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North Carolina legislators restore money for Charlotte light rail extension
If I thought like that, I would be buying a Lamborghini Aventador.
BOTH the Carolinas need better rail transit options that cross existing Amtrak! Just thinking!!
This clearly shows what is wrong with government. If Charlotte wants it built, the local people who use it should fund it themselves. Instead big government in Washington, District of Corruption taxes the highway users via a fuel tax, puts the money in a so-called highway trust fund intended for highway maintenance, and then takes that money, skims some off the top, and doles it out to the latest greenie weenie eco-terrorist transportation scheme to make America more like Europe. Never mind the countries in Europe are going broke if they have not already done so. Welcome transportation welfare and corruption.
It’s called investment in our country’s future. It’s the reason we have airports, roads, sewer systems, etc. you know the things that make a civalized progresive society.
Mr. Guse says the people of Charlotte should fund their light rail project or go without. Does he also think the same for all transit, aviation, and highway projects in that community (or his?)? Most people haven’t a clue how much federal money is involved in most of their local road and airport projects. For instance, how many hundred million dollars (and counting) of strictly federal dollars have been spent over the past 15 years to improve one NC airport primarily benefitting a private freight carrier Fedex? Mr. Guse, shouldn’t Fedex have paid for all of that infrastructure themselves? Or should the region just have gone without the infrastructure and forfeited the job creation opportunities? I think the answers to these questions are a bit more complex than you opine.
So pleased to see this! Having grown up in Charlotte, I know the value of the city to the commercial region between Atlanta and Washington. This is good for the whole region, not just Charlotte. What pleases me most is that so many entities, public and private, are demonstrating a cohesiveness in working together … sort of like Congress used to do back in the old days … and exhibiting what we can accomplish when we put “our” ideas aside and work for the common good. Wow, what an example for all! Good luck, Charlotte. You can show the rest of us how!
I’m tempted to be amused that a commentator coming from Illinois calls DC “the District of Corruption” and say people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, but Blago aside, Illinois seems to have a pretty reasonable and robust regional rail network with Metra being a national example of mass transit that works. As for his statement of “and doles it out to the latest greenie weenie eco-terrorist transportation scheme to make America more like Europe. Never mind the countries in Europe are going broke if they have not already done so. Welcome transportation welfare and corruption.” “Grennie weenie eco terrorist?” You know, it would be awful if America would be more like Europe…we’d have universal affordable health care that is portable with no pre-existing conditions; crime rates like Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Austria and Finland; unpoluted skies like Switzerland; and most important to this commentary would have a robust local, regional, national and international rail network and we could avoid sitting in traffic. As for “transportation welfare and corruption” in local referendums the citizens of Charlotte Mecklenberg have consistently supported light rail…out of their own tax base. As for corruption…I think the citizens of North Carolina in their support of NC Rail and Charlotte’s CATs as well as those of us in the Commonwealth of Virginia with our state supported and paying its own way passenger rail supported by our Republican Governor would take exception to the term “transportation welfare and corruption.” And speaking of highway funding – in neighboring Wisconsin Gov. Walker received campaign funding from highway construction groups to kill future rail service - a fact that was eclipsed in the recall effort by his fight with unions. Of course it appears that European welfare provider Talgo will be taking its rail jobs elsewhere. North Carolina happens to be a progessive state that recognizes that passenger rail
People like Jeff would not have a highway to travel on if they had to build it themselves. Has the private sector built any new highways, or worse yet, toll roads? Only one thing is driving supporters of privatization of the highways:Greed! Look at Indiana’s failed toll road privatization, and tolls are going up again here in Florida where I live. Privatized toll roads are a conduit for wealth dictatorship and do not solve traffic woes. North Carolina really needs to cut its funding for building new roads if it is going to keep its current infrastructure in a good state of repair and avoid placing tolls on its existing roads.