You'd have to either be from another state or asleep for the last five years to have written the editorial recently posted by the Janesville Gazette about Wisconsin's so-called road funding crisis.
Titled News flash: Fixing roads costs money, the Gazette expertly avoids the real reasons why Wisconsin communities find themselves enacting and/or doubling existing wheel taxes to repair existing roads.
That truth lies in the fact that today's "fixing roads" funding crisis began when state transportation lobbies led in part by local swamp monster Forward Janesville flipped about $500 million in state transportation dollars away from existing road maintenance to instead kickstart new interstate expansions.
Back then, the Gazette never issued a "New Roads and Interstate Expansions Cost Money" editorial or suggested a tax increase with a sunset clause to pay specifically for the I39/90 expansion. And why should they when there's a pot of money for existing roads just waiting to be hijacked by transportation lobbyists?
JG Editorial Excerpt:
Opponents have portrayed the wheel tax as government overreaching, but this type of tax is what happens when there's not enough revenue to cover expenses.
Well that's new. I've always been told that asphalt-lined comprehensive growth planned sprawl would solve most of our future revenue needs. Who knew those plans would lead to too many roads in disrepair and not enough revenue to fix them?
On the other hand, who are they trying to kid? Municipal wheel taxes popping up all over Wisconsin in the last five years are a direct result of lobbyist's stealing existing local and "old" road repair money to pay for their mega projects and interstate expansions.
Just to be clear here and to avoid redundancy: TRANSPORTATION LOBBYISTS SUBMITTED AND WON MORE THAN $4 BILLION IN NEW ROAD AND INTERSTATE EXPANSION PROJECTS AND DID NOT RAISE ONE PENNY TO PAY FOR THEM. INSTEAD, THEY CONVINCED A FEW GULLIBLE LEGISLATORS BEHIND CLOSED DOORS TO SHIFT MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF REVENUE AWAY FROM LOCAL ROADS, REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE, LEAVING THOSE ACCOUNTS NEARLY EMPTY.
Soon after, transportation lobbies also smoked and mirrored Wisconsin voters into a constitutional amendment to create a dedicated transportation account supposedly to prevent raids into the general fund. That'll fix everything they said. Rrrright.
The Gazette however sidesteps all that and then dismisses those with no appetite for a new layer of regressive taxes with, "there's no satisfying their kind."
Although the Gazette blames Gov. Scott Walker for continuing to advance the myth of government as an endless pit of wasteful spending (code for saying, "Hey governor, republicans are in charge now, you can ease up on all the irrational faux meme tea party rhetoric), their criticism of Walker rings as hollow as was their criticism for local republicans attempting to gut the state's open record laws.
Because come re-election time, the newspaper endorsed those local republicans conspiring to gut open records as they will endorse the disasterously dogmatic Scott Walker for a third term. Gar-ran-teed.
ADDITIONAL:
RNR - Wisconsin Rural/City Roads Are Crumbling For The I39/90 Expansion
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