Georgia Republicans' aversion to any kind of tax, and concern about riling the Tea Party, are helping to consolidate opposition to the state's one-percent sales tax referendum for transportation, UGA professor Charles Bullock said in an analysis of a recent Patch survey.

Patch's unscientific survey of about 60 state Republican activists, candidates and office holders showed overwhelming opposition to the TSPLOST referendum. Bullock, a longtime observer of Georgia politics, says that while the Tea Party didn't put up as many primary challengers to sitting Republican legislators as it had hoped, anti-tax pressure within the party remains high.

"So although tons of money is being spent to encourage voting for the T-SPLOST and the support of the Chamber of Commerce, it looks like it will go down to defeat," Bullock said in an analysis emailed to Patch. "We have the interesting phenomenon of disagreement between many GOP leaders and a group usually closely associated with the GOP (the Chamber)."

Bullock conlcuded: "With GOP leadership unwilling to step forward and reassure conservative, anti-tax voters that the projects to be funded with the T-SPLOST are meritorious, there is scant prospect for approval."

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