Georgian’s came out to vote yesterday in droves to vote on the T-SPLOST sales tax increase. If you haven’t heard anything about the Untie Atlanta campaign you must be living under a rock. If you live in Georgia you couldn’t go to a website, pass a billboard, see a commercial or hear a radio commercial without an Untie Atlanta spot. I started following this campaign because I couldn’t believe how much money they were spending to get this tax increase pushed through.
Now I’ll start by saying that Atlanta does have some bad traffic spots. It needs help, but the work is going to get done one day or another without a tax increase. The other reason I didn’t support this tax increase is because they plans that they have for my little town on the outskirts of Atlanta were absolutely unnecessary. No one wants extra money coming out of their pockets on EVERYTHING we buy. It’s a hard thing to convince people of, especially those that live NO WHERE near Atlanta. I mean do you want a tax increase to “Untie Atlanta” if you live in Savannah? I didn’t think so.
No lets go into how much money was raised for this campaign. The following is money that was donated to the campaign from some pretty hefty Georgia businesses. 
1) Cox Enterprises, Inc. – $250,000;
2) Georgia Highway Contractors Assoc. – $250,000;
3) Georgia Power – $250,000;
4) Yancey Bros. Co. – $250,000.
5) C.W. Matthews – $200,000;
6) The Coca Cola Co. – $187,500;
7) National Association of Realtors – $185,000;
8) Delta Air Lines, Inc. – $ 150,000;
9) The Home Depot USA – $150,000.
The campaign estimated that it would raise $6.8 million dollars. Now I’m no math wiz but I do know one thing. That’s a crap ton of money! Money that I think would have been better spent by say…I don’t know…fixing our traffic problem? Just a thought. I understand the need. But it’s work that is going to be done regardless of the tax increase. I hate to see a campaign fail. Especially one that did such a good job of getting their word out in every corner of the market they possible could.
So bravo to the campaign managers and media companies that worked their tails off up until the last moment of today’s voting. I love seeing great marketing at work. But I’m secretly (obviously not) cheering inside that our sales tax is not going up.
Thank God it did not pass, I’m a medic that works for the 911 system in Atlanta. I’m glad people realize how much crime follows public transportation.
You know that was my other thought that they need to spend the money in public transportation because it is scary but with so many people living in the suburbs and commuting in that really is the best option. Money making it safer and more available would be money well spent.