Anti TEA-21 editorial in a Florida paper. Wonder how many more things we'll read like this as states and cities struggle to get by?

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/news/opinion/4697881.htm
ryarger@rypn.org

> >Wonder how many more things we'll read like
> this as states and cities struggle to get
> by?

States and cities are struggling because of their own stupidity and the stupidity of the electorate. I have no sympathy. It has been said that the first rule of economics is all goods are limited and the first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics.Consider California-they subsidize everything-now a few weeks after the election-the governor declares "a fiscal crisis". (Sounds like an ENRON timely disclosure to me-where's the outrage?)

All over the country, states governors of both parties were on a spending spree through the 90's. The tobacco settlements in many cases are gone. They acted like the good times were going to go on forever. It has been said that the first rule of economics is all goods are limited and the first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics. If the state and local governments were subject to the pension funding requirements imposed on private concerns-it would be worse.

That having been said, when you see something like this, Fire Back!-since the modern rule of public finance is to grease what squeaks. Nothing to stop us from responding to this stuff as a letter to the editor.

We are trying to keep alive the artifacts and culture of the industry with arguably the greatest impact on this nation. If we lose (any more of) our history, we lose our identity.

Somehow the classic dictum about the art of government being "bread and circuses" seems appropiate here.



superheater@beer.com

>
> > We are trying to keep alive the artifacts
> and culture of the industry with arguably
> the greatest impact on this nation. If we
> lose (any more of) our history, we lose our
> identity.

Correction. The world-just as true in other countries as well.

superheater@beer.com

> Anti TEA-21 editorial in a Florida paper.
> Wonder how many more things we'll read like
> this as states and cities struggle to get
> by?

The travesty is NOT that TEA-21 money was applied for and/or used in this project. The travesty is that somehow, SOMEHOW, the rules on spending for TEA-21 apply in ANY way whatsoever to such projects as the restoration of a business car or a station that is not being used as a passenger depot.

The *purported* reasoning for such governmental spending was to improve surface transportation. I don't care HOW much rail preservationists may have benefitted directly or indirectly from ISTEA and TEA-21; it has been perverted over the years to fund projects in which the Federal government should have NO role whatsoever. A pork barrel, whether it benefits you or someone in the other end of the nation, is still a pork barrel, and it should be just as susceptible to being neutralized as, say, a Coast Guard base in North Dakota.


lner4472@bcpl.net

Thank you Alexander! I'm in total agreement.

jrowlands@neo.rr.com

> Thank you Alexander! I'm in total agreement.

And I guess I'm on the opposite side. Since business and big nonprofits all have their lobbying arms and play the logrolling game, I want our community to have a seat at the table when the turkey is carved. Of such differences are political debates made.

eledbetter@rypn.org

> And I guess I'm on the opposite side. Since
> business and big nonprofits all have their
> lobbying arms and play the logrolling game,
> I want our community to have a seat at the
> table when the turkey is carved. Of such
> differences are political debates made.

I agree ... It sounds crass but the money is there and somebody is going to get it, why not my project!
I come from an area that is so simon-pure that they consider it a virtue to sit back and not apply for monies that are in essence their own tax dollars. Then you read articles in the local rags bemoaning the fact that they are so low on the totem pole when it comes to returning money. Meanwhile projects in other areas are taking advantage of this and going great guns!
DUH!

lamontdc@adelphia.net

> And I guess I'm on the opposite side. Since
> business and big nonprofits all have their
> lobbying arms and play the logrolling game,
> I want our community to have a seat at the
> table when the turkey is carved. Of such
> differences are political debates made.

The debate in this case is NOT whether or not we deserve a seat at that table when the turkey is being carved up. The debate is actually whether or not that turkey should even be there in the first place. Yes, it is our money. But at the same time, the forces that let us have the turkey in the first place also ensures that you are forced to serve up a full serving to the guy that brought one cranberry for the cranberry sauce. (This is government we're talking about, not charity or sharing.) And, to be honest, I wouldn't care if it managed to rebuild the entire East Broad Top with new locomotives; I still have a fundamental problem with such things as the rebuilding of a historic station to serve as a tourist center, a rail-to-trail project, or the rebuilding of an old narrow-gauge RR (just to make up examples) being labeled "transportation efficiency improvements" and being paid for with Federal tax dollars.

Let's face it, if your tax burden were demonstrably smaller, you could afford to donate more to such projects.

Okay, off the soapbox. No more politics out of me unless someone else forces the debate.


lner4472@bcpl.net

Send me all the pork you can spare. I like everything from hamhocks to barbecued shoulder to ribs and sausage. I can find some friends who like to eat the pickled feet and some have dogs who will chew on the ears. We can tan the hides for leather and grind the bones for case hardening compound. Industrial preservationists do a lot for a little and let not much go to waste.

Or, OTOH, you can enjoy the false idea of vegan integrity while the hog you have bought with your tax dollars is fed to those who do eat it like me - I just can't seem to get enough of it to feed all the people and projects I would like.

Its the system we have to work within. It won't be changed from outside. Get in and make it work for you as best you can or go hungry. Ideals are fun to consider from an academic POV but aren't always practical if the object is to get the job done.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net