Burying The Traffic Problem
Decatur Metro | February 24, 2009Wheatley points out that House Resolution 201, which proposes a 1-cent statewide sales tax for transportation uses (not to be confused with the Senate bill that allows counties and regions to implement a local 1-cent tax), includes a project that just makes me want to type really unpleasant words in no specific order.
Subterranean highways. Under neighborhoods like Va-Hi, Morningside, East Atlanta, Midtown, Cabbagetown.
Yep! Just like the Big Dig! The same Big Dig that’s cost is forcing Massachusetts to raise its gas tax to the highest in the nation so it can attempt to offset an impending $19 billion deficit? Yep! That’s the one!
In a moment of economic crisis, when the state is already $3 billion over-budget, the suburbs are suffering from foreclosures and inefficiencies, and our transportation infrastructure is the laughing stock of the world, the State legislature is considering funding not just another highway, but a highway of outrageous cost with no proven benefits!
Obviously this project has little chance of ever getting off the ground, but this is the sort of geez-whiz, “that would be so cool!” thinking that scares the crap out of me. Please for the love of God keep the 1-cent sales tax transportation money out of State hands. Let the local gov’ts decide.