ColumbusTime said:So basically there is no reason ever that you will say justifies not spending the money on these wasteful projects, Walker?
Didn't say anything of the sort. I'm all for accountability in transit spending across all forms. Just pointing out the glaring omission of public interest in holding highway projects accountable.
ColumbusTime said:When the timelines and budgets are set, critics say that pro-rail politicians underestimate budgets and timelines, and overestimate ridership to make the plan look like a winner, when they are purposefully misleading, in order to get what they want.
Right, and that never ever happens for highways. Pork barrel spending was practically defined by politicians who wanted to pull dollars into their districts for wasteful "dream works" highways and bridges that are unneeded. Ridiculous promises get made and plenty of misleading goes on purely for wasteful pet projects.
ColumbusTime said:Here, the critics are proven true, and now its, "well highways do it to."
You're twisting my words to make it sounds as if I were making an excuse, and I wasn't. I was offering an explanation, and calling out a double standard.
ColumbusTime said:
The difference to me is, we have millions of miles of roads that are currently used, that need maintained, and limited resources to spend. I'd rather see the resources spent on upkeep and maintenance on existing infrastructure that people use, than see the resources diverted to a 40 year liberal dream works project.
Oh, I see. This is a partisan thing for you. So it's "their team" versus "your team". Gotcha. (sigh)
Anyway, Kasich said the same thing about wanting to see the 3C money spent on roads when he returned the funds to the feds, but he knew that money would not be going to roads. So it was nothing more than partisan posturing and a $400 million kick in the pants to Ohio by its leader. Whether or not there would have been cost overruns, there would have been jobs.
Personally, I'd rather see more of ODOT's budget spent on maintenance and existing infrastructure too, but sadly that's not the case. Less than 25% of ODOT's budget goes toward maintenance ($1.6B out of $8.6B).
At the end of the day, different forms of transit work in different areas for different purposes. All of them cost money. All of them have pros and cons. Diversity in options is a good thing, of which, Ohio currently has none.
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