Georgian SPLOST vs. Even better, Optional Taxes

I recently read in the December 10th issue of The Economist about this thing called a "special purpose local-option sales tax" or SPLOST for short. Basically what is happening is the local Georgian government is setting a ballot initiative to allow voters to decide whether or not they want to take on a tax to pay for badly needed infrastructure. I thought that the idea was rather brilliant, but didn't go quite far enough. More on this in a second. However, the Tea-Party Republicans have come out strongly against the list for a number of reasons.

Firstly, they are against it because the list of projects that were announced for the ballot lacked oversight. Secondly, it is poorly planned. These are absolutely valid objections that ought to be heard. Third, it violates county sovereignty. This reason might have been valid recently, but I think that the communication ability between constituents and their representatives is so great nowadays that this objection carries less and less weight. In bygone days when constituents would only see their state leaders during election times it was important to maintain county sovereignty. But today there are such little barriers between someone in Fayette County (whom the Economist cited) and Atlantan politicians that a strong county government is no longer necessary. It is a 45 minute drive from Fayetteville to Atlanta. Likewise, the days when politicians can simply say, "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" are long gone. A strong local government simply isn't as necessary today. But, I'll reluctantly grant that some local county sovereignty issues are raised for locally-minded individuals.

Their final reason for opposing the procedure is one that cannot be valid in a vibrant democracy. The Tea Party Republicans' final point of contention is that creation of a rail network invites terrorist activities. Even if this is an absolute truth, the moment that Americans begin to withhold progress out of fear of terrorism, then terrorism has a de facto victory and forced genuflection of the American people.

Moving on from the serious to the flippant, as I said earlier however, the dosage of direct democracy in this Georgian measure is not enough. Georgia ought to take a look at how well direct democracy has played out in California. Offer the public a chance to pay for the infrastructure. If they choose to pay the 1 cent sales tax, send them a thank you card with a toll deferring sticker for their cars or a discount card for the aforementioned railway. If they opt out of the tax send them a card that exempts them from the 1 cent tax, but not a discount card. Obviously both of these, the opt out card or the discount card would have to be a state issued picture ID. Thus, solving another contentious issue for Tea Party fellows, the extreme danger of voter fraud.