Stubborn. I Like It.
My representative is probably one of the most low-key representatives in the House. Before we moved here, I’d never heard of him. But he’s on the front page of today’s local rag — twice. First, about SCHIP. Apparently, there was a candlelight kumbayah vigil to get him to start crying and vote for this travesty. He said:
Peterson said that in this case, he won’t change his mind.
And there was a debate between Peterson and the hogs thieves Turnpike Commission representatives about this idiotic plan to toll I-80.
Commission representatives countered by saying Act 44 should help reduce the shortfall facing Pennsylvania’s interstate system, and build a stronger and more stable infrastructure.
[ . . . ]
[Peterson] said the shortfall stems from the transportation funding being used to pay for unrelated projects and services, such as state police being funded out of the motor license fund.
“Why should we be fighting drug dealers and crime on the street with … highway money?†he said.
You know what else would take care of that revenue problem? Cutting off funds for the failed Philadelphia public transportation system. There is absolutely no justification for forcing anyone other than Philadelphia residents to pay for it. Think of all the roads you could fix and build. Of all the silly liberal social engineering projects, public transportation is the failure of all failures. Make those who use it pay for it, and only those who use it.
Peggy U:
On transportation, scratch Philadelphia and pen in Seattle - same story. We don’t live there, but we help pay for trains nobody rides.
October 18, 2007, 1:04 pmjimmyb:
Sounds like a solid guy.
October 18, 2007, 5:21 pmMitch H.:
My BDS’d, militant friend Fred is violently in favor of Rendell’s turnpikes-fund-public-transportation scheme. He raves about how much money Centre County will get in the form of CATA subsidies. Weirdly enough, for someone who grew up in the underfunded coal-field backwaters, he seems to think that State College = Centre County. Nor has he thought through just what the prohibitive trucking costs on the new turnpike is going to do to our local cost of living.
October 19, 2007, 11:04 am