Commission candidates express skepticism at SPLOST » Local News »

If local tea party voters are looking for candidates that pledge their fealty to the Constitution or who promise to fight wasteful spending, they found four Tuesday night at Ryman Hall.

The Dalton Tea Party hosted a forum attended by about 70 people for the candidates on the July 22 Whitfield County runoff ballot: Superior Court Judge David Blevins and his challenger, Dalton Municipal Court Judge Jim Wilbanks, and the candidates for the Republican nomination for Board of Commissioners District 1, Renee Davis and Barry Robbins.

Asked about a plan by the current members of the Board of Commissioners to place a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) on the March 2015 ballot, both candidates expressed some skepticism but did not outright oppose the idea.

“I am opposed to a SPLOST that is just attached to a wish list,” said Robbins, who said he could support one that paid for truly needed projects.

Davis agreed that any SPLOST should focus solely on needed infrastructure.

“We should be very careful with a SPLOST,” she said. “We should give the community a chance to get involved in deciding what it would fund. And commissioners need to be prepared to explain why they are asking for one.”

Gordon Morehouse, the Republican who currently holds the commissioner’s seat, did not run for re-election this year. No Democrat qualified.

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