Tag: public transportation

Categories
free trade & free markets general freedom too much government

Mass (Private) Transit

Washington D.C. metro, public transit, train

“Metro is dangling from a fiscal cliff,” hollers last Saturday’s Washington Post editorial headline. The “transit system faces a ‘death spiral’ starting next summer,” according to “the usually stolid pages of Metro’s financial projections.”

The Post informs that Metro’s “systemic budget problems have been compounded by pandemic-​driven revenue shortfalls, inflation and the upcoming expiration of a federal bailout for transit systems.” 

Oh, what a cruel turn of events, Washington’s ill-​mannered and unsafe transit system needs a bailout from local politicians … because the current financial bailout it receives from federal taxpayers is about to fizzle out. 

Life is tough. 

Metro has only about 70 percent of the funding it needs, so get ready for blood-​curdling cries of “drastic service cuts”— until or “unless the region’s elected officials, along with Congress, devise a fix,” The Post tells us.

Hell of a way to run a railroad — not earning a profit. Constantly failing customers and just as regularly begging for more money from politicians who get that moolah from folks like me … who rarely if ever use the mass transit we are told is so essential to us. 

There’s a better way.

“Rail company Brightline began operating trains Friday from Miami to Orlando,” reports The Post, “using the fastest American trains outside the Northeast Corridor to become the first privately owned passenger operator to connect two major U.S. metropolitan areas in decades.

“The debut of the 235-​mile, 3.5‑hour ride completes a $6 billion private investment in Florida.”

With speeds “quicker than Amtrak’s” and fares “comparable to Amtrak’s and competitive with airfare,” Brightline chief executive Michael Reininger talks of “the beginning of a new industry and a blueprint for expanding rail in America.”

Two approaches. One uses my tax dollars and fails. The other uses private investment. 

And seems to be expanding.

Rather than complaining. And begging.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption too much government

Get Real, Mr. Rael

Political ads are not much different from normal, commercial ads. Effective advertisements usually make it pretty clear what the hoped-​for outcome is.

Buy a widget? Patronize a business? In politics, it’s “Vote for X” … or A, B, or C.

Last political season, in New Mexico’s Bernalillo, Sandoval, and Valencia counties, ads ballyhooed a Rio Metro expansion project. They very clearly concluded by telling voters to “Make a Difference on November 4th,” and offering up a certain website that also promoted voting for the tax increase to expand the transit system.

So why did Lawrence Rael of the political entity responsible for Rio Metro deny the obvious? “We’re not saying ‘vote for the tax’ as an advocacy committee would do,” he explained. “We’re just simply saying, ‘Look, this issue is on the ballot … Here’s what it’s about.’”

Oh, get real, Mr. Rael.

The reason for his reticence? Governments in a republic aren’t supposed to influence voters but be influenced by voters. That’s the point of an election, where our tax dollars ought not be on either side.

Paul Gessing, of the Rio Grande Foundation, wrote in the Albuquerque Journal, “Having advocates for these proposals working on the taxpayer dime obviously tilts the advantage in the direction of higher taxes. But giving the pro-​tax side the additional advantage of a significant advertising budget is simply too much, and is truly unfair.”

No wonder government keeps growing, eh?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.