The June 27 Newnan Times-Herald contained a front page news story about a TSPLOST presentation to the Coweta Chamber of Commerce that highlighted government defined transportation needs. To find a rebuttal, one needs to look toward the back of the paper to a shorter article about opposition to this proposed tax.

Many issues were caused by Coweta constantly enticing businesses here to increase its commercial and property tax base and in so doing created the problem of traffic noise and congestion while destroying the rural atmosphere many here treasure.

“Widening highways ... does not reduce congestion over the long term” is the conclusion of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a think-tank that state lawmakers use for free-market solutions to perceived woes.

The tax preamble on the ballot states TSPLOST “provides for local transportation projects to create jobsâ ¦” I suspect many do not see counties like Upson and Pike as “local.” Moreover, the fallacy that government creates jobs was painfully demonstrated at the federal level with the asserted shovel-ready spending fiasco. Government never creates, it only consumes.

The preamble continues on to mention “citizen oversight,” but it should read political oversight since ordinary citizens do not oversee or select projects. Example: Coweta Transportation Planner Edwards said future projects “included bike paths.” Bike paths may be nice but in a time of economic recession, they cannot be justified.

It is woefully apparent (as one reader observed) that “the NTH never saw a tax it didn’t like.” The people saw the past trauma tax as a government money grab, and the people will see this the same way.

The NTH is clearly biased in supporting increased taxation. By not putting pro and con articles on the same page it fails to provide informative evenhandedness to its readers. Shame on you.

Ken Schaefer

Sharpsburg