Morons.
Complete and utter morons.
Yeah, THAT will help bring business to the state!
This, in combination with primarily liberal states facing huge budget shortfalls is beautiful in that it is ultimately the little state and local socialists realizing not only do they have to pay the piper, but their little socialist ideology is actually failing.
19 comments:
I don't understand. Are you suggesting that it would be better for Rhode Island to not repair its roads and bridges? Or are you proposing some other mechanism for paying for the repairs other than taxes and tolls? What's the connection with socialism?
I suggest instead of doing something that will impair economic growth and thus contract their tax base (resulting in lower overall tax revenues) they maybe make it hospitable to business and people to live there.
Not to mention taxing based on how many miles you drive is the epitome of environmental socialists. It's like Christmas, Green and Red.
I still don't get it. Presumably the roads need to be fixed. Where else is the money going to come from, if not taxes and tolls? Roads don't fix themselves.
Or are you suggesting a different tax, one which isn't based on miles driven or fuel used--like a sales tax, income tax, etc.?
Not to mention taxing based on how many miles you drive is the epitome of environmental socialists.
Actually, quite the opposite is true. Paying for something you don't use is socialist. Having to pay according to the use of the public good sounds quite capitalist to me.
I'm a Rhode Islander. I've lived here for 50 years and I love my little state. It's small, convenient and very beautiful; but it is also politically corrupt. It's basically a one party state (democrate) and has been forever. Even our Republicans (with a few excptions) are democrates! Lincoln Chaffee - need I say more? I am absolutely disgusted with this latest bit of madness! By the time they are through destroying my state and driving everybody away there will be about 3 people left.
Here's a somewhat related item on infrastructure spending I thought might interest you, Captain. And by interest you, I mean drive you insane. And by drive you insane I mean drive you to pick up a torch and head for the Bastille.
Correct, money will have to be raised, but to make tolls which congests traffic (see Chicago, CRIPES, they still have physical tolls) makes the standard of living in RI all that much more unbearable.
Not to mention penalizing people for driving miles. I loathe that. Make it a gas tax then. Make it a sales tax. But my god the stench of nazi-environmentalism of taxing the number of miles you drive will just drive people out of the state.
My apologies. I forgot to include the link that would drive you insane:
http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/12/04/depression-deflation-velocity-oped-cx_bb_1205bartlett.html
So how do you propose paying for roads? Presumably you consider some of the proposals more odious than others (as do I). However, I am a fan of using gas taxes to pay for roads. Gas taxes place the cost of the infrastructure on those who use it. The bigger the car, the greater the wear and tear on the roads, the more money spent on taxes. And the system is already in place to collect the taxes, so there is minimal disruption to people's lives.
Toll booths, on the other hand, totally suck, and measuring the miles people drive is overly intrusive.
Maybe Rhode Island would have enough money to fix their roads if they weren't taking the "transportation funding" and spending it on huge subsidies for the Public Transit Authority's bus system.
Sort of like the Mpls/St. Paul Metropolitan Council's insistence on expanding bus and light rail (which are heavily subsidized and not economically viable without the subsidies) while starving the Metro area freeway system.
The DFLers got their big gas tax bump, 1/4 percent sales tax, county options for a "wheelage tax", and huge increases in license taxes last year and now are begging for more because gas tax collections are off projections due to the recession and high gas prices.
Dysfunctional in every way.
The Captain is 100% correct.
I reside in Oregon (until I escape to the free world) and the roads are in a similar condition to what the article states about RI roads. And, I bet for similar reasons ...
The liberal wizards that run GovCO here in Oregon collect massive fuel taxes but they're spending them on everything except roads; social engineering programs, big, new offices for politicos, new cars and trucks for every administrative dude (while the State Police drive much older vehicles), and all the typical wasteful perks.
Get a grip folks, we've got self serving fools running GovCo in most cases.
From one of President Elect Obamas recent speeches.
"... Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money."
Here is another way to pay for it: instead of the state doing it, the Federal Government will do it for them.
Toll booths, on the other hand, totally suck, and measuring the miles people drive is overly intrusive.
That's exactly the point. They're choosing the a bad solution to the problem precisely because of its negative impact on auto drivers. It is exactly what I would expect auto-hating enviroweenies to do.
Nearly every state that imposed tolls to pay for road repairs kept the tolls long after repairs were completed.
It's Rhode Island. How many roads can there be? They can't be very long?
I have an idea. Since these guys are so awesome at keeping roads put together, let's put them in charge of health care too.
The tolls are bad but in Arizona they now have highway speed cameras to make money for socialist spending. Don't know which one is worse.
I live in little ol' Rhody Cappy, and its a bit worse than you may think. One in six people in the state are employed by the state or town governments, and that's not including the federal government. Including Federal jobs would bring the rate far higher, to something like one in five. With one in five people in the state being paid by the other four's incomes those other four are dropping like flies. RI has an unemployment rate of 9.3 percent, and GDP grew by a paltry 0.1% through 2007 making it likely to be the first state in the US to experience a depression in some time.
It isn't all bad however. I am an economics major, so all of this will make for a great case study one day when I get me a PHD and leave this god forsaken socialist shit heap.
http://www.bls.gov/web/laumstrk.htm
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regional/gdp_state/gspNE_glance.htm
http://www.projo.com/news/content/MUNICIPAL_EMPLOYEE_PAY_02-24-08_DI93Q0N_v57.32d7d7b.html
"the state should consider charging tolls at the state line on every interstate highway "
I would just like to point out that this is illegal as all get out.
The State...NO STATE has the jurisdiction to charge a toll on a FEDERAL INTERSTATE highway.
Whoever wrote this report is even dumber than they look
A question for Jaime Roberto. If one doesn't even drive, but still requires big trucks to transport all provisions, that person creates a demand for highway repairs/maintenance/construction for which he isn't paying, correct?
Same for fire/police/ambulance.
Rob J
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