It will be a good day when It will be a good day when the entire Transportation Committee leaves. These people have allowed TDOT to morph into a financial basket case while at the same time using the transportation system as a vote for asphalt recycling project.
Henry Fincher ran as Representative from Putnam County on the basis of bringing back the asphalt bacon for a project called the “Fifth Interchange.” The Interchange is suppose to take place where the existing road, with 1000 cars a day flys over the Interstate using two existing bridges but is near a ridiculous 350 acre business park that could never be filled up or used in a substantial way in anyone’s lifetime. To make things even worse, they are going to court this week, Friday, to force a 75 year old lady to sell her property for this failure in the making. These mega parks are all over the state and even the one that has been around since 1979 is not filled up yet. There are over 186 square miles of empty future “industrial” parks in Tennessee, more than enough to move 40% of the entire US manufacturing to Tennessee. Millions of dollars per county are being spent on these ridiculous projects simply because the state will easily approve of it and because there is a special loophole in the eminent domain protection law that allows condemnation for and “industrial” park.
Henry Fincher’s mind and the minds of all of the transportation committee are poisoned by the theory that they can build roads to prosperity by just making sure everyone has a road or interchange, the bigger the better. The exact process is more complicated than that and more complicated than anyone in a few Chamber of Commerce meetings can begin to grasp.
TDOT and the legislature has no process nor even a clue how to detect the difference between consumptive pavement construction and productive pavement construction. To them it is all good construction, expecially if it gets a vote.
The federal government is still trying to decide about the failing gas tax. The majority wants to re-federalize the process by regaining the historic 40% share of transportation funds. This means an increase in the federal fuel taxes, probably in the range of ten cents at first. The next President of the US will get to veto or sign on to such legislation since the federal highway trust fund has exhausted itself trying to give out minimum garuntees. Neither the House nor the Senate version of the Transportation Authorization is likely to bring in the taxes that are needed to meet pay-go rules or fund the differing bills.
If Tennessee and the other states continue to wait for the feds to do something, then the only thing to do is increase the federal gas tax. Then there will be pressure to more than match that gas tag increase at the federal level. That is going to be pushed back until after the election in 2008. The Federal Highway Trust Fund should be in the red in 2009 or late 2008. Maybe
President Bush will sign off on a gas tax increase to protect McCain?
If people really do not want toll roads, they must either increase the state gas tax and feed this inefficient pavement dispenser or advocate for massive financial reform within TDOT. This means letting accountants take a more active role in making financial decisions and in the process of getting the greatest good for the greatest number. This means building more financial winners, mostly in urban areas and fewer financial losers in rural areas. This means getting rid of the County Seat Connector Program which would still cost more than the 550 mile I-81/I40 Upgrade to build. It means building more lanes at a rate that approaches the growth in population. This means swearing off state earmarks and not encouraging federal earmarks as a constituent service. This means getting together an objective process for project selection that can optimize economic opportunity for everyone. This is not easy and some objective processes have been put in place in other states but could never survive the political pressure to use transportation in a cynical way to buy votes.
The governor has already put TDOT through a “reform” that causes it to try and master all forms of transportation instead of just highways. This has led to massive diversion of funds to non-highway needs and the abandonment of the local road system so that counties have to use local taxes for transportation. The legislature already has an appropriation bill to move $100 million from the general fund to the highway fund to financially stabilize TDOT in the hopper. The governor used the Comptroller General’s Office in a cynical way to move the organization toward becomming more like larger and better financed highway departments that were also doing a lousy job because of their “green” policies and higher gas taxes. The only “green policy” that we need is the one that protects and defends the green money we send them every time we fill up at the tank.

By Danny L. Newton on 04.09.08 12:34 pm

I would say he is probably going to work in the toll road industry like his woman.

By Richard on 04.09.08 10:00 pm

His announcement was a surprise. The reasons, which will “out” themselves over the next couple of weeks, are no surprise at all.

Career politicos are good for noone except themselves.

I’ll be following this one closely…

By interested on 04.11.08 1:36 pm

Do I see his and hers lobbying credentials?

By BCB on 04.16.08 5:32 pm