On Wed, 5 Mar 2003, Tim Erickson wrote: > This kind of backward thinking really alarms me. I think that our > previous Commisioner of Transportation made it very clear, that we the > ones that we already have.
Don't worry, the whole $84mil (or less, if gas tax revenue goes down a possible 2-3 percent based on possible fuel price increases, anyone see $1.75 out there today?) will be avaliable to build something like the i94 work being done in the northwest subarbs. (budgeted around 80mil according to moving minnesota http://www.dot.state.mn.us/movingminnesota/pdfs/irc27.pdf). My guess is that this money will be 'allocated' for outstate projects so a major metro project can be done after i94. They will try to make it sound like a win for outstate, while spending it here on roads only that we are being told that we dont have the money to maintain. I wish these projects had 'operating costs' attached to them instead of this 'lets just do it and worry about fixing bridges later'. Or perhaps next time we will ask the cities to pay for 80% of the operating costs of the freeway that runs next to them in a metro area since its mostly 'local' impact on those roads. ;) ---- Lastly, on the 'toll road' concepts, I think perhaps something like London is doing with cameras and checking license plates at 'entry points' might work too. Require people to prepay or pay the same day they came in via phone/gas stations/web a 'congestion tax'. It's Evil, but it's way better than GPS tattler units (privacy too, but this would be privacy of the 'exact tracking' sense) and toll booths (not feasable in current ROW). Of course, why do we need to resort to these methods when we don't have the sort of traffic issues? Because we can't seem to come up with a funding solution that uses 'good years' to help flatten out 'bad years'. Governments are to be continious, not this sort of impulse drive that flips on good years and turns off bad years. I think it will end up hurting the region's growth in the end and cause businesses and people to look for states that can manage their money and resources in a consistent, long term, reliable manner slightly more detached from the business cycle. I *hate* seeing public safety cut becuase of the business cycle. -- Scott Dier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.ringworld.org/ _______________________________________________ Twin Cities Metropolitan Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/tcmetro Rules: Sign posts with real name. You may not post more than twice a day.
