Posted on 04/01/2007 12:56:03 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Remember the public debate last year over whether the state should raise the gasoline tax or tolls to pay for the rotten roads around here?
Well, the debate’s over. There’s been a compromise.
We’re going to raise both the tolls and the gasoline tax.
Or so says the Mass. Transportation Finance Commission. They haven’t officially come out and said they want higher gas taxes and tolls. First they’re going to have the traditional “public hearings.”
Of course it’s all a complete bag job. Just look at the tell-tale phrases in the news stories about the “shocking” conditions of the state’s transportation system, including the MBTA: “blue-ribbon,” “long-awaited” and “Michael Widmer.”
All of which are synonyms for two other words: tax increase.
Widmer is from the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation. He’s an advocate for taxpayers the same way hunters are advocates for deer.
Widmer believes in harvesting taxpayers and protecting his masters in Big Business. A tax on Raytheon is an abomination, a tax on you is an investment in the future.
Then there’s the phrase “long-awaited.” Not quite - your income-tax refund, that’s long-awaited. Or a vacation, maybe. Tax increases - long-dreaded certainly, but not long-awaited.
As for “blue-ribbon,” the only way anyone would believe this is a legitimate study is if they’d been drinking cases of Pabst.
Odd, too, that the same day the report ends up in the papers, editorials appear lecturing the hoi polloi about the need to “tap new revenue sources.”
That would be your wallet.
This report is pushing nothing less than a massive transfer of money from people who work hard to those who hardly work.
This crowd has blown billions on the Big Dig, and now they want you to pay the tab - again. The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
In 1988, the Mass Pike chairman congratulated his alleged work force on the “superb condition” of Interstate 90. Then they realized the Pike had almost paid off its bonds, after which it would have to go out of business, unless, of course, I-90 wasn’t in such superb condition.
Soon Chicken Little stories began appearing in the same papers now clucking about “underfunded” transit agencies. The Turnpike was going to have to, gulp, issue some more bonds to raise money to fix the Pike and the tunnels.
They’re robbing motorists, while telling you it’s all on the level. Remember Rep. Tony Petrucelli, the dim-bulb state rep from Eastie whose father made $288,000 as an electrician at the Pike a few years back?
Now Petrucelli is running for Bobby Trav’s Senate seat, and he had a time at Joe Tecce’s Wednesday night. And guess who showed up - none other than former Sen. Fat Matt Amorello, the ex-Pike chairman who signed all the checks for old man Petrucelli.
They pay $65,000 to thieving toll-takers who could be replaced by $7.50-an-hour supermarket cashiers. They pick up 100 percent of health care costs for T retirees. They let MBTA bus drivers retire after 23 years.
All that stuff is OK, apparently. But you know what really frosts ’em at the State House, and in the editorial boardrooms? How dare daily commuters on the Turnpike extension who use Fast Lane beg for a discount?
So what if they - or their parents, or grandparents - finished paying off the original bonds back in the 1980s. The hackerama needs more, and so the drivers will pay more, “significantly more,” the report says, and by the way, they may have to start paying this year, instead of 2008, and they’ll like it.
And then when they have to fill up their cars, they’ll pay again.
And again, and again, and again.
They don’t call it Mass Spike for nothing, you know.
Now, as an adult, I appreciate what he said.
My parents moved to Arizona in '78 ... Lake Havasu (Now Havasu City), at the time a population of maybe 5,000.
The biggest draw was, at the time "Pearly May" Pearl Bailey.
and you've got country stars like Rascal Flatts who try to "bless the broken road", like that's going to fix it.
I-5 through downtown and 20-30 miles either side is so spalled (cement gone-exposed rock) and grooved from studded tires, that people are driving on the "hump" to cut down on noise and tire steer.
I drive a Mini and am planing on getting a bigger car to avoid disappearing in a pothole some day!!! That is only a minor exaggeration..the stuff above that is true!! Oregon is much better and California is a dream for drivers compared to Settle and WA State.
In Pennsylvania, we'll lease it or sell it to get tax $$$. This is after all of us have paid the tax $$$ to build them. The PA Turnpike was the first major interstate project in the country, and the next one to be "sold" to another entity for the good of the "Commonwealth". All for tax fiat dollars. What the heck are the states doing? They're giving away our infastructure. May all of our legislative reps rot in Hell, because that's where they belong. They are only looking out for the next election and then their pensions. Enough said- I'm Pis$&#d.
FMCDH(BITS)
That would be your wallet.
heh heh heh...
FMCDH(BITS)
Howie Carr is the best. He is a terrific antidote to that scumbag Democrat newspaper up there, the Boston Globe.
The voters in MA are getting exactly what they voted for.
They elected Coupe Deval, the ONLY candidate to say he would NOT lower taxes. Go figure.
Oh, goodie. I plan on driving I-5 through there later this summer...
Couple of suggestions. Take a look at I-405...skirts Seattle to the East past Bellevue...not a lot better from a traffic standpoint but a better road. General rule - avoid both roads coming North in the mornings and and going South in the evenings. Of course all general rules are approximations....on your day it may be the opposite.
Downtown Seattle is a construction site!!! Traffic is a mess most of the time. Room tax in Seattle (King County) hotels & motels is $18/night to pay for new stadium. However, some great sites and fun places to go...your call.
If you want to freepmail me I'll be glad to give you my number to call for suggestions. Cheers....
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