It's basically dead as everyone opposes it, even Landrieu. But I'm sure she'll propose some sort of tax before it's all over.
Blanco: "I was kidding. "Now that I see everyone is going crazy, I want everyone to know I was kidding about the tolls and please, stay in your homes if there is another hurricane." Jindal said the same thing I did about the roads already being paid for by tax dollars. “It does not make sense to me to charge taxpayers again for roads they already paid for through their gasoline taxes,” Jindal told reporters.
With high gas prices, it'll be a tough sell to increase the gas tax, which is what I hear she really wants to do. I think that'll spark more outrage if she proposes that idea. The state budget has increased about 25% since she got in office. Oil and gas revenues are way up, as is sales tax revenues. Money isn't the real problem, it's spending it in the right places.
Revenue is up but with so much money promised and already allocated for Katrina projects, there isn't enough money for roads.....kicker is, there has never been and never will be enough money unless we start with new and better business growth. I told my wife after Ivan 2 years ago, the first thing I would do after the hurricane left was get federal money to widen I-10 in and out of New Orleans to 6 lanes as a hurricane evacuation plan. Widen it all the way east and west to the other side of Lafayette and all the way to the border with Mississippi eastbound. Georgia and Florida widened I-85 north and south to 6 lanes all the way through their states. But that's pretty darn good government over in those states. On a side note, saw a commercial for Beau Rivage in Biloxi. They are open for business as are many of the other casinos and businesses down there. I knew Mississippi would have the Biloxi Gulf rebuilt before Louisiana had the abandoned cars out of NO. A year later and the cars still aren't out of NO.
The vast majority of the katrina projects are paid for by the feds. Our $26.7 billion budget included $5.6 billion from the feds for these projects. The budget was $16.8 billion when she took office. Excluding the fed money in this budget, that is still a healthy increase in 3 years. I agree we still don't have the kind of money we need for roads, but it's been like that forever. I'm not sure I understand why it is suddenly a crisis. Hell, it's been a crisis for 40+ years. Business growth is the answer, but I don't think we have the kind of workforce that can attract enough businesses that pay good wages. Many in this state aren't qualified to do anything except retail type work. That was part of the reason why businesses left New Orleans ... that, and high business taxes.
You guys all missed the point of my post, which did NOT call for more taxes, but pointed out that taxes are what pays for roads. It called for the legislature to allocate more tax income to DOTD for highways. Cutting taxes makes no sense when we aren't meeting our needs right now. It doesn't matter if tax income comes from gasoline taxes or other taxes, if the legislature spends the money on charity hospitals, coastal restoration, and $100 million worth of pork projects intended to get them re-elected and NOT on highways then our roads will suck. Stop reelecting policiticians who fail to recognize that the public wants three main things from government. 1. Law and order 2. Good roads 3. Good schools and universities Any politician who doesn't have these at the top of his priority list is incompetent. Most are incompetent and waste dollars trying to save sinking marshes that can't be saved, building a Vo-tec school or community college in every tiny town in the state, making small colleges into taxpayer-funded Division I football programs, and creating slush funds for the black mayors to buy votes. Right now I rate the state adequate in law and order, poor in education, and horrible in roads. Expecting future growth to pay for everything we need is unrealistic. Business is not coming to Louisiana because our roads are bad, our schools are bad, and the climate sucks. And even if much more economic growth happened it would come with more people and industry further taxing our roads. We could never get ahead unless the legislature gets its head out of the sand. If the state's tax income is insufficient to pay for the infrastructure the people want, then the people will have to pay more taxes or shut up about the roads. If the state's tax income is sufficient to pay for the infrastructure but it is being wasted on pet projects from the legislature . . . then we must vote the bastards out. Terms limits is the best way I know of to force legislatures to take care of buisiness instead of seeing to getting themselves reeelected.
Climate sucks, crime sucks in Montgomery also. But Alabama gave Hyundai millions in tax incentives and worker training funds to train the 3500 employees. That plant will create 30,000 to 50,000 subsidiary jobs in the area to support the plant. And we're talking about an educated workforce to work at the plant and support it.......not casino or retail jobs. The heat doesn't keep companies from opening in Florida, Georgia, Houston......most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You cut the hamstrings to doing business which is taxes, and business will come and they'll bring their cash with them. In order to get the money for roads and schools you need more people working, making more money and therefore paying more taxes. Just sitting here complaining about pork projects isn't going to change that or the state of our infrastructure......it never has and never will. Keep waiting for politicians to stop wasting money while the smart people will be focused on bringing more business to the state.........
The buck stops with the people who elected Blanco. How hopeful can you be for a state that elected Blanco over Jindal? I remember about a year ago people talking about an international airport (or something huge) being built south of Baton Rouge and all the locals could do is bitch. I've heard neighborhood associations get their feathers all ruffled because of a road widening that would obviously benefit the city. I am often amazed at the lack of foresight of some of the people I've come across in Baton Rouge.
