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Forum: Current Events Topic: Paying for roads - TWICE started by: adamwpuyear Posted by adamwpuyear on Jul. 02 2004,9:40 am
Read the article below and see what you think.< http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4857387.html > It's nice to see that the state's elite and wealthy will be able to make their tee times easier. Usually our legislators try to be a bit more discrete when they cater to the community's most wealthy members while tossing aside the average guy. Here's a scenario for you. Single parent wants to work a second or even third job, to try to make something of their life, tired of hearing how they are taking advantage of the welfare system. Say they live in a second ring suburb - let's say Hopkins. Maybe the second job entails cleaning office buildings in downtown Mpls. Now I've made the drive on HWY 394 from Hwy 100 to downtown. That is at least an hour and ten minutes of drive time (hour and a forty five minutes when it snows). So I see 3 options for this person: 1. Pay the 8 bucks (that is the highes possible toll), which in some cases would be equivalent to one hour of work or more, and "fly" downtown in the "rich people's" lane. 2. Sit in traffic for over an hour (after working an 8 hour day), and watch the Mercedes/Lexus/HumVee/Caddies fly by, wondering how there child's baseball game/football game/choir recital is going. 3. Say screw it. I'll continue to milk the system. Now where's the real problem here? I absolutely will never understand how anyone can support paying to drive on a road that they ALREADY paid for when they paid there taxes! The politicians are really letting down the little guy on this one. Taxpayers pay for it, but they only get to use it if they want to pay TWICE. Stupid, stupid, stupid!! The politicians do not represent the common man. Joe six-pack just gets screwed over and over. At least they are getting more consistent; now nearly all of them are arrogant, self-serving, illogical morons. Posted by spike on Jul. 02 2004,10:15 am
I know where you are coming from but, from a guy who drove in the quagmire that is Twin Cities traffic for years, something has got to be done. It has gone from terrible to unbearable.There has been studies that show places where a toll lane was established and it was equally used by low, middle and upper class, the class warfare argument doesn‘t hold much water here. It’s about choices, whether you are rich or poor. If you want to shave off some minutes for a couple bucks, your choice. If you want to get through the snow faster and spend the $ on a big SUV, your choice. And in reality, more cars using the toll road will take some cars out of the other lanes. We need to try something new because what we have is not working. Posted by adamwpuyear on Jul. 02 2004,11:37 am
It is still paying twice no matter how you look at it.
Posted by spike on Jul. 02 2004,1:00 pm
Would you feel differantly if a private company built a road & charged for it's use?
Posted by adamwpuyear on Jul. 02 2004,1:50 pm
Yes! Then my tax dollars would not have been used to build it. I could pay to drive on it if I chose to. In this case, OUR tax dollars are being used to build it AND we have to pay to drive on it too! Does that make any sense? It makes a lot more sense to have someone else build it and then the people that use it get charged. Instead, it gets built on our dime and the state makes money from it too! WE pay for it, they make money on it. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
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