Musings from Brian J. Noggle: More Taxes Never Enough

More Taxes Never Enough

Missouri Department of Transportation, November 10, 2004, after a Missouri Constitutional amendment throws hundreds of millions of dollars into the Missouri Department of Transportation budget:

Funding from passage of Amendment 3 will provide thousands of miles of smooth roads on Missouri's most heavily traveled highways, officials with the Missouri Department of Transportation announced today.

MoDOT unveiled the Smooth Roads Initiative, a plan to provide 2,200 miles of smoother pavement, brighter road markings and other safety improvements in three years. The initiative is the first part of a three-part plan to use Amendment 3 funds to improve the state's highway system. A map specifying the selected roads was included in the announcement.

"Missourians spoke loud and clear when they voted for Amendment 3," said MoDOT Director Pete Rahn. "By an almost four-to-one margin, they said they're not happy with current road conditions, and they want them fixed. Starting today, that's just what we're going to do."

Fast forward (or travel one day at a time like the rest of us) to August, 2007, not even three years later, and learn that despite the best efforts of the government, that new money ain't enough:

Missouri's top transportation official is canvassing the state talking about a "perfect storm" forming over his department.

Road construction costs are spiking, debt payments are ballooning, and at the same time, fuel taxes are generating slightly less cash and the federal highway trust fund is speeding toward a multibillion-dollar deficit.

Wow, who could have seen that coming?

The more you feed the government, the bigger it gets; the bigger it gets, the more it needs to eat. Ah, who cares about economics and an understanding of a bureaucratic nature. THE BEAST IS HUNGRY!

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:03 AM