Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 12-26-2016, 09:14 PM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
6,327 posts, read 9,101,134 times
Reputation: 4048

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by BPP1999 View Post
Fair point. The recent increase in NJ's gas tax essentially made the big price differential between the two states vanish overnight. Here's hoping OH raises its gas tax.

I have listened to PennDot Secretary Leslie Richards tell a group of 200 business and academic leaders that since the passage of the gas tax, her cohorts in other states are jealous, and say, "How did you get that passed in PA?"

Infrastructure in this country is grossly underfunded and I am glad that for once, we did something positive before everyone else. My biggest fear with Wolf potentially being a one-termer is that whatever anti-tax crusader that replaces him rolls back the tax with support of politicians like Darth Metcalfe and Brad Roae.
Well, let's not forget Act 89 which is why this is occurring happened in 2013 when Corbett was in office under a Republican legislature so I doubt whoever runs against Wolf would try to repeal that. I think this year is the last of the gas tax increases from this as well.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 12-26-2016, 11:00 PM
gg gg started this thread
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,783,846 times
Reputation: 17378
Quote:
Originally Posted by BPP1999 View Post
Infrastructure in this country is grossly underfunded ..
I completely disagree. It isn't underfund if PennDot would go away for the most part and PA would have companies bid on jobs to cut costs. PennDot has way too much waste and it should be 1/100th its size and just be in management. Cut all the labor out and just sub it to companies that want to work for their money.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 06:01 AM
 
12,241 posts, read 6,402,551 times
Reputation: 9367
Quote:
Originally Posted by erieguy View Post
Pa roads have never been good, especially compared to other states. I expect there could be an even larger tax and the roads would be the same.
Pa. has as many miles of roads as the entire New England area including the state of New York. Enough with the road building already.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 06:08 AM
 
6,357 posts, read 5,008,150 times
Reputation: 3309
Quote:
Originally Posted by gg View Post
I completely disagree. It isn't underfund if PennDot would go away for the most part and PA would have companies bid on jobs to cut costs. PennDot has way too much waste and it should be 1/100th its size and just be in management. Cut all the labor out and just sub it to companies that want to work for their money.
The DOT knows this. There is an optimal middle ground between bidding out a job and doing work in-house, and chances are it has been studied / targeted by this agency.

How exactly do you know it has "way too much waste", exactly? Do you balance the books? Do you approve its budget? Not a rhetorical question (because I do not know, but won't play that cynical citizen / fun being a victim type of role without full knowledge!).

Private construction work is not 100% efficient, and not without waste, fraud, or cheating. Goes for City hired labor, too! If given an opportunity, there would be a lot of "taking" and cost cutting with sacrifice to quality.

Check out who Obama pardoned recently - one is a contractor that does a lot of work for the City of Pittsburgh (granted, his crime was years ago, but this is a perfect example).

Sala Udin gets presidential pardon, 44 years later | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Wonder what Ernie Smalis is up to, nowadays?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 06:20 AM
 
Location: Downtown Cranberry Twp.
41,018 posts, read 18,008,136 times
Reputation: 8528
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmagoo View Post
Pa. has as many miles of roads as the entire New England area including the state of New York. Enough with the road building already.
Except I addressed quality of roads...but the more the merrier.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 07:17 AM
gg gg started this thread
 
Location: Pittsburgh
26,137 posts, read 25,783,846 times
Reputation: 17378
Quote:
Originally Posted by szug-bot View Post
The DOT knows this.

How exactly do you know it has "way too much waste", exactly?

Check out who Obama pardoned recently - one is a contractor that does a lot of work for the City of Pittsburgh (granted, his crime was years ago, but this is a perfect example).
Glad we agree DOT knows it is a big waste of money.

Point 2, I know this because I am old and have a pair of eyes. Any idiot can watch a crew work for years on projects and see the MASSIVE difference in how people work. For one example, I watched the sub workers that did Rt. 28 and I have watched PennDot for decades. NO comparison in work output in comparing the two. NONE! Monopolies are HORRIBLE!

You are bringing up something that is meaningless and extremely old.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 07:45 AM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic
12,529 posts, read 17,446,660 times
Reputation: 10629
Quote:
Originally Posted by gg View Post
I completely disagree. It isn't underfund if PennDot would go away for the most part and PA would have companies bid on jobs to cut costs. PennDot has way too much waste and it should be 1/100th its size and just be in management. Cut all the labor out and just sub it to companies that want to work for their money.
They sub out a lot of work now. And how many times do the contractors not meet their completion dates and restructure their contracts? Who caught the Liberty bridge on fire?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 07:58 AM
 
Location: Washington County, PA
4,240 posts, read 4,886,528 times
Reputation: 2859
Quote:
Originally Posted by erieguy View Post
Except the comparison is to Ohio who with just a short distance away has much cheaper fuel prices.
Ohio didn't ignore their roadway infrastructure for 50+ years.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 08:08 AM
 
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
1,304 posts, read 3,022,580 times
Reputation: 1132
Despite his promises not to increase taxes during his lone term in office, this gas tax was a major reason why Tom Corbett became to be known as "one term Tom". During the 70's, we had a governor in PA by the name of Milton Shapp, who proposed a "temporary" tax under the partial guise for the needed bridge/ road repairs, plus public transportation,across the commonwealth. This nearly forty year old tax is still with us today, and it is our state income tax. Needless to say, the constituents of our state were obviously mislead, and this temporary tax has been increased considerably through the years with most proceeds going anywhere but road repair. Will this next increase in fuel taxes be utilized for strictly road and bridge repair, or will it be another funding source for Pa's bloated and fiscally unsound bureaucracy? Based upon our state's less than stellar history of truthfulness in state spending, my assumption would be the latter.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 12-27-2016, 08:30 AM
 
Location: Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh
2,109 posts, read 2,144,727 times
Reputation: 1845
Quote:
Originally Posted by speagles84 View Post
Ohio didn't ignore their roadway infrastructure for 50+ years.
Agreed. I feel like gen x and the millennials were left to figure out how to clean up the prior generations transgressions all the while being told we are lazy. It is unfortunate we are saddled with major debt and societal deferred maintenance at the same time. Time to crank up the taxes, and any tax that can be tied to use of specific services that need funding is even better in my book.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania > Pittsburgh

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top