Posted on 02/23/2013 12:09:44 PM PST by SeekAndFind
As I see it there are 3 primary problems with our infrastructure funding.
1st is the fact that roadbuilding has always been a source of corruption through things like kickbacks and shoddy construction that’s deliberately overlooked.
2nd is the amount of transportation money that’s siphoned off to pay for other things. I’ve read that some 30% is skimmed off the top before we even get to the money that’s earmarked for “Alternative transportation”. Then there’s public transportation that is considered successful if taxpayers only pick up 75% of the tab. For instance, the people mover in Detroit is rider funded at a rate of 7% with the taxpayers picking up the other 93% of the tab.
And 3rd is the truly insane crap like paying for sensors in San Fransisco parking lots so people with a phone app can find empty parking spaces. I believe Seattle got some of that action too. In Ann Arbor and many other cities we pay for free charging stations that primarily cater to upper middle class people who should be buying their own electricity. 4 or 5 years back, Karl Levin was seeking some $4 million in transportation funds to save what was left of the old Tiger stadium in Detroit. His justification for using transportation funds was that a bus stop would be included.
I believe the logic NY used in constructing the bridge at one of the widest points of the river illustrates why they SHOULDN’T receive any federal aid; they picked a wider part of the river because they would have to share the revenue with NJ if they built it in a logical spot (like the George Washington Bridge). They wanted a “New York” bridge, they got it; I (as a NJ resident) shouldn’t get the bill. If they had built it right they could make the case for “interstate commerce”.
See # 22 for the Tappan Zee issue.
We were fortunate enough in NJ to have Governor Christie shut down a thrid tunnel project under the Hudson River because the need simply didn’t exist anymore. It was supposed to be a gift to labor unions, but when traffic was analyzed, and it was revealed just how many jobs the NYC metro area had lost anyway (leading to greatly-reduced traffic), the supporters were reduced to insisting the third tunnel be built because someone might want to SEE A BROADWAY SHOW. Shortly after that oral diahrrea, the project was killed.
“It certainly isn’t an epidemic or chicken-little proportion Obama wants to make it out to be.”
Living in the rustbelt in northern NJ, I think there is an epidemic - in the Dem strongholds (which are also the oldest urban areas). The structures were built with Dem labor, and they want to rebuild them with Dem labor, but the funds have all been chased out by Dem taxes. As with Detroit (though on a lesser scale), there is simply no reason to rebuild anything in an area where a W-2 hasn’t been issued in decades.
The Dems vision for the socialist paradise of the future is to have the hardworking taxpayers, in whatever low-tax environment they’ve fled to, foot the bill for every basic need of every Dem voter in the Red (communist) states. It is the basis for ObamaCare, Social Security, unemployment extensions, and now infrastructure repair; they need to stop the natural human instinct to flee the high taxes that Dems bring, and make it so it isn’t worthwhile to flee.
Here in NJ each adult taxpayer is expected to pay 25% of the cost for a public school teacher, an illegal alien, and a welfare brood; if the taxpayers flee they’ll find a way to give the bill to Texans, Floridians, and such.
This isn’t whatsoever about bridges. It’s all about federal dollars being funneled to Democrats via their big individual donors that make millions on the contracts and the Unions who skim off “dues” from their workers.
We may have less bridges crumbling than we did 20 years ago but we still have some significant bridgs crumbling. We tax payers are getting robbed and our money is not representing us. Instead, our money represents voters that don’t pay the same taxes and vote against us.
And the preezy is threatening to eliminate air traffic control, because of the sequestration. I guess he wants to prove that he is the anti-Reagan.
He does and so do all the pseudo-Keynesians who dominate economics in the U.S.. They believe that economic activity -- spending -- is what's important. If we all just keep our dollars circulating to the next guy, things are as good as they can get.
The idea of wealth creation, which is what happens when a farmer turns a $300 bag of seed into a corn crop worth $10,000, is unknown to them.
Charge a $1.00 toll per trip and you will raise $140,000 each day and over $50,000,000 each year. That would help a bit toward the new construction. Those who don't like the toll can find another way across the Hudson.
Bridges have to be in good shape. Obama has been fixing them every year since 2008.
“It’s all about federal dollars being funneled to Democrats via their big individual donors that make millions on the contracts and the Unions who skim off “dues” from their workers.”
No doubt; the Kenyan Pirate makes sure to slip in references to his bosses (the teachers’ unions) any time he’s in front of a camera. There is simply no money left to funnel here in the northeast, and no reason to fix any of these things. The states are dying a slow “Detroitification”, and there’s no way to stop it. Dem spending is just accelerating it, if anything.
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