Bare roads, bare cupboards

Now comes “a small group of House Republicans,” according to the Freeps, calling for better plowing of state roads and highways. “Our goal should be bare roads,” says House Minority Leader Don Turner. Vermont has had a safe-roads-at-safe-speeds standard since 1981.

Hmmm. A couple things cross my mind. First, I don’t remember hearing any of this talk from Republicans when they actually had administrative responsibility for road maintenance. Now, safely in the minority and having no actual power to adopt a new standard, they can freely demagogue the issue on the day of a 12-inch snowdump.

And second, of course, aren’t we in the middle of a budget crisis requiring deep cuts in state spending? Turner has an eminently helpful suggestion about that, according to the Freeps story:

Turner said he wasn’t asking for the state to spend more money overall, but to reprioritize spending to put more toward clearing roads. He said he did not have specifics that he would cut in place of plowing, but he would expect that to come out of legislative discussions.

All righty then. According to Deputy Transportation Commissioner Sue Minter, adopting a bare-roads standard would require doubling the state’s snowplow fleet, and nearly doubling the annual cost of snow removal.

Deeper cuts to social services, anyone?  Yeah, it might be painful, but we gotta make the roads safe for drivers to go 70 mph year-round, don’t we?  

2 thoughts on “Bare roads, bare cupboards

  1. The small group of House Republicans may be missing former Gov. Douglas’ no-fuss problem solving method.  Simply announce a new plowing policy, tag it with a clever, aggressive sounding name and move on. I bet if someone hunts around the statehouse they might actually find a file or locker where the Douglas administration kept a supply of clever policy names.  Maybe recycle the Douglas era Lake Champlain clean-up policy name to replace safe-roads-at-safe-speeds . Clean and Clear .It was barely used.  

  2. and show must drone on. I came across this video, laughed so hard my cats were looking concerned.

     

    Is it any wonder these do-nothings who lived high off the VT hog have been run out & marginalized to the point of irrelevance. To make a statement, they must gather as a group to lobby the state & make it an ‘event’. Safety in numbers! If it weren’t rightwingers, I might have listened.

    So, tighty whities in a knot bc they can’t fly down icy VT roads like the hinges of hell in their Escalade. Actually have to leave an entire 15 minutes early & slow down for ‘curves ahead’. Karma bites. Poetic justice, since they brought it all on us & themselves. A big laugh since they never minded until Shumlin takes office.  

    As VY protesters w/placards liven things up, eery monotone in a suit drones on like a machine running in the background maintaining corpse-like persona. Funny thing, few seemed to care. Manages to get in a slogan or two, as in “What I like to call a ‘Smart VT'”. Protesters deliver their silent message, after what seems a longish time, cops make their way to the aisle, quietly & unceremoniously escort them out. A little clumsy, very civil. Only in VT. Quite funny.

    Typical litany of bs. Blathers on about ‘not seeing any reason VT can’t have broadband/high speed’. Really? Sure there is. It was always just a campaign promise & nothing more, so was ‘Jim equals Jobs’ & the rest of his dreary tenure. Upon leaving office, notes that he hasn’t done shite, blames ‘business climate’, (Dems) & commisions protoge to pick up his mantle & continue a legacy of campaign promises & blaming the Dems.March 2009, we are nearly two years hence, which makes the ‘bare roads’ brouhaha a bad joke.

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