I received a mailing from the chamber of commerce describing how the T-SPLOST money would be spent in our county. It told how much money we would get for our transportation improvements and how 85% of all this money would be used for improvment of our rail system which according to the mailing was vitally important for three businesses in our area and if the TSPLOST was not voted in these businesses would fail and many jobs would be lost in our community.
I didn't like the sound of more jobs lost so I made a few calls to some prominent people in these industries. Turns out these businesses are not in dior straights as the mailing said since there is already tax money set aside for the improvement of the rail system which explains why they are currently laying down new tracks before the vote.
The biggest threat with their closure is more due to whether or not they will relocate to another country where regulations aren't so stifling. The idea of the tax dollars being spent on our rail system made me scratch my head since our rail system was purchased by an individual company then gifted to a town which then made it tax exempt. It then was sold to a privately held company whose identity isn't easily determined through public records but the rail continues to enjoy the tax exemption so I wondered why a private entity would deserve somewhere around $650,000 per year for the next ten years or so from of our tax dollars if the improvements were already paid for with appropriated tax dollars. But then I realized one of the owner's of our local rail system's son is an elected official in Atlanta representing our interests and it all became very clear.
I also did a little more homework on this and based on the weekly train deliveries it will only cost the taxpayers $6,250.00 each time the train runs down the tracks since it only runs twice a week. This is not considering the money that is already appropriated to fix all the tracks on the route and it makes you wonder if the improvement of the tracks are already paid for then what exactly will this money be used for. Of course if I owned the railroad tracks myself I'm pretty sure it would cost me near about $649,999 a year to keep the grass mowed and the bushes trimmed - assuming of course the taxpayer was flipping the bill. Yep, I'm pretty sure I could tighten the belt a bit and make this work. :bang:
