Yes, it is refreshing to actually hear an elected official cite the fact that property taxes pay the lion's share of local road costs. According to 1k Friends of Wisconsin, 68% of local road costs are paid via property taxes.
But there are some other interesting facts that should get more attention too: * Traffic counts in Madison have been dropping for the past 5 years. * Bicycle counts have been going up over the past 5 years. * Decreasing per-capita driving is a national trend [ See http://tinyurl.com/8h3dup ] that is likely to alter federal transportation policy. The juicy bit from the link I cited is: "Amid the current recession and declining gas prices, drops in driving should continue, creating dramatic impacts in the realms of transportation finance, environmental emissions, and development patterns. Government officials and policy makers at all levels must account for these potential long-term consequences." The bottom line is that slowly but surely, the strength of the arguments for more and more roads for cars is eroding, while the arguments for bicycling are getting more and more compelling. _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
