Double-fault
I disliked the tennis center idea in 2004, and I dislike it now. It's an insane waste of money that, as the story notes, was approved by voters during the referendum on SPLOST.
Of course, the voters didn't specifically approve just the tennis center, but a collection of projects - many of them considerably more vital to the community - and voting against the tennis center meant voting against all of SPLOST. It's one of those tricky nuances of SPLOST referendums in that you don't get to say 'yay' or 'nay' to individual projects, but rather a whole slate of them.
There's no line-item veto at the ballot box.
Not saying we ought to have one either, but I think it's fair to note that I would assume a lot of people didn't want the tennis center included in the SPLOST, yet probably still voted for its approval due to all the much better stuff that would get done with the money.
Of course, the voters didn't specifically approve just the tennis center, but a collection of projects - many of them considerably more vital to the community - and voting against the tennis center meant voting against all of SPLOST. It's one of those tricky nuances of SPLOST referendums in that you don't get to say 'yay' or 'nay' to individual projects, but rather a whole slate of them.
There's no line-item veto at the ballot box.
Not saying we ought to have one either, but I think it's fair to note that I would assume a lot of people didn't want the tennis center included in the SPLOST, yet probably still voted for its approval due to all the much better stuff that would get done with the money.
posted by Jmac at 8:25 AM
2 Comments:
Jmac -- this is the nature of SPLOST. It's called the Christmas Tree approach. You hang shiny items on the tree that get different groups really excited about it. No one really opposes SPLOST, so you get enough community groups out to support it, and voila.
And BTW, in terms of community recreation, good public tennis courts are almost impossible to find on weeknights in Athens, or were 2 years ago when I was playing a lot. During the winter, when lights are an issue, the problem is even more acute. There were times when we literally had to wait an hour to play at Bishop Park or even the IM fields, which are technically owned by UGA, although they let the public use them.
Two comments:
1. The original purpose of SPLOST was to fund Infrastruture, over time the General Assembly has allowed these sorts of "Christmas Tree shiny items" to be included. I think it is time that SPLOST goes back to fund the core improvements needs of a community. Tennis Courts do not meet that criteria.
2. Heaven forbid that a surrounding county put some of their local dollars into recreational facilities. Go and look at the wide variety of plates in the Bishop Park lot on any given night - there is a hefty number of Oconee and Madison vehicles. Of course not all of them are at the tennis courts, but they come and use ACC facilities without paying a red cent for them.
Post a Comment
<< Home