California Tax Priority

California increased capital spending for roads and bridges at 3x inflation (for 30 years). They claim that wasn't enough.

California increased capital spending for roads and bridges at 3x inflation (for 30 years). They claim that wasn't enough. It was plenty. What happened is that to little of the money tagged for roads and bridges got diverted into other things, or was spent poorly. The problem isn't some "Shortfall" they claim, it was managerial incompetence and corruption.

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~ Aristotle Sabouni
Created: 2017-04-05

California doesn't have a highway shortfall -- from 1984-2012, the capital spending for roads and bridges rose nearly three times the inflation rate. What happens is that to little of the money spent is spent on the right thing or in the right way. About 20% of all monies from the highway trust fund were diverted to finance pet projects that have nothing to do with road maintenance (mass transit, bike paths, high speed rail, and so on), which are used by less than 5% of the population. So they raise gas taxes to make up for the fact that they can't manage their money well, and gullible voters buy in. Things like that are why California is such an expensive state to live in.

Just the facts?

(1) There is no highway funding shortfall. From 1984-2012, the capital spending for roads and bridges rose nearly three times the inflation rate.
(2) If the infrastructure is crumbling and bridges are falling down, it's not because of too little money spent -- it's because they're not spending it well.
(3) The real problem? Congress stole about 20% of all monies from the highway trust fund to finance pet projects that have nothing to do with road maintenance (mass transit, bike paths, high speed rail, and so on). Less than 5% of commuters use those things (so expenditures are at least 4x what they should be), and many of those programs have increased congestion/pollution (like HoV lanes or light rail).

In the private sector you'd go to prison for such fraud -- in the public sector they expect to be rewarded with higher tax revenues.

The gas tax hike isn't about roads; it's about fraudulently diverting our money, then using the artificial shortfall to come back and take more of our money. (The same as our school, police and other systems that are running out of money, because much of the money isn't getting to them, and what is, is being poorly spent). --- We already paid for the roads, they diverted the money elsewhere... now they want to charge us again. The problem isn't the funding, but where it was, and wasn't being spent.

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result, the California democrats (both elected officials and voters) prove they should all be institutionalized, or at least be declared legally incompetent and have the important decisions made by anyone else. Priorities should be (in order of importance): Police, Fire, Infrastructure, Education, social engineering -- exactly backwards of Californias legislative priorities.

I'm pretty sure a chimp throwing feces at a wallboard with ideas on them, would make better decisions... because at least half the time, the answer wouldn't be to raise taxes to pay for things that were already paid for. (Which is at least twice as good as the democrats reaction to every problem).

Yeah, the problem isn't the dollars in -- California gets more in taxes than any other state. The problem is the incompetence and mis-prioritization.

You can't complain about roads and dams, when you're throwing money down the drain on Fetal Stem Cell Research and high speed rail.

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California
This article lists some of the intolerance, incompetence, and progressivism that have come to exemplify the Golden State.

Intolerance
Tolerance is how you treat people you don't agree with.

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