Special Local Options Sales Tax (SPLOST) is a bad idea at a really bad time. Foreclosures nationwide are on the rise with Georgia ranked 4th.

And...Forsyth County is no stranger to foreclosures.

In July 2007 the median home price in Forsyth County was $272,800. Four years later that value has fallen 24 percent to $207,400. Figure #1 includes the track of foreclosures in Forsyth County just after the housing bubble burst. Over the past four years foreclosures were inhibited, because banks were restricted from foreclosing on delinquent homeowners. These restrictions have been removed. No doubt foreclosures will continue to climb as banks are free to process delinquent owners.

Refinancing schemes most likely will not work because;

1) degraded credit after the housing market collapsed,

2) negative equity, and

3) servicing industry conflicts generally inhibit refinancing. Generally foreclosure is chosen over refinancing during periods of unemployment, settlements in divorce, and the death of a mortgage holder. There is no indication unemployment will fall and who can predict divorce rates or deaths. We need to just admit that foreclosures are going rise as Forsythians grow poorer.

Figure #2 illustrates the sad reality. Homeowner equity has dropped nearly $3.8 billion dollars since July 2007. Total homeowner equity in July 2007 was $14,336,784,000.00 and over the four years has fallen to $11,066,340,900.00.

That represents a retraction of $3,770,443,100.00 in four years. Three point eight billion dollars of wealth has been wiped-out in Forsyth County, yet the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners and School Board continue to extract private wealth with millage rate tax increases and now SPLOST.  

The Republican Forsyth County Commissioners want tax increases. Shouldn't we let increases be the purview of the Democrat Party.

SPLOST is a bad idea at a bad time and the voters in Forsyth County need to say; 'No new taxes.'

VOTE NO to SPLOST on November 8, 2011.