Blackmon: Don't bother looking for a tax-free lunch

Lately, we have heard and talked a good bit about taxes that mean "we don't really have to pay for it." The argument for the 1 percent special-purpose, local-option sales tax is that people from outside the county will pay, at least in part, for our local projects. This is the same argument in support of a hefty hotel-motel tax in Athens-Clarke County used for the Classic Center and tourism promotion.

Now I read that Atlanta, in order to land the Super Bowl again, needs an open stadium to replace the Georgia Dome. The argument is that no state or local taxes will be required, because it all will be paid for with a continuation of the hotel-motel tax. Yeah, right.

Certainly, these kinds of sales and usage taxes keep these expenses out of our property tax bills. That is a very strong argument in their favor. Most must be renewed periodically, so voters and taxpayers have at least some modicum of control, a good thing in my view.

At the same time, I cannot help but wonder if it is not just a shell game. I thought about this when I paid a $13 hotel-motel tax to Jasper, Ala., last week. Any of us who stay in a hotel in just about any place nowadays will pay that special tax. If the hotel-motel tax keeps $100 out of my annual property tax bill, I just end up paying that $100 - or much more - in taxes in another community.

Since most communities in Georgia now have some sort of SPLOST, anytime we go outside our own county to buy most anything, we end up paying the tax to some other municipality or county or school system. The same is true of the hotel-motel tax in Atlanta.

I was unable to find any estimate of how many nights Georgians spend in Atlanta hotels each year, but I am quite certain the number is significant. When we go to a multiday meeting or a sporting or cultural event in Atlanta, we pay its tax. Atlantans pay ours when they come here. I am not certain that the average taxpayer ends up saving any money. We just shift it around.

Granted, the consumer has a bit more control over paying these taxes, unlike the state sales tax or property taxes. If you do not want to pay a

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