Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntsville_secede
ALDOT Director defends road spending in letter printed in Huntsville Times
http://www.al.com/opinion/huntsvilletimes/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1188724609324250.xml&coll=1
State roads and bridges would crumble with 'fair-share' funding
Sunday, September 02, 2007
By JOE McINNES
For The Times
Much has been written recently in The Huntsville Times following the release of a study prepared for the City of Huntsville comparing estimated motor fuel taxes and investments by the Alabama Department of Transportation in Madison County for roads and bridges on the state and federal highway system.
One article printed several weeks ago used "short changed" to describe Madison County's funding relative to other metropolitan areas in the state. A more recent article titled "Send more road money - or else" alluded to possible legal action to push for a bigger share of gas taxes.
I believe the term "short changed" is a misnomer because the exact amount of motor fuel taxes paid by any particular county in Alabama is not determinable. |
Give the director some credit for even responding, he must be feeling some heat, but he misses the entire point. I also resent the attitude implied that we should be happy to get what we got,(again a reference to I-565).
And if most of this money is allocated then where has it been spent?
"The federal funds that were allocated to Alabama in fiscal year 2007 amounted to $753 million, which is significant. But only about $283 million is eligible for discretionary projects for the entire state because the remaining $470 million or so is earmarked by the federal government and mandated to be spent on interstate maintenance, bridges, on Appalachian highway corridors,
on congressionally designated high-priority projects, in large urban areas, small urban areas, or counties, and on special programs for landscaping and beautification, sidewalks or for historic preservation."
One of the high priority corridors would be the Memphis/Huntsville/Atlanta
Expressway, which because of ALDOT's inaction has basically caused all previous environmental studies to be outdated. (This I believe was done on purpose so Aldot could focus it's attention on other projects) Remember the director decides which projects get done.
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