08.28.07
More On CAMPO & Tolls
The “Breaking News” article from yesterday has been updated. It’s here, New tollway plan taking shape. There’s a little more of the same information and some quotes from The Muckraker/Sal Costello, but the gist of the article is the same, more tolls are coming and there’s no end in sight.
The biggest problem EOW has with this whole process is the fact that all of this if framed as toll roads or no roads. What Watson and most tollers should have a phrase added to the end or every sentence. It’s like the silly game people play with fortune cookies when they add the phrase, “in bed”, to the end of each one. Here’s how it would go with Sen. Kirk Watson’s words on transportations funding. Add the phrase, “with toll roads” to the end of every sentence. Try this one to see how it works.
“We have a big and growing mobility problem and limited funds to address it,” Watson said. “We have been working very hard in an open and accountable way to figure out how we can get the biggest bang for our buck [with toll roads].”
In this case is doesn’t make it any more fun but it does clarify what he’s saying. Sen. Watson and his CAMPO cohorts believe that, because of the neglect of our transportation infrastructure over the last 2 decades, the only way to solve the problem is with tolls and tolls only. When, in actuality, the question that voters should be asked is, do you want roads built now that you’ll be paying for as far as the eye can see, or would you like your state Senator to get busy doing the hard work of leading, and getting the gas tax raised and indexed, so we can pay for our roads like we used to and not have tolls?
Sen. Watson and CAMPO are going to vote to toll ever new road, from here to eternity, unless they get a clear signal that tolling is not acceptable any longer.