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Bridge Replacement

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Feredir
Post subject: Bridge Replacement
Posted: Sat 04 Aug , 2007 11:02 pm
 
 
The feds, both the house and the Pres. Bush are making noise that they, the federal gov't, is going to pay to replace the bridge. Unless this is a federal owned bridge, which I don't beleive it is, then why is my tax dollars going to a bridge that it owned by another state?

This is not about the deaths for those I am sorry for but this is about replacing the bridge.

freddy


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Axordil
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Posted: Sat 04 Aug , 2007 11:41 pm
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Would you rather they go to a bridge in Alaska?

Seriously, it's an interstate highway bridge (I-35). Quite a few of those are built under normal circumstances with various proportions of federal funding.

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Ara-anna
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Posted: Sun 05 Aug , 2007 5:05 am
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All the federal taxes are collected and then divided up by what projects will benefit the whole nation the most, or at least thats the way its supposed to work. But earmarks and such sometimes make it unfair. There are state that are donor states and some that are not, depends on the populations, anyway…

So you like grapes...grape juice...wine....

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FruitA ... grapes.pdf

99% of all grapes in the US are grown in California. They are not shipped by planes or on ships through panama. They are shipped on interstates or on trains crossing through states. If you have one state that can not afford to keep its interstates up and running so truckers can ship the grapes the price of grapes and grape related projects go throw the roof. And many western states receive much funding from eastern states, not because the states are poor, but because the tax base is small. However, many of the western states do provide much of the resources the east needs, such as food and oil and gas. California is a donor state but many many western states are not including Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Organ are not. Sure these states have large cities but that is where the whole population is located and the tax base is not big enough. So either the donor states pony up some tax dollars that go out of state, or become self sufficient. Take for example New York City…lots and lots of tax dollars, but where in New York City is wheat grown, or corn, or oranges, or beef, or pork, or bananas, and where are the oil fields in New York City? NYC citizens do pay tax dollars on roads they never use, but they do benefit from them.

Same can be said for oranges, and many other foodstuffs.

So your tax dollars are spent in other states, but if they were not then consumers would pay a lot more for simple items, or the products would not be available.

Taxes go into the till, and get spent to fix roads throughout the US.

The Alaska bridge was a huge black eye, or the greatest political joke in history, maybe both.

Basically look around your house and see what items aren't native to your state, they are getting shipped in on the interstates. And if corporations had to pay for the roads it would bankrupt them, even Walmart can’t pony up that much money, they do however donate money when they build a new store on an interstate, lots of money (its still not enough though).

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vison
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Posted: Sun 05 Aug , 2007 3:24 pm
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Excellent post, Ara-Anna.

You should hear the whining and bitching in Canada about "transfer payments"!!! Some provinces (the Maritimes) are terribly small and poor. So tax money from rich provinces (BC, Alberta and Ontario) is poured into those provinces. But Quebec . . . many Canadians think Quebec gets more than its share and it is not a poor province, the idea is the feds bribe Quebec with transfer payments to placate the separatistes . . .

The classic example of this kind of stupidity is a bridge built from the mainland to PEI at a cost of I forget HOW many billions, and PEI's population is about 140,000. That's right, 140,000. Imagine. Between that and your bridge in Alaska? Arrrggghhhh.

BTW, did that Alaskan bridge get built?

The Confederation Bridge to PEI did. :(

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Axordil
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Posted: Sun 05 Aug , 2007 3:51 pm
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The Gravina Island Bridge remains unbuilt. I am not sure of the status of the project, although the asphalt-hats in the Alaska DOT have evidently not given up on it yet.

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In some cases, firing the drummer helps.


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