Stateline.org provides some excellent background for the next part of the collapsed bridge story: How to pay for the repairs that so many people now say are needed. Road/bridge construction is largely financed by taxes on gasoline, and nobody has the stomach to raise gasoline prices these days.
In fact, in Minnesota,
the legislature passed a gasoline-tax hike that Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed.
Now, however, there may have to be a special legislative session
to pass it.
The Star Tribune says:
Dick Day, R-Owatonna, of the Senate Transportation
Committee, said, "A lot of people might be saying that if we had a 10-cent
a gallon gas-tax increase that the bridge wouldn't have collapsed. I think
that's pretty arrogant."
Stateline reports:
The biggest hurdle to improving roads is that federal gasoline
taxes, which pay for more than 45 percent of the nation's transportation
infrastructure, have not been raised since 1993 and are not even sufficient to
cover the spending in the 2005 federal transportation law. While gasoline
prices have skyrocketed to more than $3 a gallon, federal taxes to support road
work have not because the 18.4-cent federal tax is added on each gallon — not
each dollar — of gas sold. Federal gas taxes will fall $11 billion short of
planned road projects by 2009, but the gap could be as big as $19 billion the
following year, AASHTO found.
A longer-term problem is that the cost of building and fixing
roads has grown rapidly in recent years. Between the last gas-tax hike in 1993
and 2015, construction costs will have increased by more than 70 percent,
according to AASHTO. Federal gas taxes
would have to go up at least 3 cents by 2009 and 7 cents more by 2015 just to
maintain the current highway system and keep pace with the fast-rising cost of
roads, the association estimates.
Instead of raising the federal gasoline tax, U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Chuck Hagel
(R-Neb.) introduced a bill, just hours
before the Minnesota
bridge catastrophe, to create an independent national bank to provide
government financing for major infrastructure projects.
Some states have been willing to raise taxes for road
construction. Fifteen states have hiked fees at the pump since 1997, according
to the American Road
and Transportation Builders Association.
Also this year, Minnesota lawmakers
heard testimony about the state cutting the number of bridge inspectors it has
on the job. That would be something for
you to look into in your state: How many inspectors are in the field now versus,
say, a few years ago?
Handling Kids' Reactions to the Collapse
I was in my truck driving with my kids over the large Sunshine Skyway
Bridge when the radio newscast delivered a story on the Minneapolis
bridge collapse. My daughter was not
pleased with the timing.
Kids, and maybe all of us, could be getting antsy about
crossing bridges given all of the coverage about bridge safety. KARE11-TV in
Minneapolis produced a piece about how to talk to your kids about such things. The Washington Post reported that all of the coverage of the bridge collapse may be especially hard on people who have bridge fears or phobias.
Why the Toy Recall Might not Stop the Problem
You have to wonder how many of these lead tainted toys
recalled recently are still going to show up at yard sales and second-hand or
consignment shops.
Veteran Cemeteries Filling Up Fast
Senior citizen veterans who thought they knew where they
would be buried someday cannot be so sure. Veteran cemeteries are filling
up fast because of the rate at which World War II vets are dying. In addition, the VA facilities have new generations of veterans from Vietnam and now Middle East wars to provide for.
NPR
reported that new cemeteries are being built around the country, but that is not where the older vets
envisioned being memorialized.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
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