Posted on 08/20/2005 4:25:48 PM PDT by neverdem
YOU have probably already heard about the pile of cash going to Alaska from the federal transportation bill. There's about a quarter of a billion dollars for a bridge to connect the airport on Gravina Island to Ketchikan (population 14,000). The bridge will rival the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges in length and height.
Then there's $230 million or so for "Don Young's Way," a bridge between Anchorage and a swampy, undeveloped port, which is named for the man who got us the money, Alaska's lone congressman.
But it's the $15 million designated for a road between Juneau and Skagway that is dearest to me. Haines, the small town I live in, is close to Skagway - separated from it only by the waters of the upper Lynn Canal, which is not a canal at all, but the longest fjord in North America. The transportation money will go toward the first road ever to be built along the canal. Actually, the project will cost about $300 million to complete, but Gov. Frank Murkowski assures Alaskans that he'll get whatever he needs from the federal government.
The communities directly affected - Haines (population 2,400), Skagway (population 870) and Juneau (population 31,000) - have voiced opposition to the road for a host of good reasons: it is a waste of money; with at least two dozen avalanche chutes, it will be too dangerous to drive in winter, which is most of the year; we already have a fine ferry system that gets us just about everywhere we need to go in all kinds of weather; some places are too nice to be paved over.
Oh, and did I mention that the road won't fulfill its ostensible mission? The whole purpose of the new road was to connect Juneau to the Klondike Highway...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ol' Uncle Ted never fails to bring home the pork. If not for ANWR, Alaska would be a Dem stronghold.
When Hawaii and Alaska were admitted to the Union in the 1950s, it was with the expectation that Alaska's Democratic votes would balance Hawaii's Republican votes. No joke.
What part of "people who pay taxes, should benefit from those taxes," (in this case a bridge being built) do you not understand?
You forgot to take into to account the LARGE welfare population of Massachusetts.
Please, tell me more about the LARGE welfare population of Massachusetts. Not many of them commute on I-93. If we didn't have them, we'd be getting even less than 77 cents on the dollar for all of our federal taxes which go to Washington.
In the urban cities.
That doesn't change the fact that the federal taxes paid by that town will cover the funds for the bridge and then some.
Now, you can either be a greedy socialist New Englander or you can let's them have their bridge. The choice is your's...
I didn't claim it did. However, there is not enough undeveloped land to keep up with the growing population and not have them commuting more than 40 miles. You seem to advocate taking peoples land away from them, I do not. The average lot size is a lot smaller here than I experienced in Houston, Texas. And the new home construction is primarly multifamily dwelling.
The part about getting back nearly 2 dollars for every dollar you guys pay in in taxes. FYI that extra dollar is harvested from the rest of us at gunpoint. don't believe me? Try not paying your federal taxes. I quess you guys in Alaska just enjoy your status of leech too much to give it up.
That is selective mathematics. Include all the money the federal government gets from mineral/resource development and see how the figures turn around.
I would like to learn more about how much the federal government gets from mineral and resource development. Please post some links, and I'll read them.
Apparently, defense spending and interest on the national debt are for the chumps in the other 49 states to pay for, while Alaskans are sending federal taxes as a down payment on big suspension bridges.
I am not from Alaska, I live in Georgia US and have never been to Alaska.
It is more lucid than sending billions of dollars (through taxes) overseas to those who hate us.
"Politics is about who gets what." Sharpshooters and guards at the borders or more Verrazano-Narrows bridges...
The Feds own most of the North Slope. They own half of the revenue of Prudhoe Bay, all of the revenue of NPRA, and 90% of whatever revenue eventually comes from ANWR.
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