* Erroneously claim that previous SPLOSTs provided many amenities and those amenities are the reason why Cobb is a nice place to live. Furthermore, without more taxes and government spending for more amenities, Cobb will become a bad place to live. I do not agree that our quality of life depends on big government tax and spend projects to "luxurify" Cobb County.
* Erroneously claim that 98.5 percent of Cobb's roads are dependent upon the 2011 SPLOST, and without the SPLOST Cobb County would allow our current roads to deteriorate. This is not true. What would be true is that Cobb has included in the SPLOST 98.5 percent of its projected capital improvements, excluding maintenance, which by state law cannot be put into the SPLOST. It is not true that failure of the SPLOST would result in Cobb County just simply allowing our roads to deteriorate, or not doing maintenance which is already included in the normal budget.
* Erroneously claim that previous SPLOSTs caused millage rate decreases. Again, this is not true. During the debate, we were shown a chart where there was a 15-year period of steady substantial millage rate declines. During half of that period, Cobb had no SPLOST, yet the millage rate continued to decline every year without the SPLOST. The millage declines occurred because Cobb was experiencing very rapid growth and development at that time. When growth slowed, the millage rate leveled off, and stopped declining.
Other tax-and-spend justifications for the SPLOST were also just plain wrong.
Does the SPLOST list contain some necessities? Yes. If this were a request for a half-cent tax for 3 years to raise $150 million just for absolute necessities, I would be supporting such a proposal. However, I do not support $492 million in taxes for less than $200 million in necessities, and more than $300 million in tax-and-spend for non-necessities.
Cobb County already has ball fields with scoreboards. Are some of these scoreboards more than 20 years old? Yes, but replacing a scoreboard because it is 20 years old is not a necessity. We are still in a pretty difficult economy. The unemployment rate in Cobb is still above 9 percent. Foreclosures are at record highs. Home values are not yet recovering. 2011 is the wrong time for tax-and-spend "luxurification."
And contrary to what is being claimed by tax-and-spend SPLOST proponents, I think the SPLOST, as proposed, will actually cause additional future tax increases.
Many of these new amenities and luxurification projects will require future ongoing expenditures for operations and maintenance. If Cobb already can't pay for its necessities, then it is irresponsible to add new future operating and maintenance costs to future budgets for new amenities and other non-necessities. The SPLOST will literally dig us into an even deeper hole for the future.
Cobb will not protect its AAA bond rating by burdening future budgets with unnecessary additional new expenses, with no room in the budget to pay for these extra expenses.
Cobb cannot ignore the results of the November 2010 election. Washington and the State of Georgia will be slashing spending for at least the next couple of years. Cobb County needs to recognize, and responsibly deal with the financial realities of 2011-13, and plan how to meet our necessities. 2011 is the wrong time to initiate new non-necessities whose operating and maintenance costs will have to be added to future budgets.
If the Cobb SPLOST fails, commissioners will have to construct a list of real, absolute necessities, that absolutely have to be done in the next few years, and then figure out how to fund that.
The merits of a SPLOST depend on the merits of the whole projects list. Cobb's proposed SPLOST projects list is inconsistent with the financial realities of 2011.
At the public hearing last October, I pointed out that the SPLOST was ill-conceived, because it decided on a dollar amount to be raised, and then tried to figure out how to spend all of that money. I recommended starting over by identifying just the absolute necessities that needed to be done over the next several years, and then figure out what would be the best way to pay for it, whether SPLOST or something else.
Now, it is the responsibility of Cobb voters to send the commissioners back to the drawing board. A vote against the SPLOST will force the commissioners to come up with a responsible plan for taking care of Cobb's necessities. It is your responsibility to vote on March 15.
Ron Sifen of Vinings is former president of the Vinings Homeowners Association and former president of the Cobb Civic Coalition.
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Most of the times it is the message but sometimes, especially in this case, it is the messenger.
VOTE YES!
Is anyone listening? Unfunded LIABILITIES are RATHER SIGNIFICANT. But hey-ho....NCR gets a big freebie for hangaring their jet at McCollum.
http://finance.cobbcountyga.gov/downloads/11-12-biennial-budget.pdf
Please go study before you vote on Tuesday. I will, by virtue of this post, confirm my vote. My professional career revolves around auditing governmental agencies such as Cobb County (I have not audited Cobb County itself). What I see in the FY 2011 Budget is a very wasteful budget that does not appear to be in anyway fiscally responsible.
We go no further than the latest debacle by the County Manager and the County Commission in their combined efforts to hire a new purchasing manager.
"THE COUNTY COMMISSION did the right thing - but for the wrong reason - when it decided this week not to hire a new purchasing director. Lee and County Manager David Hankerson pulled the item from the agenda, rather than lose on what looked like would be an embarrassing 2-3 vote.
The stated reason for not going through with the hiring was the county's finances are too tight to afford the $100,000 salary. The real reason was because the candidate for the job, Sheila Cook Pierce, was too controversial. She was recently fired as deputy commissioner of Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management after allegations of mismanagement, and also had a tax lien against her."
This Commission and Manager must really think we are "the cabbage that fell of the truck!" Hire a fired employee of the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management???? I have audited the books of this group. This SPLOST issue is trivial compared to Atlanta's Watershed Managment organization. I may have just figured out the Cobb Commission and County Manager's startegy, if this candidate was in the Atlanta system for so long and the corruption was not exposed until relatively recently, why not put her on the Cobb County payroll, help us continue to hide and decieve.
NOT ONLY VOTE NO BUT HELL NO!!!! Do not give this Commission any more dollars than they already mis-manage!!
to deciding point > how old are you? this is an election about a tax. it is not a personality contest. we are not voting on who is going to be president of your sixth grade class.
Few would argue that the current economic environment could hardly be described as the best of times. By itself, that should be enough of a reason to abandon the notion of any sort of tax increase – especially one as blunt an instrument as SPLOST. It is good to recall that this tax is levied on everyone – even those who have been hit the hardest over the past few years.
More troubling, however, is the apparently backward nature of this SPLOT’s assembly. “Finding” an amount of money then deciding how to spend it may be an appropriate way of doing things for lottery winners or those who have unexpectedly inherited some amount of wealth, but it is decidedly not a prudent way to run a government. The rhetorical question raised by this approach is unsettling: if one cent is good, wouldn’t two cents be even better? Think of all the things that we could do then…
There are many wonderful examples of a government investing in a community to make it a nicer place to be, and succeeding in doing so. Under different circumstances, and with a somewhat more responsible approach to determining both the revenue and expense sides of the equation, the idea of a new SPLOST would probably be a good one. Just not this one, and not right now.
We should probably pass on this SPLOST.
taxed at 8% in Fulton?
Vote NO to SPLOST. It's good for business!
Who will pay for the quality of life that we enjoy if not the citizens of Cobb County?
Ron Sifen believes in enjoying benefits but doesn't want to pay for them.
Agree with Mr. Sifen or not, give him credit for providing a clear understanding of the facts, not something any Commissioner has done. I have personnaly validated each and every claim Mr. Sifen has explored.
Like the age old saying, "don't shoot the messanger;" before you vote, go "inform" yourself, don't be an ignorant or stupid voter. Remember ignorance is curable with study, stupidity is for life!
If Cobb had been conservitive, mindful, smart & careful w/ the 2005 SPLOST dollars, then I might have given a new SPLOST consideration.
But the $$'s have NOT been accounted for-(they refuse an audit)- & much of it has ended up in contractors & engineers POCKETS!
They are trying to scare you into voting yes!
I hope Cobb County is awake enough to see this as the sham that it is!
Vote NO SPLOST!
Take a deep breath,...we will survive,.. in fact,... it might make them become wiser w/ spending our taxes in the future!!
I've encouraged friends, family and neighbors to get out and vote...I've helped organize absentee ballots for people who cannot get to the polls on the 15th and reminded everyone I meet to go early if possible. Cobb needs to continue our SPLOST!!!
That's why on March 15, the response should be NO.
Vote YES on March 15th
SPLOST is a slush fund promoted by a bunch of RINOs who present themselves as fiscal conservatives.
Don't be fooled Cobb Countians.
Vote NO SPLOST!