GALEO announces its support of T-SPLOST

ATLANTA - The Georgia Associatioin of Latino Elected Officials has come out in support of the transportation sales tax (T-SPLOST) which will be voted on statewide Tuesday.

"GALEO supports the passage of this transportation referendum," GALEO Executive Director Jerry Gonzalez said. "Our region's future growth and economic viability depends upon movement forward to our transportation issues. We need to regain our competitive edge. A vote for the July 31 transportation referendum is a vote for bringing prosperity back to our region. Georgia has lost 200,000 jobs and over 80,000 construction jobs since 2007. We believe this referendum is a critical shot in the arm to strengthen our economy and put all Georgians, including Latinos, back to work."

Gonzalez added that according to a regional impact study conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), the economic impact for the metro area alone, if T-SPLOST is approved, would be 34,000 supported construction jobs and 200,000 additional jobs supported. Two-thirds of supported jobs, the study concluded, would be in high- and mid-paying sectors.

"Latinos are in a unique position to benefit from the referendum," Gonzalez continued. "All Georgia Department of Transportation projects (at least half of the 157 regional projects will be administered by GDOT) have Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE) goals, and local projects are likely to have minority or disadvantage business preferences as well."

Gonzalez went on to say "Our Metro Atlanta region and our state are faced with a significant moment in time to see ourselves as a united region for economic growth and prosperity for all Georgians. In the global marketplace, we need to retain a competitive edge. In order to do that, we must demonstrate that we are addressing our transportation options now. Our choices during the vote will determine whether we will be able to compete and attract continued economic growth for our region and our state."