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Brown tapes anti-SPLOST video

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City Mayor Steve Brown has taken his opposition to Tuesday’s vote on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to television, taping a five-minute spot that’s being shown twice a day on Comcast cable channel 150 now through the election.

The opinion piece, which Brown insists he recorded as a “private citizen” and not as mayor of the county’s largest municipality, is intended to counter an hourlong special produced by Comcast for the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce touting the benefits of the SPLOST.

Channel 150 is a “leased access channel” available only to customers with digital service, explained Andy Macke, director of government and community affairs for Comcast’s Atlanta region.

It is not a traditional “public access” channel, Macke said, which Comcast must provide by order of the U.S. Communications Act lower on the dial. Peachtree City’s assigned government access channel is 26.

Macke said the chamber program was done as a “public service,” and includes video from an October public forum on the SPLOST edited with the Chamber’s Powerpoint presentation.

The chamber program airs at 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily through Tuesday; Brown’s segments airs one hour before, at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Though broadcast time on Channel 150 can be purchased by businesses or private individuals, Macke said the SPLOST programming was done as a public service.

“There is some value to that air time, but because we didn’t have anybody filling that spot we thought it was important for people to get the information,” he said. “It’s a community service and it’s one of the ways we are differentiated from our satellite competitors.”

Macke said Comcast wasn’t promoting either program.

“We produce the show, it’s on there,” he said. “We count on other parties like the chamber or Mayor Brown to get the word out it’s on there.”

If voters approve the one-cent additional sales tax next week, county officials say it will raise $116 million over five years. Seventy percent of that would be used to fund a countywide transportation improvement plan, while 30 percent would be divided up between the various jurisdictions in the county to spend on local road projects.

On Thursday, Brown said his opposition is to the distribution formula itself, and not to making road improvements.

“Our City Council is in favor of making transportation improvements in Fayette County,” he said. “We like the SPLOST as a method of paying for those improvements. However, to take tax revenue from Peachtree City and not supply an adequate prorportional amount of service in our jurisidiction is just blatantly unfair.”

Brown says Fayette is the only county in metro Atlanta that has not adopted the guidelines of House Bill 709, a new law passed in the Legislature last year that calls for SPLOST revenue to be distributed based on a population split when cities and counties can’t agree on any other formula.

Brown said the new law was created specifically to address the situation in Fayette County, and blasted members of the County Commission who have called him “unreasonable” and “unfair.”

“When they’re talking about me being unreasonable, every other county in metro Atlanta is making my point,” he said, adding that information provided by the Georgia Municipal Association showed Fayette is the only local county not embracing the new law.

“It’s a fair way to address issues all over the county,” Brown said.

County Commission Chairman Greg Dunn wasn’t surprised Thursday when he heard about Brown’s efforts.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m glad it’s not being funded by the taxpayers,” Dunn said.

Originally, Chamber officials had approached the county about running their video on the county’s public access channel, but Dunn was adamant against that approach.

“This is not something that public funds need to be used for,” he added.

Despite Brown’s posturing, Dunn is optimistic about the outcome on Tuesday.

“A lot of the early voters have told me they voted for it, so we feel like the voters will support our efforts.”

Citizen Staff Writer John Thompson contributed to this report.