The Transportation Leadership Coalition (TLC) is in the process of launching a legal challenge to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp for using promotional language on the official state ballot to promote passage of Referendum 1.
Referendum 1, or TSPLOST as it is commonly known, is an $18 billion transportation program funded by a sales and use increase that is subject to voter approval in the July 31, 2012 primary election.
On behalf of TLC, Atlanta attorney Pitts Carr has taken the initial action of questioning "political interference" on the upcoming ballot. TLC questions the legality of promotional language on the upcoming July 31 ballot. The anti-TSPLOST group believes it was added to encourage the passage of Referendum 1, the TSPLOST sales tax increase for road and transit projects. See the complete story on .
"The Secretary of State took responsibility for the language and the unprecedented act of modifying the ballot with no apparent legal authority," states a release press release by the group.
The language in question is specifically the words, “Provides for local transportation projects to create jobs and reduce traffic congestion with citizen oversight.”
“Whether you are for or against the proposed tax increase, we can all agree the ballot is sacred and neither the Secretary of State nor anyone else should be able to turn our ballot into political propaganda,” said Jack Staver, TLC chairman. He believes that Kemp should spring for the cost of reprinting the ballots in time for the election.
How do you feel about this issue? Should the ballots be reprinted without the alleged propaganda, or is it much ado about nothing?
Slide 29 about Section 6 Ballot Question ( ) Yes ( ) No Shall _____ County’s transportation system and the transportation network in this region and the state be improved by providing for a 1 percent special district transportation sales and use tax for the purpose of transportation projects and programs for a period of ten years. My opinion is that the original version is much more clear than the secretary’s version. In many counties, quite possibly, not a single job will be created as a direct result of the T-SPLOST.
www.stoptsplostregion12.org VOTE NO T SPLOST. Please do you research, make your own decision, and you will vote NO.
Simpson2011@mindspring.com
We are sick and tired of taxes, more taxes, and MORE TAXES! It seems to be the only way goverment and politicians know to go. MORE TAXES!!
We pay enough taxes and it is time for the government to make do with what they have and stop wasting what money we do give them. We need to put our feet down and vote NO to this bogus tax!
Look at the HOV lane project and how much that cost. All in the name of our environment and reducing traffic congestion. Now it is mostly reduced to a lane that strictly exists to generate revenue for the State, which is another failed idea when you make note of how few people actually use that lane. The original use for that lane was just a cover for what it has become. You want to untie Georgia? Free up that extra lane you bonehead politicians! People of Georgia, please, vote NO on the TSPLOST. Vote NO to more wasteful government!