Transportation SPLOST
Authorized by the 2010 Transportation Investment Act, the 2012 TSPLOST or T-SPLOST referendum was held on July 31 after well-attended advance voting and early voting, and failed in nine of the 12 regions across the state. This includes the metro Atlanta region, where it failed by a wide margin of 37% to 63% overall, and failed in each of the ten counties, despite an advertising campaign that cost eight million dollars, funded mostly by local businesses, and controversially by some community improvement districts. It was largely opposed by those who are against any tax for any reason, and those who felt that having just half of the projects being improvements to the region's severely-limited rapid transit was still too much, although there is no other funding for expanding transit options while the gas tax and county SPLOSTs already go toward roads. It was also opposed by the Sierra Club for putting so much more toward roads that will simply fill up again, as well as by the NAACP since it is a regressive tax that would have also applied to basic necessities like groceries, and would have singled-out MARTA as the only agency that would be blocked from receiving operating funds.
Governor Nathan Deal has said there will be no re-vote, and no increase in the taxes on gasoline (which are constitutionally prohibited from going to transportation alternatives), even though such taxes are borne by the drivers actually creating the traffic (a user fee).
The three regions which voted for the tax area all in middle Georgia, including Columbus and Augusta. Still causing controversy is the fact that local government in the other nine regions will now be required to put up 30% matching funds for projects for the next two years instead of the typical 10% to 15%.
Read more about this topic: Special-purpose Local-option Sales Tax