Broken Bridge Conservatism, Redux

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Broken Bridge Conservatism, Redux
By Sara Robinson

July 9th, 2008 - 7:58pm ET


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It's not just Texas.

Rick blogged yesterday on the collapsing roads and bridges of Denton County, Texas. Unsurprisingly, it's happening in other places, too. From today's Arizona Star:

PHOENIX — From Wickenburg to Eagar, streets in cities and towns across Arizona are falling into disrepair because there's not enough money to keep them in shape.
Some cities are barely able to pay for routine maintenance, let alone build new roads to keep up with growth. Others, such as Eager, can't even afford to fill the cracks in streets.

Municipalities rely on the state to fund road projects, but that funding no longer is keeping up with the soaring costs and rising demands of road work.

"When the money is not meeting the needs for growth, and infrastructure is crumbling, I don't know how to say it differently — it's bad," said Tom Belshe, deputy director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns.

The longer Arizona's roads go without repair, the worse they become and the more it will cost to fix them. The cost of highway and street construction jumped 66 percent since 2000 and is still rising, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"The local municipalities are struggling just like the state trying to address their transportation need," said Victor Mendez, director of the Arizona Department of Transportation.

In his new book, "Free Lunch," David Cay Johnston points out that county and city governments have been giving away their tax base to chain stores and other boondoggles for a couple of decades now. The typical deal has the local government giving Home Depot or Target the land; building the structure to suit; financing the whole with municipal bonds issued by banks that are often connected to the chain store; and then allowing the store to keep the sales tax collected in the store to pay off the bonds. And if the store sits on government-owned land, they don't pay a penny of property tax, either. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/broken-bridge-conservatism-redux