “no” on this new tax this Tuesday at your local precinct. 

 Here are four good reasons to vote no on T-SPLOST.

1. T-SPLOST threatens our current SPLOSTs that our local governments use to build and maintain roads, bridges, water, sewer and school and local governmental buildings. 

Attention: All county commissioners, city councilmen, school board members and community leaders: If T-SPLOST passes, which adds another 1 percent sales tax to the already 7 percent sales tax we now have in Lowndes County, then what makes you think the voters will likely approve the continuation of our current SPLOST, E-SPLOST, and LOST taxes? 

If T-SPLOST passes our new sales tax rate will go from 7 to 8 percent. Having been a Lowndes County commissioner, I know the tough challenge commissioners face in raising revenue, and if we lose our current SPLOSTs there is no way county and city governments can recover that money they will lose. 

How will Valdosta City Schools service the debt on the new $80 million-plus high school and Lowndes Board of Education pay for the enormous future building projects they have approved if another E-SPLOST is not passed? Often local governments finance long-term debts with short-term taxes.

2. T-SPLOST is not a 1 cent tax, but a 1 percent tax on most of your sales.  

We already pay 7 percent in local and state sales taxes, plus a 28.063 millage rate in the county-wide taxes (16.839 of which goes to Lowndes County Board of Education), and a 36.205 millage rate in Valdosta city-wide taxes (16.98 of which goes to Valdosta Board of Education), plus state income taxes, federal income taxes, endless fees, etc., and most of us have to pay close to half our income per year in taxes. 

Dear God, if you don’t vote no, then taxes will keep going up.

3. T-SPLOST was voted down in 2012 by about 67 percent of the voters in our 18-county T-SPLOST region. Nine of the 13 regions in our state voted their T-SPLOST down, too.

In 2017, the Georgia General Assembly passed HB170 to raise fuel taxes and motel fees to fund transportation projects in our state. Georgia Department of Transportation budget has now almost tripled from $1 billion to $3 billion in only two years. 

This is how they are now paying for all the Lowndes road projects on Interstate 75, Jerry Jones and others, and now local government leaders want us to vote ourselves another tax increase. This proposed T-SPLOST tax increase is projected by our regional commission to raise an additional $543,198,476 in 10 years. 

Do you want to pay more in taxes of your hard-earned money?

4. T-SPLOST taxation pulls millions of dollars out of businesses, money that businesses use to expand and provide jobs. This is one of the reasons the board of directors of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce voted unanimously to not support T-SPLOST. The chamber has over 1,300 members; that speaks volumes.

The people I hear promoting T-SPLOST the most are government people. They are either elected officials, government employees or paving contractors who will benefit from the T-SPLOST projects. 

I support private paving companies who do our road projects and our local paving companies do a great job in our area; however, why are not all the other businesses supporting T-SPLOST? 

Almost without exception the businesses of our area are against T-SPLOST because this tax will drive up the cost of doing business here, and they are afraid people will take their business elsewhere that have lower taxes. 

A basic business principle is that business is never grown by raising taxes, because taxes take money out of the business’ bank account and puts it into the government’s bank account.

These are four good reasons to vote no on T-SPLOST this Tuesday.

John Page,

Valdosta