Free Republic

N.C. Senate Republicans were visibly upset with Democrats for prolonging the budget debate with amendments during an after-midnight session Friday morning. As the clock approached 1 a.m., Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue was summoned to the front of the chamber to talk privately with Senate leader Phil Berger. The Senate had rejected five amendments from Democrats to fund their spending priorities, but each time one proposal was shot down, another one was filed. Senate Rules Chairman Bill Rabon abruptly called for a recess, stopping the proceedings for nearly two hours. GOP leaders headed to a conference room with legislative budget...

In 1994, the Florida Legislature and the Miami-Dade County Commission adopted legislation creating the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, also known as MDX, in an effort to maintain toll dollars in Miami-Dade to improve the quality of life of county residents. Fast forward 23 years — Miami-Dade’s population has grown to more than 2.6 million residents and out-of-town visitation has nearly doubled; thus, increasing the use of our roadways by both residents and visitors. This combination equals only one thing — ever growing traffic. The Florida Department of Transportation, Florida’s Turnpike, MDX, and Miami-Dade County have spent billions on expanding the Palmetto...

President Donald Trump says shovel-ready projects will be the priority in the estimated $1 trillion infrastructure-improvement initiative over the next decade that he hopes to unveil later this year. “If you have a job that you can’t start within 90 days, we’re not going to give you money for it,” Trump said on Feb. 4 during a White House town hall session with 52 business leaders.Meanwhile, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on March 10, the American Society of Civil Engineers, in its latest “Infrastructure Report Card” that’s issued every four years, gave this country’s infrastructure the below-standard grade...

This is why America hates Hollywood. Late night “funny” man Jimmy Kimmel delivered a heart-wrenching monologue Monday night that every mother and every father could relate to. In the emotion-drunk moments last month after the birth of their son — still in the hospital room surrounded by nurses and euphoric family — he and his wife watched their boy turn blue and got the terrifying news that something was wrong with his heart. Or lungs. Or both. Mr. Kimmel called it the “longest three hours of my life” as more nurses and doctors and machines crowded into the room and...

As Minnesota leaders debate how much new money to put toward the state’s roads, they’re also fighting about a related issue: who should choose which roads get attention? Ordinarily, the Legislature appropriates money for roads and bridges, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation decides how to spend the money. But bills in the Legislature this year take a different path: they order the MnDOT to do specific road projects. It’s a process called “earmarking,” and it could spark a showdown over road funding between the Republican-controlled Legislature and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton. Behind the feud are bad feelings from some...

Citing state budgeting uncertainties, Oklahoma transportation officials announced Monday that they have suspended construction on about a dozen highway projects, including the next phase of the I-240/I-35 interchange project in south Oklahoma City. "That's going to give us a black eye," Oklahoma Transportation Commission Chairman J. David Burrage said, describing the situation as "bad." Burrage made his remark after another commissioner noted that many contractors already have bought materials for projects that are being suspended. Companies that suffer financial losses because of work suspensions likely will file claims with the agency, officials said. The dozen or so suspended contracts may...

The budget deal to keep the government funded through September agreed upon by congressional leaders would continue funding the refugee resettlement program. An agreement on the omnibus budget was reached by leaders from both parties Sunday, as a government shutdown looms on Friday. The proposed spending agreement includes no money to construct the president’s border wall, and continues funding Planned Parenthood. [….] The bill would include a total of $3 billion towards migration and refugee assistance, which is roughly the same that was spent in Fiscal Year 2016. It would also include $50 million towards the emergency refugee and migration...

California's $54 billion plan to fix roads and fund highway improvements cleared a major hurdle late Thursday, passing in the state legislature and setting the stage for what could become a massive spending spree. Positive comments last week from analysts about the state transportation plan sent shares of several construction-related companies sharply higher. Some of them continued to trend higher this week and with passage in both houses of the legislature it's possible they could rally Friday. Analysts have suggested beneficiaries of the state spending could include Summit Materials, a construction materials producer, and AECOM, an engineering firm. Summit's stock...

Why on God’s green Earth has the state legislature dawdled on the question of whether or not to extend tolling on the West Virginia Turnpike? Seriously. We have looked all around the issue for the past few years and have not found a single, solitary good reason the $2 fee shouldn’t be continued once the bonds are paid off in May 2019. Under current state law, toll collections will cease, the Parkways Authority will disband and the commissioner of Highways will assume oversight of the Turnpike the year after next if legislators fail to amend current legislation. Forget – in...

HARTFORD – Toll talk is back at the State Capitol. Some lawmakers say it will drive billions into the state over the next two decades and others want to put the brakes on the idea.At a hearing, Monday, the proposal to bring electronic tolls to Connecticut highways was discussed, with public comment both for and against it.State accountants said the way Connecticut funds transportation will no longer be sustainable in the next four years and a new revenue source is needed.“This doesn't make any sense at all," State Sen. Toni Boucher said. "This is just another name for another tax...

Wisconsin’s highways are seriously underfunded. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Transportation Fund Solvency report, spending only the $28 billion projected to be available over the next decade will lead to double the number of highway miles in “poor” condition — and will preclude even planning any highway expansions for nearly 40 years. Borrowing enough to spend $31 billion would slightly reduce the amount of “poor” highway miles but still would preclude planning any highway expansions until 2040. But a second WisDOT report offers a way out. Extensive research done last year for the DOT by the consulting firm...

Texas is spending record amounts on transportation, but lawmakers worried it is not enough are considering extending a controversial program that’s helped spread tollways through some of the state’s largest areas. A bill approved this week by a House committee would give the Texas Department of Transportation a chance to add six additional projects, including the widening of Interstate 45 north of I-10 and a long-planned Hempstead Tollway, meant to relieve traffic on U.S. 290 with the potential for a commuter rail corridor. The bill, by state Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, would also allow TxDOT or regional officials the chance...

A federal judge on Tuesday, the 25th blocked a Trump administration order withholding funding from communities that fail to enforce federal immigration law or cooperate with US immigration authorities in another big blow to the Trump’s plan to “Make America Great Again.” This news is just breaking today so more to come on this most recent roadblock. An April 18 blog post on Judicial Watch titled, “New York Towns, Cities Follow AG’s Order to Adopt Illegal Alien Sanctuary Laws,” detailed the stupidity being enacted by liberal lawmakers in New York, joining others such as California in confronting the Trump administration....

The United States could reduce Pentagon spending by over a trillion dollars in the next decade-spending $5.2 trillion rather than the currently planned $6.3 trillion- by adopting strategy of military restraint. That’s the bottom line of a study I produced along with several colleagues as part of “Developing Alternative Defense Strategies 2016,” an exercise organized by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, where groups from five think tanks used CSBA’s “Strategic Choices” software to reimagine the U.S. military budget.The others all increased military spending. The teams from the Center for New American Security and the Center for Strategic and...

The idea of doing away with the Maine Turnpike Authority and eliminating tolls has a long and unsuccessful history through both Democratic and Republican administrations.Gov. Paul LePage revived the concept at a town hall meeting in Gorham on Wednesday night, saying he would like to see the turnpike authority merged with the Maine Department of Transportation and the elimination of almost all tollbooths, having one only in Kittery to collect tolls from out-of-state drivers. “The only toll we should have is for the visitors coming in and out of the state in the summer months,” LePage said, adding that Mainers...

DENVER (AP) — Colorado's legislative leaders knew they faced a hard sell when they unveiled a bipartisan measure to ask voters for a sales tax hike and a bond issue to generate billions of dollars for transportation. That hard sell was on full display before the Democrat-led House initially approved the bill on party lines Thursday. Even after that approval, Republicans kept trying to change the bill.

The region’s toll-road agency on Thursday will consider killing a big toll increase for drivers on its 109 miles of roads in the region. A 15 percent toll increase slated for July 1 was set in motion years ago when the Central Florida Expressway Authority was struggling financially. Axing the hike would hold down driving costs for both frequent and occasional travelers on toll roads in the Orlando area. Those using transponders and paying about $100 a month in tolls would be spared a total annual increase of nearly $200, according to the agency, while those who toss quarters into...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A proposed bill to ban express lanes in Florida died Thursday in the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee. Despite causing an increase in crashes and confusion, express lanes, according to the Florida Department of Transportation, help move people faster, and that if they were eliminated the state would lose $1.5 billion over 10 years. All of that money is used to improve and fix roads. Sen. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, filed SB 250 in January. It that would have allowed the express lanes to remain in operation only until tolls are collected to pay off the bonds that...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats had hoped the one big policy area they could find common ground with President Donald Trump on was infrastructure, but they don't like what they're hearing from administration officials about the transportation portion of the plan that's still in the works. Trump has promised to generate $1 trillion in infrastructure spending over 10 years. With two of his other top campaign pledges in trouble - an effort to repeal and replace the Obama administration health care law has failed so far, and without savings to the government from health care changes there may not be enough...

In a matter of days, time will run out on a plan that could cut down on commuting times, pave the way for even less traffic congestion, and potentially give taxpayers a break. For reasons that remain unclear, the General Assembly has ignored the Illinois Department of Transportation's I-55 managed lanes project, and the cost of doing nothing has the potential to harm the state's ability to do business for years to come. The I-55 managed lanes proposal would add an express toll lane between the Veterans Memorial Tollway in the southwest suburbs and the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago....