Dear Editor,
Quoting from the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG) and its guide to local officials on how to conduct a SPLOST referendum: “On the other hand, local officials may use county or municipal funds to prepare descriptions of the SPLOST proposal and the impact of the SPLOST projects on the county and its citizens. It is critical, however, that such descriptions do not express an opinion regarding the SPLOST proposal or advocate for which way a person should vote.”
On numerous occasions during the last month, Commissioner Brown and Chairman Sharp have both, in very public venues, told the citizens to vote yes on SPLOST No. 10. If this isn’t a clear violation of the SPLOST Guide and, perhaps, state law, well, I leave that to the readers.
Commissioner Brown and Chairman Sharp also commented publicly that “non-residents pay 65% of county sales taxes.”Where did they get this statistic? We made an Open Records request to the county for the document showing the 65% percent by non-citizens. The county responded it possessed no documents to that effect.
Additionally, inquiries were made to ACCG, the Middle-Georgia Regional Commission, and the local Chamber of Commerce regarding such a statistic, all with a negative reply. Advocating for the passage of a SPLOST by quoting statistics without a legitimate source would also seem to violate the SPLOST Guide. If the commissioners choose to continue quoting these statistics, I think they should produce the documentation for all of us to see.
Lastly, maybe if the commissioners spent more time and effort trying to educate the public on the details of the various proposed projects and their respective costs and less time inappropriately telling the public to vote “yes,” the taxpayers of Putnam County would be better served.
Billy Webster, Putnam County