-——would you say your area is as well of as 4 years ago——
No, definitely not. Sales of our industrial engines are still down and that influences everything.
Another anecdote. I 40 runs from east to west across 500 miles of Tennessee. It is constantly repaved with an asphalt surface coat. It is accomplished on a pretty much regular schedule in say 15 mile increments. The work has begun on one of the segments down toward Knoxville.
This year there are none of the stimulus fund signs on site. The money comes from the accumulated gas tax
Even with things picking up, if you aren’t back where you were 4 years ago Obama will have a hard time winning your state.
Here in the northeast the decline is obvious to all; there is no masking it, and probably no reversing it for the short term.