Cobb County’s 'Bridge to Nowhere'

In Cobb County, we don’t have a “bridge to nowhere,” but we do have sidewalks to nowhere, and our commission is offering us more!  This we get for a mere $400,000 vote and an extra penny per dollar we spend for the next four years! What a deal!

This year’s SPLOST is too full of wants. 

• In the North Cobb area, most people have back yards that are big enough to exercise a horse. We really don’t need an upgraded dog park.
• White Water is in Cobb County. Do we need a water feature park courtesy of our tax dollars to compete with private enterprise? Do we really need a skate park?
• We have voted several times to keep MARTA out of Cobb County. Why do we want to spend $42 milion for light rail studies? Perhaps it is because we can get federal dollars. Did anyone on our brilliant commission consider the strings and red tape that come with federal dollars? Did they consider the crime that will come out with the rail lines? Did anyone think that we will have to subsidize this program forever? Oh well, we can always have another SPLOST forever!
• Why do we need to tear down and rebuild concession stands, scoreboards, and park buildings, some of which are only a few years old? Oh yeah, SPLOST funds can’t be used for maintenance. If we are going to have disposable buildings, maybe we should consider using tents. They are much cheaper to replace. Maybe we need to stop building beyond the capacity of the general funds for maintenance.

The commission and Citizens for Cobb’s Future would have us believe that keeping this tax in place will draw businesses and spenders from other counties to Cobb.  We currently have a SPLOST in effect. They need to drive around the North Cobb area and see all of the empty shops and former restaurants. Reducing the sales tax by a penny would bring in more shoppers from other counties. Our continued penny tax would also benefit other counties with a new I-75 interchange at 3rd Army Road in Bartow County with a new 4 – 6 lane divided highway to Dabbs Bridge Rd. in Paulding County for only $50 million. This helps Cobb County, how?

Let’s look at Cobb County before SPLOST. Roads were in better condition. We had youth ball fields that children played on happily. We had woods. We never thought we were missing anything. Yes, the millage rate was higher, but house values were lower; hence property taxes were about half of what they are currently.

Citizens for Cobb’s Future is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by special interests which would gain from projects paid for by our money to convince us that babies would die, we would lose our AAA rating, and property taxes would be raised if we don’t vote for this latest SPLOST. Not true. We have excellent ambulance services; bond ratings are based on more than added taxes; and commissioners will join the unemployment rolls if they raise taxes. This boondoggle is costing us, the taxpayers, $400,000 to hold a single option election in March, when most people will be unaware or unlikely to go vote.

SPLOST is supposed to be for special infrastructure projects to alleviate unexpected population surges. Our population is on the decline, and not expected to rebound for several years. There are some projects on the list that are needed, and not all SPLOSTs are bad.

If this were a one year SPLOST to purchase those things necessary for fire and police, and road repairs that are truly needed, I would agree to it; but this SPLOST is for too many years and has too many wants placed on the list to use up three years of excess dollars, and should have been on last November’s ballot.

I  will vote “NO” on March 15.

Susan E. Stanton, Secretary of the Georgia Tea Party, Inc.