As the July 31 primary date approaches, I'm sure everyone will see positive encouraging messages on just how good it will be when the Transportation funding is passed. Yard signs will probably be more numerous than the most hotly contested races and we'll be hearing all the positive messages through the TV, iPhone, and any other media that advertising can buy. Actually, if you've been listening, they started up a few months ago.

Doesn't it strike you as odd that so many millions of dollars are being spent trying to sell you on another tax and taxing system you'll never be able to get rid of? As everyone knows by now, when the government is pushing this hard to sell you a bill of goods, there must be something drastically wrong with it somewhere.

There is, and it's a whole nest of snakes that will be lying in wait to take advantage of those who are unaware of the dangers.

If some of these messages had to have some truth in advertising, then you would be seeing billboards like "If you like the IRS, You'll Love the TSPLOST!" or "TSPLOST-The Tax that Keeps on Taking Just Like the IRS." These are not dramatizations - they are a future reality unless the voters wake up and figure out they are about to vote in a taxing authority that they will never have control of.

There is a part of our Georgia Constitution that defines Home Rule and this was set up to give residents of the state some relief that taxes had to either be local or by the state and nothing in between.

The setting up of regional taxing districts is in direct conflict with the Home Rule provision, but legislators are doing their best to work around it. Unfortunately, all that they can come up with simply gets rid of the Home Rule provision and this is proposed by a Republican.

Is it any wonder that the governor himself is pushing for the tax because there are many corporations shelling out millions of dollars to whomever and wherever they can to pass the tax on July 31?

Tragically, the hardest hit people will be those who are on fixed incomes and the poor. Instead of taxing the fuel of the people that are actually using the transportation system, they figure a few dollars being spent out of someone's Social Security check is better. The big question is: Better for whom?

Don Williamson
Chairman, Rockdale Republican Party