Dear Sirs: (With this SPLOST) you have to understand that you are voting for a tax for yourself that will cost you money out of your pocket for a number of years. If you and your spouse earn near $100,000 per year at 1 percent then you will pay the county $5,000 for the duration. This is obviously more than any possible property tax increase you could imagine.

The ‘threat’ by the group supporting SPLOST tells us if we don’t vote for the SPLOST our property taxes will go up. Well, we voted for the last SPLOST and our taxes went up anyway! And they will again, with or without SPLOST.

If you review the proposed expenditures for this tax, you will find that most of them would not be approved by any commissioners vote under property tax increases. In the event they did so, they would never be elected dog catcher in this county.

Two of the chief proponents of the committee to pass this tax have and/or will continue to profit substantially if the SPLOST is passed. Hey, it’s as simple as, "Follow the money!"

With only a handful of farmers left in the county, do we really need an "Ag Center" and are we the only county in the state who continues to fund a "for-profit hospital"? (The county gave away our hospital to a for-profit group) All hospitals are required by law to intake emergency patients, and I am not saying that a new facility is not needed, but not at the expense of taxpayers. That would be the same thing as saying Dr. Jones can treat more patients if we give him the money to build a bigger office.

Generic descriptions of ‘transportation’ and other unspecified ghost projects don’t tell us what we need to know about where our money would be going from this SPLOST. Just give us your money and trust us.

If you don’t believe the height of stupidity is voting yourself a ‘tax on tax’ for projects we neither want or need, just sit yourself down on March 15 and don’t go to the polls and vote NO. Remember, the financial stability you save by voting NO just may be your own.

Sam Hay III,

Covington