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T-SPLOST proponents kick off a new strategy, Transportation Leadership Coalition responds.

March, 28, 2013, Roswell, GA – Last night, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and PNC Bank hosted a community forum on Regionalism.  According to the event marketing, the forum was a direct response to the failure of the transportation sales tax referendum last summer.   The companies claim that T-SPLOST was actually a “failure of metro Atlanta’s fragmented communities to work together as a region.”   Transportation Leadership Coalition (TLC) disagrees with this assumption and launches website RepealRegionalism.com in response.

“It isn’t a failure of metro Atlanta’s ‘fragmented communities to work together,’” said Jack Staver, Chairman of the Transportation Leadership Coalition.  “The issue is dysfunctional county governments who are not willing to do the hard work to protect their counties and come up with mutually beneficial solutions with their neighboring counties.  This is highly concerning,” Staver continues, “because regionalism is the fastest growing issue in Georgia that most citizens do not know exists.”

Regionalism was first introduced to Georgians in 2008 when the Georgia General Assembly passed HB 1216 and was signed into law by Governor Sonny Purdue.  HB 1216 reorganized the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.  It established 12 regions and created the governing structure for those who would serve on these regional councils creating regional commissions.

“The biggest concern with this approach is that the regions are ‘ruled’ by governing councils who were not elected to serve,” said Field Searcy, a key member of the TLC team.  “We citizens have no recourse with regional councils like we have with an elected county commissioner or city council.  If you think about it, appointed officials are not accountable to us, the people.  They are accountable to whoever appointed them.”  Searcy continues, “The United States Constitution ‘guarantee[s] to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government.’  That means elected officials, not appointed ones, represent us.  Our own state Constitution provides for Home Rule.  Home Rule protects our individual rights, prevents state government from interfering in city and county operations, and protects the principle of one person, one vote.”

RepealRegionalism.com aims to help educate the people of Georgia on the dangers of Regionalism and stop the growth of an unelected and unaccountable form of government.

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About Transportation Leadership Coalition, LLC

Transportation Leadership Coalition, LLC, is a grassroots, all-volunteer organization that has come together in the belief that the State of Georgia can do a much better job of transportation planning than passing the largest tax increase in Georgia history and encourage the citizens of Georgia to become involved in their local governments to avoid the trappings of appointed government bureaus.  We believe that if Georgians understand the facts about regionalism, they will overwhelmingly reject it.

Web: www.RepealRegionalism.com

Facebook: Facebook.com/RepealRegionalism

Twitter: @RepealRegionali