Story Published:
Jul 18, 2011 at 3:19 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Jul 18, 2011 at 3:19 PM CDT
Call me a wet blanket or whatever you want to call one who tries to put a damper on spending taxpayer funds on "wants." There's always a difference between those two things. Government has many needs. Those are things and services that government must do to make sure that its people are safe and secure. Wants are nice to have but are not absolutely essential. Public funds ought not be spent on wants. If the private sector wishes to fund wants, let them--but let's not saddle taxpayers with paying for things that elected officials dream about but that are not needed, especially not needed in bad economic times.
Which brings me to the "Rails and Trails" project that has been ongoing for several years. An authority was formed to oversee the project. They've had some internal problems, but they seem to have all the governments that will be affected by this "Rails and Trails" project on board.
The short story is that a hiking and biking trail will be built between Cookeville and Monterey following the Nashville & Eastern railroad tracks. The railroad is on board with this project. This trail will be constructed using funds from grants. Grants are tax dollars too. So where do you suppose those funds come from? Right out of taxpayers' pockets. Maybe from Chinese peoples' pockets too. After all, that's where Federal money seems to come from lately.
Governor Haslam was in Cookeville recently to present $600K to the Rails and Trails Authority--$600K in Federal money administered by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. I wonder where a lot of the total of more than $10M that was allotted to Tennessee came from? I'll bet most of it came from gas taxes. That's tax money that should be going to construction and maintenance of roads and bridges. As of late though, your gas tax dollars are spent on light rail projects as well as Rails and Trails stuff.
Let's spend $600K grant money for the proper roads projects, not on rails and trails to be built alongside refurbished tracks. In tough economic times such as we're in today, transportation funds should be spent on roads. Needs should always supercede wants. No exceptions--never.
UPDATE:
TDOT just lost about $52M in Federal funds. Since 50% of TDOT's budget is from the Feds, this will be a significant hit. Was that $600K grant premature?
