The Chamber's press release

indicates its support for a financing method that does

not require a vote from the citizens on the ground the

people cannot be counted on to vote for general

obligation bonds or SPLOST. In a twisted form of

reasoning, the Chamber states that if SPLOST were to be

defeated at the polls, "the county will be unable by

law to move forward on the project until the next voting

cycle in two years."

That is pure poppycock. It

assumes, first of all, that the people are too dumb to

vote for a good project financed through a smart

financing method (you know, one that uses the matching

principle of finance and yields income tax deductions).

But worse, it shows the dangers of practicing law without

a license by misrepresenting what the law is.

Section 48-8-111(e) of the

Official Code of Georgia provides that if the SPLOST is

defeated "the question of imposing the tax shall not

again be submitted to the voters of the county until

after 12 months immediately following the month in which

the election was held."

The project is not

prevented from going forward at all, because, if it wants

to, the county can submit a vote on bonds (but not on

SPLOST) every month of the year, and forever, until it

passes. The county can also use a financing method which

does not require a vote. For a SPLOST it has to wait one

year, not two years. The Chamber does itself and the

citizens a disservice by telling us the fairy tale it

did.

Most interesting is the

timing of the Chamber's endorsement. We see the Chamber's

endorsement in the Wednesday paper, and lo and behold,

the next evening the county commission adopts the very

financing method that the Chamber had endorsed. How's

that for timing?

What I suspect happened is

that one of the county commissioners asked the Chamber to

provide this endorsement, to help stifle any criticism of

the county commission for doing without a vote of the

people.

I am delighted to see the

Chamber has learned enough about accounting and taxation

to acknowledge that SPLOST would be an undesirable method

of financing projects like the courthouse and jail.

However, if the Chamber is to earn the respect and

confidence of the people, it needs to do its homework and

avoid misleading the people as it did in its published

release. Becoming more involved in public issues is a

noble goal, but only if you tell the truth.

Given the vegetative state

of our school board, it probably missed the line, above,

stating that a bond vote could be held every month

forever until it passes. Whenever it truly becomes

imperative we get new school buildings in the county,

please nudge a school board member from his sleep and

call his attention to this line.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayette County

[email protected]