The Broward County commission voted six to one to put a measure on the ballot to raise sales taxes by a penny to pay for transportation improvements. This tax, which is expected to raise about $350 million a year, will do such things as “enhance traffic signal synchronization, develop safe sidewalks and bicycle pathways, expand and operate bus and special needs transportation, [and] implement rail along approved corridors.”
That all sounds so reasonable until you get to the last one. Then it becomes clear that nearly all of the money is going to be soaked up planning and building a east-west light-rail line to complement the north-south TriRail commuter rail line. Never mind that light rail was obsolete ninety years ago.
This is the same county commission that spent fourteen years and millions of dollars planning a Fort Lauderdale streetcar project that was finally abandoned when construction bids proved to be far higher than the county had expected. Clearly, most of the commissioners haven’t learned the most important lessons about rail transit: that it takes too long to plan and build, costs too much, and always costs more than planners claim.
For instance, if you are diabetic and experience poor erection, you must control your blood sugar by boosting overall energy and stamina. sildenafil generic online viagra prescription http://mouthsofthesouth.com/locations/personal-property-of-gordon-polly-clapp/ ED drugs are one of the most popular ED drugs in United Kingdom. Its approval from this department makes cheap viagra tablets the medicine wonderful to a person suffering from erectile dysfunction. Another important factor in that diabetes healthy eating plan is the planning of foodstuff viagra samples and numbers. “I’m trying to understand after what we just went through with the Wave, the possibility of [light rail] ever happening in the county,” said one commissioner, who nevertheless voted for the sales tax. The county administrator assured the commission that “no light-rail system would go forward without significant studies and community input.” In other words, the project will create years of work for planners and consultants, who are no doubt drooling at the prospects of billions of dollars more in sales tax revenues irrevocably committed to planning and building light rail.
The commission’s decision ignored the south Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board, which recommended against including light rail in the package. Calling rail “old school technology,” the board suggested instead that the 30-year sales tax be imposed for just ten years and dedicated to less expensive projects that would actually relieve congestion and make streets safer instead of more dangerous.
The one commissioner, Mark Bogen, who voted against the proposal apparently didn’t do so because he was concerned that light rail was a waste of money. Instead, he was concerned that the county didn’t have a solid plan for selling the idea to the voters. “If we can’t sell, it’s a waste,” he said. Here’s a clue: it’ll be an even bigger waste if you succeed in selling it.
Whenever a planner or politician tells us that something failed because they didn’t “sell” it well enough, you can generally substitute the words “lie”, “falsify” or “mislead” for the word “sell”.
Unfortunately, things just about never fail because they told the truth of what they are doing. They just failed to lie well enough, they failed to falsify enough data and they failed to mislead voters into believing their latest boondoggle proposal.
“and they failed to mislead voters into believing their latest boondoggle proposal”
If you like your freeway, you can keep your freeway?
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-editorial-broward-sales-tax-transportation-20180602-story.html
Expand roads. Improve intersections. Lay more fiberoptic cable so that red lights automatically adapt to traffic demands, cellphones get needed mapping information and express buses can command more green lights. Fix school safety zones. Add sidewalks, bike lanes and street lights. Add bus routes and better bus shelters. Enhance transit services for the disabled.
Prove you can deliver.
If you have to “sell” your plan to the voters, chances are that it is a bad deal for them. They may well have good reasons for not wanting to go along. Try listening to them for a change, instead of insisting that they need to be “sold” or “educated”.