School board wants to get us hooked on SPLOST addiction

In most cases, government runs astray until we run headlong into a crisis.

When the federal government failed to shepherd the market because of special interest enticements and a lack of aggressive enforcement of regulations, the crisis forces a revision of oversight controls and restores order at taxpayer expense.

Unfortunately, the general public, recipients of the fallout, does not get involved until it is much too late. Whoever said, “Ignorance is bliss,” did not have to pick up the tab for the destruction.

Our lack of foresight and attention allows government to run amok. Yes, government should never be trusted to operate without citizen supervision. The Founding Fathers knew government had to be watched carefully.

Our Congress simply looks the other way while the deficit grows and Social Security and Medicare fall off the cliff. Our own Rep. Lynn Westmoreland is a perfect example of the “no solution” brand of representation we possess. His lack of intelligent thought on the vital issues and his wasting our tax dollars on useless mailers that say practically nothing are why the Republicans are getting stomped into the ground.

Our Republican Party had a golden opportunity in Congress and they chose to refine the corrupt practices of the Democrats who preceded them instead implementing reform. The GOP is about to reap what they have sown.

Our current two-party system has been bought out by special interests. Since 2001, each of the troubled Wall Street firms, including Fredie Mac and Fannie Mae, split around $64 million in campaign contributions almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Is there really any wonder why we have a Wall Street bailout crisis?

Locally, the Fayette County Board of Education (FCBOE) wants us to get hooked on the E-SPLOST addiction. This addiction is already plaguing a number of metro Atlanta counties who are on their third consecutive E-SPLOST.

If approved, the FCBOE will turn around – like the other counties have — and tell the public they cannot do without the SPLOST in the future. Thus, the significant tax increase becomes permanent.

The cruel deception of telling the public the E-SPLOST will reduce property taxes for schools while the hidden sales tax accumulates on every purchase your family makes from weekly groceries to everyday supplies will eventually reach the tipping point and a voter rebellion will ensue.

The exemption which allowed another big box from Mayor Logsdon and the PTC council will lead to suffocating traffic congestion on Ga. Highway 54 West.

The Georgia Department of Transportation refused, rightly so, the developer’s traffic signal application for the big box development because it will choke traffic in the vital corridor. Now the mayor and crew are assisting the developer with another application to force the signal on the site. They simply do not care about the looming traffic consequences.

The referendum question on the Peachtree City Community Center and Sportsplex is a merciless jab at our intelligence. Will we allow risk-free private enterprise on the government dole?

For those of you who are new to town, Group VI and Foley Design Associates pull this kind of hoax on us about every six to eight years. Pressure is applied by the Group VI people behind the scenes to choose Foley as the architect and then Foley chooses Group VI as the “virtual no bid” contractor.

The same pair built the fixed base operation at the airport and it required hundreds of thousands of dollars of repairs. They were also at the center of the tennis center disaster, and their construction did not even meet plan specifications.

Peachtree City is also heading for budget collision with nearly 50 new employees funded out of reserves. The excuse for the crisis will be the bad economy, but I doubt anyone will forget the increased spending and deficit budgeting of the past three years.

Fayette residents are slowly realizing the so-called “bypass” projects in the countywide transportation SPLOST will birth our next development and population boom (It is why the developer friendly FCBOE is building schools in the same undeveloped area).

Yes, 51 percent of the voters were fooled into thinking that building roads through largely undeveloped land was intended for traffic relief.

I asked Fayette Commissioner Horgan why he pitched such a dreadfully unfair transportation SPLOST to our citizens. He replied, “I don’t know, I just wanted to get the roads built.” Unfortunately, he lacked the vision to see how the roads would open the door for a wave of development, traffic and future school crowding.

The West Fayetteville Bypass will feed the new traffic onto Ga. Highway 74. It will place a tremendous traffic congestion burden on the morning and evening commutes. Incidentally, future improvements to Hwy. 74 were nonexistent in the county’s transportation SPLOST.

A sluggish housing market and economy has delayed the development boom and traffic crisis, but it will come because we have laid the ground work with our government’s previous choices.

What we tolerate today may destroy us tomorrow.