In
August 2012, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin appointed members of the West Virginia Blue
Ribbon Commission on Highways. He
charged that commission with determining the needs of the state’s highway
program and evaluating the means to pay for the plan.
Recently, the commission reported that the
Division of Highways needs about $1 billion additional revenue per year to
properly maintain and improve roads and highways. As for paying for it, the commission suggested
raising various taxes by $400 million annually, leaving a huge gap between
needs and funds.
Good
grief! Pippi Longstocking could have mailed
that plan in. I expected more from a
blue ribbon commission.
Fellow
West Virginians, we cannot afford an additional $1 billion in highways
expenditures each year. We can’t even
afford an annual $400 million increase in taxes.
Now if
the Marcellus shale starts producing a trillion barrels of crude oil each year,
that’s different. But barring a fracking
miracle, we’re still a poor state.
The
blue ribbon commission owed it to the governor to posit that there must be a
fundamental change in our highway philosophy.
From top to bottom, we need to question every aspect of our highway
program. We need to examine costs. We need to examine priorities. And we must question even the hint of perpetuating
the status quo.
This
commission could have given Gov. Tomblin support to go to the people and ask
them: “Do you want salted roads in winter, or do you want potholes patched in
the spring? You can’t have both.”
It’s
that simple. We cannot have everything
we want.
When I
say we need to question highway costs, I mean every cost. If the Division of Highways spends $500 on
paper clips each year, then we need to ask why the division can’t get by on
half that amount.
The
Division of Highways might very answer that question with: “Paper clips save
money. Removing staples is labor
intensive.”
Fine. The question still needs asked and answered.
The
Division of Highways needs to question every aspect of its contracting methods
as well as contract plans and specifications.
The Division of Highways needs to
ride herd on design engineers to save money, not build monuments.
The Division of Highways needs to
examine each and every position on the organization chart with an eye on
efficient operation, not employing the politically faithful.
There will be public hearings about
this subject in the coming months. If
you go to one, ask the state what it’s willing to give up or change before you
get mesmerized by doubletalk and open your wallets. Ask for an accounting of the books. Ask what you, the taxpayer, get for your
present taxes.
It has long been said that when it
comes to highways, West Virginia has champagne tastes and a beer bottle
budget. This attitude has brought us to
the present dilemma.
When I was fourteen, I walked into
Ed’s Package Store on Milford Street in Clarksburg and bought my first six pack
of beer. I picked Pabst Blue Ribbon
because I thought it had to be the best.
Ever since, whenever I see the words “blue ribbon”, I go into a mild
stupor reminiscent of my teenage years.
Pippi, do you have a Plan B?
