Cobb citizens are understandably upset about being sandbagged by the so-called Transportation Investment Act that gave us the TSPLOST tax plan for economic development, mass transit and some road improvements. The act mandates tripling the local match for maintenance and improvement grants from the state Department of Transportation, hiking it from 10 percent to 30 percent for counties and cities that rejected the TSPLOST.

Even worse for unsuspecting taxpayers, under the TIA brought to you by your governor and friends in the General Assembly, the punitive local match of 30 percent must remain in force “for at least 24 months and until such time as a special district sales and use tax is approved.” So it’s permanent unless voters approve a 1 percent sales tax.

Readers give their views:

EastWestCommuter: A regional problem requires a regional solution, which necessitates regional cooperation. If the metro counties can’t come together to fix the transportation knots—thus making the area more convenient for residents and more attractive to newcomers—then we pretty much deserve the resulting mess. That said, anyone who lives in Cartersville and commutes to the Peachtree Towers is rather silly to complain about traffic, anyway.

SG68: If the state is really interested in making improvements to the transportation infrastructure in Metro Atlanta and around the state they will amend the current law to eliminate this “poison pill”. It was inserted into the law to try to force the voters to cast a YES vote. It didn’t work. Let the regions that passed the TSPLOST pay only 5% and the ones that didn’t (most of the state) go back to the 10% matching requirement. Having such an onerous requirement (30% match) doesn’t accomplish anything for anybody. If it remains it is simply a deterrent to any improvements and counter productive to the original intent of the TIA legislation.

Money Tree: Where does (Cobb DOT Director) DiMassimo think the state funds come from? I don’t think the state prints money... I’m pretty sure it comes from taxpayers. Her “loss” is my “gain.” Good job, NO voters. We saved even more money than we thought.

Get this: According to the legislation if any of the regions had failed to produce a list, the match for the counties in that region would have been 50%. To answer your question: the State Legislators, many of whom told you to vote against this, voted for the TIA Legislation in 2010. By having to pay more for the projects you might get, you just voted yourself a tax increase by voting NO on the Transportation referendum.

How Convenient: Again, (state Senate Majority Leader) Chip Rogers was for it before he was against it. He voted for the TIA in 2010 hailing it as landmark legislation. Then he ignored his position on the Regional Roundtable to help shape the list. Then he went out and worked against the referendum. Now he is showing up with a solution to a problem he created. This is leadership? This is believable? Give me a break!

dmckee9613@aol.com