Category: California

So California is talking about raising the gas tax to fix the roads?

Because the state is projecting a 500 billion shortfall by 2020.

WTF?

Maybe they shouldn’t have been raiding the DMV fees, and reallocating other highway maintenance funds to purposes that WERE NOT highway related.

Of course we will never find out what happened to all the funds “Borrowed” to fix other shortfalls.

Oh yeah… We’re not supposed to remember that… And we’re not supposed to mind paying some of the HIGHEST license fees in the country.

I’ve got a salvage title on my 13 year old truck and have an annual 120.00 bill, same on my 10 year old bike. But the real killer is the 600 dollar bill on my passenger car.

Add it all up and the state of California gets 840.00 a year just for me to license my vehicles.

Add to that the 50.5 cents per gallon of gas and long commutes and I end up paying… and I’m estimating here, about an additional 480 to 600 dollars in added taxes per year.

That’s a grand total of  around 1300.00 per year to the state. Don’t even think about the additional costs of repairs CAUSED by the bad roads, or the cost of vehicle insurance.

You’re telling me that’s not enough!?! How do other states have great roads?

Why is it that when you cross the Nevada or Arizona boarder magically the potholes are gone and the roads are smooth? Why is I-75 on the East coast clean and well maintained?

If you factor in fuel wasted sitting in traffic, sitting behind morons that drive like they’re driving pace cars at Indy, and the idiots that slam on their brakes when a bird flies overhead, it’s probably a safe bet that most folks are filling their tanks at least twice a week.

So multiply just half of what I’ve been paying, by the number of drivers in the LA area alone and that’s an OBSCENE amount of money.

Then do the same for all the cities in the state and you’ve got a crazy obscene amount. So Sacramento… tell us again how we don’t have enough cash to maintain the roads?

Here we are;

Rock… Us ….Hard Place.

Our roads are for shit and decaying more every day, that hurts the economy. On the OTHER side of the coin Sacramento RAISING the taxes on a critical item like gas screws the economy.

This is especially true of most cities in California because WE DON’T HAVE MASS TRANSIT.

With the exception of the San Francisco Bay area, cities in California opted for commuting instead of trains / buses that run on time. 

Yeah,  Yeah, The talking heads and politicians speak breathlessly about the success of the light rail in Los Angeles.  

I’ve ridden it folks… yep you can get from one point that’s 40 miles away from your home to another point that 10 miles away from your place of work as long as you’re in the LA basin.   

Oh and by the way it can take you an hour to go the same distance you can go in 15 minutes driving your car during rush hour. If you want to bicycle that last 10 miles to work…. TOO BAD, you’ll have to wait for a train that has one of 4 bicycle slots open.  

Since the trains run more or less  every 10 minutes well you could be on that platform for a while. So you put your bike back on your car and drive to work. So much for being green, getting some exercise, and saving some money. 

The Folks in the Valley and Orange County??? Uhhh well you’re screwed… have a nice day!

Again with one exception, there is no mass transit in California.

Which leads us back to the decaying infrastructure, and what to do about it.

As one article pointed out, construction costs have risen considerably since the last time the gas tax was raised. Really? I guess we in the middle class hadn’t noticed that or the rising cost of living and our more or less static wages!

I’ve mentioned it before, I’m going to repeat it again.

It’s a given that he largest cost of major projects isn’t the material… it’s the labor.

We have a standing labor force in prisons throughout the state.

Instead of feeding, clothing, housing, and providing HBO, & Gym facilities to
these folks, how about we feed & clothe them and let them pay their debt to society with real work?

Prisons wouldn’t be as crowded…

At least not during the day while the work crews were out, and at night… well folks are sleeping and then all they’re worried about is having a bunk.

I’d even be for incentivizing. For each year you work on a road crew without incident, it’s a year subtracted from the sentence. You have to admit it’s a very real way to teach someone that WORK is rewarding.

I personally think that’s a lesson worth teaching.

I also think that little Johnny or Susie riding with Mommy & Daddy in their Prius would see a prison work detail as a cautionary tale of the consequences of right vs wrong.

That might have a beneficial effect in the future, reducing prison overcrowding and the costs associated with our penal system.

After Sacramento implements my suggestion… then lets talk about raising taxes.

Until then…

Keep YOUR wasteful greedy hands out of my pocket!