Gov. Lynch's toll hike

[sgthoskins]

Originally Posted by GregW

Yep!

Only in America...

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Lynch should interview/telephone/google former Arkansas Governator Huckleberry. AR roads were once voted somewhere between #1 and #3 crappiest in the nation by Big Truck magazine or something similar.

The road had very bad chops and waves, brought on most likely by insufficient strength for a main truck thoroughfare.

Anyway, Huck worked up a bond proposition and floated it. Every mile of 40 and 30 had been torn up and repaved within five years, I believe.

I hope that when and if they start repairing and rebuilding major roads, they will go with the German philosophy (strong for long) rather than too-frequent US policy (cheap for now).
Building a good road for long life is cheaper in the long run.

[BF66389]

It's the confusion between "best cost" and "best value". There is real value in building an expensive road with a properly prepared substrate, the problem is the cost benefits are not realized for 10+ years (at least) because the up front costs are so high and even a cheap road will last "a few years". The cost savings isn't realized until long after the current administration is gone- so what is the motivating factor? It's hard to sell people on something a lot more expensive that they can't see any immediate benefit from.

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by BF66389

It's the confusion between "best cost" and "best value". There is real value in building an expensive road with a properly prepared substrate, the problem is the cost benefits are not realized for 10+ years (at least) because the up front costs are so high and even a cheap road will last "a few years". The cost savings isn't realized until long after the current administration is gone- so what is the motivating factor? It's hard to sell people on something a lot more expensive that they can't see any immediate benefit from.

I still naively believe that some people try to do the best thing for the most people.

There was a reason they used to name buildings, roads, etc. for people AFTER they died. Today people are so full of ego.

[seamusnh]

Originally Posted by GregW

The fact that I am paying at the same tax rate as a wealthy individual means I am paying proportionally more of my income in taxes than the other guy that is a great example of inequality. I do not believe we should have ANY taxes not directly based on all and any income from all sources. That is NO sales, registration, excise, property, meals, or user fees for government services.

The same is true for any sales tax, the gas tax, meal tax, etc. In fact, any tax that is not related to income. If you base the property tax on income, you'd have a (wait for it...) INCOME tax. Now, since NH does not have an income tax, you would be best served by moving to MA where they not only have an income tax, they have property tax, sales tax, capital gains tax, excise tax, meals tax, etc...

[seamusnh]

Originally Posted by southward bound

$3500 is rather a steal. You're lucky if that's all you pay in real estate taxes. I know someone in Merrimack who pays $5800/yr and that's for an older house of 2400 sqft, no mansion for sure.

No, the house with the $3500 property tax is in Boston. It is worth about $325k. My house in NH is much more, a little over $10k and I don't mind paying that as it mostly funds education in my town... The money paid in MA funds a lot of things, many of which I do not agree with - lucrative pensions for state employees, free cars for welfare recipients, great health care for state employees (better than they'd get in the private sector), etc. I escaped from MA 14 years ago and have never regretted it....