Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

As we get closer to the TSPLOST vote more community leaders are coming forward against it.

Proponents of the Transportation Special Options Sales Tax say the one cent tax increase will fix the state's road problems and create jobs.

However, State Representative Winfred Dukes holds that there is no transportation problem.

During a press conference on Wednesday, he stated that in the southwest Georgia region it doesn’t take people long to make it to their destination and if it does, then they are probably lost.

As to his stance on how the transportation tax will create jobs, he says the only jobs that will be created by the TSPLOST will be temporary. Once each construction project is done, he says the jobs will be gone and workers will once again have to seek out employment.

Representative Dukes says if the TSPLOST passes it will increase the states sales tax to 8 percent and that's something that people can’t afford.

"We are being taxed to death. A few years ago the state eliminated the homeowners property tax relief grant, passing the largest tax increase in the history of the state of Georgia," says Winfred Dukes, State Representative of House District 150.  

Dukes states that utility taxes have gone up five percent, the Dougherty County Commission has levied a 2 millage rate increase and the Dougherty County School Board has increased its taxes through increases in property assessments.

“Last night the city commission passed a 1.3 mil increase on to the people and now we're asking the people of the 9th poorest congressional district in the country to tax themselves an additional penny,” says Dukes.

He says people should vote for the transportation sales tax according to how it benefits them and their family.