Winter Breaks Budgets and Rules the Road

[SecularMotion]

Source: NY Times

CHICAGO — There’s the gold standard of snow and ice removal on major roads in the Midwest — asphalt, plowed smooth and salted for easy driving.

And then there’s the reality this year across the region, and in the Northeast, too, where drivers might be lucky to see bare pavement, and some roads are considered good enough if they have a single defined rut for the tires on one side of a vehicle. A “one-wheel path,” in industry parlance.

With states and localities facing budget cuts in a time of economic crisis, the early onset of severe storms bringing heavy, wet snow is wreaking havoc on already strained resources and raising concerns about public safety.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/us/09roads.html?hp

[Gman]

1. But I thought they loved the tax breaks and tax cuts

government is bloated, etc, ad nauseum.

[Unca Jim]

2. Missed point...

The Upper Midwest generally doesn't buy into that crap. We *have had* excellent government services, including snow removal, but with tax revenues staying low it's getting harder to keep up.

[gilpo]

3. Pawlenty has wrecked havoc on our budgets...

My street hasn't been plowed in weeks... literally.

[Tempest]

4. The Republican mayor of Anchorage as made a mess of the town

He slashed road maintenance budgets and now they can only afford to plow the streets in the downtown area. The snow is left on the sidewalks and people are forced to walk in the streets rather than slog through a foot or more of dirty snow on the sidewalks.

[defendandprotect]

5. GOP had already destroyed our infrastructure . . . Even Dem efforts at this point

in trying to catch up with roads is a see-saw between budgets and other needs.

Here in NJ, Corzine had begun to fix our roads -- even potholes on the Garden State Parkway!

-- but with the election of Christie, it's all come to a stop.

[dencol]

6. Declare war on snowy roads...

If we declare a war on snowy roads, which kill thousands of straight, white Americans every year, we will have an unlimited budget and ongoing commitment to overcoming the problem.