Vote on TSPLOST is March 19
A number of Catoosa County residents are voicing their displeasure about the upcoming transportation tax referendum vote scheduled for March 19.
Residents will have the opportunity to vote on the proposed 1-cent Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST), which was approved for the ballot in December.
Commissioners and officials from the cities of Fort Oglethorpe and Ringgold see the tax as a way for the county to bring in a projected $60 million in revenue over the next five years to help pay for transportation work on roads and bridges.
When commissioners hammered out the details of the proposed tax in December, they agreed on a 70/20/10 split of the projected funds with the cities of Fort Oglethorpe and Ringgold.
That breakdown would equate to $42 million for Catoosa County, $12 million for Fort Oglethorpe, and $6 million for Ringgold.
During the Board of Commissioner’s meeting Tuesday night, Feb. 19, several residents spoke out against the tax, specifically how it would impact locals, businesses, and what exactly the money will be used for.
Local farmer Sam Martin, who spoke for the second meeting in a row on the matter, took exception with the timing of the vote and the county’s spending habits.
“It bothers me that it’s being made as a special election,” Martin said. “You guys knew last year you were going to want to put TSPLOST in here and instead of putting it on the general ballot in November, you’re waiting until March, which is spend- ing I heard $17,000. I feel like that’s not fiscally responsible and you’re not being good stewards of the taxpayer dollars.”
Martin added that she might be more open to the idea of the tax if the county or cities involved presented specific plans for the funds.
“You don’t have an exact plan for the money, so that makes me think it’s going to get washed into some special projects or things that are not actually transportation-related,” Martin said. “If we had an exact plan of what the money was going to — ‘we’re going to do this bridge, we’re going to do this road, we’re going to do x, y, z’… — I would probably feel differently about it. There has not been a clear plan for the money.”