Opponents of SPLOST 8 Thursday formed a political action committee that is dedicated to defeating the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
Richmond County residents will vote on tax in a March 16 election.
The group says that they are against the SPLOST package for a variety of reasons, chief among them is that the package is tripling or even quadrupling the taxes already levied with no real results.
“We already pay property taxes, we already pay sales tax and we already pay for the stormwater fee, and the water abatement throughout the city is abysmal at best,” says Brad Owens, spokesman for Say No To SPLOST 8 PAC.
The group is also against spending $25 million on a new James Brown Arena when the bonds have not been approved to fund a new arena.
‘They are throwing money at a proposed arena at the tune of a third of a billion dollars at a time when we do not even know if an arena is viable because the voters haven’t given the go-ahead to fund such a project,” Owens says.
Owens’ group also laments the loss of funding for cultural activities and for the so-called “Museum Row.” The SPLOST package contains no allotments for the James Brown annex onto the Augusta Museum of History, or funding for the Lucy Craft Laney Museum, the Jewish Museum or a proposed Georgia Military Museum, a project Owens supported and that is to be housed at the Old Richmond Academy on Telfair Street.
The group is also very much against the city pledging seed money in the amount of $5 million for the creation of a water park at Diamond Lakes when there is no funding set aside for repairs on the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam.
“They put in an allocation for $1.5 million to create a zip line across the river, but nothing for the lock and dam so people may eventually be zip lining over a mud bank,” Owens said.
In talking about the water park at Diamond Lakes, Owens says he doesn’t believe the commissioners are serious about actually funding the project. He believes they will eventually reprogram the money for other purposes, as he alleges they did in building “splash pads” from an early SPLOST.
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However, the biggest objection the group has is the multiple taxes being levied on paving roads and storm abatement when taxpayers already pay the T-SPLOST and the storm water fee respectively. The group claims that those monies are spent on water abatement in certain areas at the detriment of other areas.
“We care that they have their priorities all wrong with this SPLOST, and it is finally time to hold them accountable. The only way we can do that is to vote no”, Owens Says.
The group says they have raised the funds needed to sway the voters away from voting yes on the measure.
“We will not give up,” Owens says. “We want to educate voters that this is a bad deal.”
Scott Hudson is the Editorial Page Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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