Editor,

Here’s why you should think twice before voting on the TSPLOST 1 percent sales tax on July 31.

It will raise your taxes an extra $300 yearly for the average family. This is on top of an already $2,100 in sales taxes you are paying. It will hit the fixed income and the poor the hardest as they are the least able to endure another sales tax.

Your county will not get all of the 1 percent tax it collects, as some of it will go to regional projects out of your county that you probably will never use. Your county most likely has not published what it would do with the 25 percent of the money it will receive back from the 100 percent it contributes to the region. Most voters do not know where the 25 percent money will be spent within their county.

The Georgia Department of Transportation will receive a 95 percent increase to its budget if the tax passes. That 95 percent is a huge increase and not all projects will be done in the 10 year cycle as there are not enough engineers or construction companies to do all the projects promised.

The costs of projects are estimated out to 8-10 years in advance and no one can predict what construction cost will be in 8-10 years. We do know costs will rise as the cost of everything rises over time. This means some of those projects will not be done during the 10 years of the tax, and an extension of the tax will be asked for, similar to other TSPLOST tax extensions. The taxes very seldom die and become permanent.

— Mike Sims, Blairsville