26 Days until July 31 - What to Do Now?

(March 27, 2012)

The regional TSPLOST referenda are big deals all over Georgia.  Folks that support these important votes are asking, “What to do?” and “When to do it?”  There could be numerous answers, but here are a very few simple answers to do right now.

At a recent meeting, Jim Stephenson of Yancey Brothers (a Caterpillar Co. dealer in Atlanta) provided these simple, straightforward suggestions:

1. Give money to the campaigns.  The campaigns in each of the 12 regions are trying to educate voters about the importance of the referenda, theLists of projects, the details of how the lists were prepared, the flow of money to projects, and the consequences of a “yes” and “no” vote.  You may speak to me on how to give, or contact the campaigns directly (for Metro Atlanta, go tohttp://transformmetroatlanta.com and for the 11 regions outside Atlanta, go tohttp://www.connectgeorgia2012.com) 2. Talk to employees in your company.  Hold a Lunch ‘n Learn in your company and discuss in an open fashion the details of the referenda.  Many firms are holding these internal events and many more are scheduling them for the coming months.  Another strategy is to receive e-mail updates from the Campaigns and simply pass them along to employees.  The professionals in these campaigns say that an educated voter tends to be a supporter because of the logic of the referenda and the compelling case to mitigate congestion, create jobs, and increase economic competitiveness of the regions and the state. 3. Talk to friends, neighbors, and family.  This is basically the same message as above, but the audience is difference.  Communications within an engineering related company may be more technical than, say, to a civic group, but not necessarily so because companies employ a variety of non-technical people that also will vote.  The friends/neighbors/family audience is simply broadening the circle of people that you communicate with beyond the work experience. 

Each suggestion leads to additional actions that are useful.  Or to questions that need to be addressed.  If we may be of assistance, please contact the Georgia Engineering Alliance. 

Thomas C. Leslie, Director of External Affairs

Comments

[Kevin L Champion]

Unlike the feds, Georgia cannot print money. Raising taxes, taking more money out of the private sector to fund government projects, is not the way to grow our economy.
Yes, some engineers and contractors will profit greatly, but most of us will not, and we will all have to pay for it.
The failing infrastructure bogyman has been paraded out for years, but the problems do not get fixed.
We want to spend other people’s money on more glamorous, high profile new projects, and then go back to the tax collector for more, again bemoaning the sad state of our infrastructure!
The Gov. projects are often not what is really needed or wanted, or are extremely inefficient boondoggles and pie in the sky projects (High speed rail to nowhere, bridges to nowhere, public transportation money pits, sidewalks, turtle tunnels, 300 mil airport expansion that cost 1.3 bil?)

Shame on you for promoting this huge tax hike in our names!!