Posted on 06/19/2014 1:12:18 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
You may be seeing a lot less road construction on the highway this summer.
After years of underfunding sent the federal Highway Trust Fund careening toward insolvency, state transportation officials are already postponing repair projects just as the critical summer construction season gets underway.
From Delaware to Oregon, state transportation officials have warned they may have to cancel projects outright until they are convinced that Congress will make good on its share of highway funding.
And unless Congress acts soon, "we could start bouncing checks for roadwork before our kids go back to school," warned Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in a blog post this week.
On Wednesday, two senators stepped up with a proposal to boost gasoline and diesel taxes to help replenish the fund.
(Excerpt) Read more at mob.cnbc.com ...
What happened to all the road work that the Stimulus Program was supposed to accomplish? Where did all those trillions go?
How many times do we have to pay to get a road fixed? We pay gas taxes that the greedy politicians buy their pork and votes with the money then ask for more money to fix what the original money was supposed to fix.
Here in Texas, where there’s an oil and gas boom, the politicians are building all kinds of roads even my street went from chip seal to concrete with curbs and sidewalks. Unfortunately some of them are highways to nowhere so that politicians can get the usual boondoggles.
how about those two senators stepping up to demand an audit of the funds and the who and when transfers out of the highway fund into other slush funds occurred
“After years of underfunding sent the federal Highway Trust Fund “
After years of stealing money from the federal Highway Trust Fund.
There, fixed it.
BS.
I work in the field of road design, and I know where a lot of these federal funds go...namely, LOCAL projects are partially funded with federal dollars.
Quit using the fund for tax breaks on hybrid cars.
The idea that gas tax money is actually spent on repairing highways is the biggest load of BS that there is, unless you consider over-priced union salaries, repair contracts with crony contractors and useless road signs to be “highway repair.”
I’ve been watching county road crews in the adjoining county shoveling cold patch into potholes filled with rain water, seen them cold patching deep potholes without compacting in layers, filling holes with containing loose asphalt and dirt. All instances contrary to proper use of cold patching. But these methods provide job security for union led road crews. If more people were aware of the sloppy job these crews perform, the word may get out about their poor performance and initiate some corrective action.
One problem is the federal construction money itself. Anymore it seems like the city can't fill in a single pot hole unless it gets a federal grant, so repairs are months behind what would happen if the state or even the city taxed the gasoline directly and had its own money for repairs and construction. Often the longest phase is filling out federal paperwork to get some money. Just tax it and spend it locally. Drop the federal tax to a penny or two per gallon for truly interstate projects and boost the state or local tax to 45 cents per gallon.
Also that way if a city or state wants to build a full highway underground or a bridge to nowhere, they can do it without charging everyone else.
Immediately impose a “temporary” tax on electrics and hybrids. (kinda like that “temporary” telephone tax to help pay for the Spanish American War - which was in effect until the mid-60s)
Funny, here in Chicagoland I doubt there is a major highway/route that is NOT under construction. I commented to my Dad the other day, I wonder where they are getting the money to go ALL this work! They are adding new on/off ramps everywhere.
With the Chicago mob in full control of DC since 2009, you should not have to look to hard for the source of the gravy.
any money for this should be taken from welfare and foreign aid.
No doubt, it has always been this way, however THIS year the volume of work is way beyond what we normally see here.
Oh yes, it must be favors to Rahm...spit
Find a way to do it cheaper. Less regulations would be a good start.
Friends, family, and cronies.
More and more left wing lies and propaganda. As usual, it’s 180 degrees from the truth.
A lot of states, like here in TN, have departments of transportation sitting on millions of dollars they used from their budgets in investments. TDOT is sitting an huge amounts of cash.
I think it’s all slush funds for professional politicans of both parties.
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