Friday, June 8, 2012

Full-on Wookie

I guess that today is a but ranty, about our miserable political class.  I know that a bunch of all y'all are itching to replace Obama with Romney, but you're really just replacing one tax-and-spend pol with a different one.  Offered as a proof point, the Georgia GOP and their idiotic transportation funding plan.

Georgia voters will got to the polls next month to decide whether to approve higher taxes to fund T-SPLOST, the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.  This is a GOP-backed measure designed to address the ZOMG traffic congestion!!!eleventy!!!  It will raise taxes in perpetuity to "ease the road congestion" by building sidewalks and bike lanes:
Each year, discretionary funds will be doled out to the county and all four cities. The county will receive $1,196,226; Waco will receive $22,187; Buchanan will receive $32,905; Bremen will receive $174,195; and Tallapoosa will receive $112,157 each year for their own projects.

...

In Buchanan, two projects are scheduled. One project will begin at the intersection of Hwy. 120 and Business Hwy. 27 and install a curb and gutter and storm drains along both sides of Hwy. 120 for 3,000 feet at a cost of $930,000. The second project will begin at the intersection of Hwy. 120 and Business US 27 South and end at Macedonia Church Road and install a curb, gutter, storm drains and sidewalks along both sides of the highway at a cost of $495,000.

In Bremen, a $650,000 project is scheduled for the redesign and reconstruction on the intersection of U.S. 78 and Mangham Drive.

In Tallapoosa, two projects are planned. One project will introduce a bicycle and pedestrian lane to SR 100 between Hwy. 78 and Hwy. 120, as well as improve drainage, at a cost of $1,623,847. The second project will improve Hwy. 78 between Robertson Avenue and Tally Valley Park at a cost of $6,372,500.
That bike lane sure should cut down on the commute time on I-75 ... 

And folks, remember that this is "conservative" Georgia.  The GOP isn't remotely interested in smaller, more accountable government; they just want the funding to go to their pet projects, not the Democrats'.

I guess that the silver lining to this cloud is that my expectations of Mitt are so low that it's extremely unlikely that I will be disappointed, since he's almost certain to win.  But get ready for more bike lanes, USDA SWAT raids, and the higher taxes to pay for it.  Next year with a GOP President and GOP Congress, it'll come at you good and hard.

The problem is not the Democrats, and the solution is not the Republicans.

5 comments:

  1. Given his populist tendencies, is there any move he could make that would be an effective signal that he's taking the small-government conservatives as his primary constituency?

    (After all, that is the bright side about populists, when you're the constituency flavor of the day, they tend to do what you want.)

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  2. Man I hate it when you're right sometimes...

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  3. I do not know about the other areas, nor the price, but Tallapoosa could use the improvements. Ironically, improvements in Tallapoosa do affect your commute on I75 because HWY 27 is frequently used as an alternate for trucking on N/S routes and increasing police pressure on 27 is driving trucks to 100. This is a heavily residential area and the sidewalks and roads are in rough shape. On any given day people are frequently out biking or taking the kids for a stroll. These roads were never built with timber and other loads in mind, let alone sharing the roads with strollers and bicyclers.

    Interesting to me are Georgia Senators Carter, Charlie Bethel, Lester Jackson and Goggans who had Adenoviridae (one of the common virus families that cause respiratory infections like the common cold) added to the Georgia controlled substances lists. SB370/AP (2012) Section 5 line 69.

    I will say the SPLOST issue is out of control. What seems to have happened is that budgets are arranged so that police departments, libraries, schools etc get funded last so funds are not available, so they will get cut if the SPLOSTs do not get passed.

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  4. Head they win, tails we lose.

    Honestly its a gimmick, it convinces people that the goverment is working to improve their lives, while robbing them of millions. Heck they spend hundreds of thousands on signs just to convince you.

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  5. To further underscore the non-difference between the parties, witness the angst the Dems effuse every ten years when the ruling party re-draws the congressional districts. It's almost as if they've forgotten the drunken kindergarten scrawls they used to submit themselves, when they were in power.

    My only pleasure from the process is the absolute lack of explanation or counter-angst given by the GOP. They remember.

    I'm with you - I'm not sure what the solution is, but it isn't the GOP.

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