GraniteGrok: What the F#&K?!!! I thought the tolls were raised to FIX roads. Fooled again, suckers!

I just dropped my coffee reading today's New Hampshire Sunday News. I knew this would happen! After GraniteGrok fought a valiant but fruitless effort to shame the Republican (?) executive councilors into voting "NO" on raising to tolls, now comes this. Writing in the "State House Dome" column, Tom Fahey reports:

Say goodbye to exact change lanes.
When newly approved toll hikes take effect, change baskets will come out of toll plazas at Bedford and Hooksett.

What do you suppose will replace these machines? Yep-- you guessed it--

MORE STATE WORKERS!!!!!!

That's right-- we will be replacing automated machines with real live workers--using the excuse that people are too stupid NOT to throw paper money into the exact change lanes now that tolls have eclipsed amounts coverable with mere change. But don't worry, because, according to turnpike bureau supervisor Harvey Goodwin,

when the exact change lane goes away, people will take their place - smiling, happy people.

And you thought toll increases were to fix bridges and roads. Shame on you! Of course they were going to hire more state workers with the money. And why wouldn't the people be smiling and happy? You would be too if you were on the receiving end of that fantastic state employee retirement fund-- you know, the one that's in the hole for billions of dollars-- a hole that, after you and I are done paying high tolls and gas tax fees will have to fill with whatever money we have left. Again I say,

Thank You Republicans Burton and Wieczorek, I'm blaming this all on YOU! Only complete idiots couldn't have forseen this turn of events!

WANTED FOR SCREWING NH:

Ray Burton ............ Ray Wieczorek

The enablers: Councilors Burton (l) and Wieczorek (r)

Comments

using the excuse that people are too stupid NOT to throw paper money into the exact change lanes now that tolls have eclipsed amounts coverable with mere change. Before you go on a tear about this, Doug, you might want to do a bit of research. Apparently that's not an excuse. There have been reports in the papers of people who really are so stupid they think a change basket can accept dollar bills. And now that the tolls will all be an exact-dollar amount, that problem probably will get worse. However, I agree that making the old exact-change lanes into manned lanes is somewhat counterproductive. I'd prefer to see the "exact change" lanes turned into additional EZ-Pass lanes.

Posted by: wolfwalker | October 7, 2007 5:18 PM

I'll bet that the dollar bills are more protests than stupidity. My point is more to the fact that this adds government employees. Follow the link to the Fahey piece and read about the deployment of state police to case the tolls. It almost seems contradictory-- we fund highway safety officers, which everyone agrees we ne to some extent, and then we send them to the $$ collection point, thus removing them from their patrolling duties elsewhere. If we can do that, let's get rid of both!

Posted by: doug | October 7, 2007 5:44 PM

Doug- You are completly off base on this entire thing. What it probably is, people say oh I have exact change not knowing that it is a basket. They get to the gate, realize it is a basket and have to make a last minute decision. I know sometimes these knee jerk reactions are fun to write but you really should think out the implications of your posts before you submit. I cant believe I am writing this but you make Skip look reasonable.

Posted by: Frank | October 7, 2007 9:04 PM

"Frank", I am not off base. Everything government does ends up with the hiring of more people. Again, I'll eat my words if anybody can prove that the NHDOT has done any real belt tightening. They raise taxes. They replace machines with people-- think about that for a moment, how backwards that is. Burton and the Wiz had a chance to take a stand for the hapless people, and FORCE the DOT to make do with what they got. Instead, the REPUBLICANS have enabled Lynch and the Democrats to continue to conduct business as usual. Does anybody believe swelling the ranks of the state worker force, unionized, part time, or whatever, will help Republicans win back the state? Does anybody believe it will make our roads any safer? "Knee jerk"? No way. Jerked around? Yep. I left RI to get away from this stuff. I can't stand what's happening to my state-- and how these "Republicans" like Burton, and now the Wiz, are enabling it's destruction. Oh, and please quantify what your beef with Skip is... Is it the Health Care Voter/Smoker thing? People like you, Frank don't like GraniteGrok, because we call 'em as we see 'em. Sorry. We make NO apologies for that

Posted by: doug | October 8, 2007 5:31 AM

Posted by: doug | October 8, 2007 5:32 AM

Politizine ran the numbers on this, which makes it even worse. More reason for "Frank" to recant his accusation that I "kneejerked" this for fun... http://politizine.blogspot.com/2007/10/interesting-update-on-toll-increase-or.html

Posted by: doug | October 8, 2007 9:00 AM

Thanks for the link Doug. I appreciate it. It should be noted that my numbers are ESTIMATES. If the 200 part-timers are making less than $15k, it would go down a bit. But, what if it is more than $15k? It goes up. Say it is $20k each. That sends the bill up to $4M plus workman's comp, benes and everything else. That would put it at just below a third of the new toll revs. On a lot of issues, I can be difficult to read. Sometimes I'm liberal; sometimes I'm conservative; sometimes I'm in the middle. But on tolls and gas taxes - the things that harm our ability to go to work and earn a decent living - I draw the line. The money from these taxes and fees should go to the road work and nothing else. But, it is clear, that they are being raided to pay for other things. The Legislature has been doing this for years and years and it really is time for it to get its fiscal house in order.

Posted by: Tony Schinella | October 8, 2007 3:16 PM

It's only 4 lanes NOW. We know what happens when liberals decide they have had success at something: They expand it. How many tolls do we have in NH that are not currently manned? The consistent increases in "programs" and the budget "requirements" are just more proof the liberals need to enact a state income tax. I don't like the direction NH is heading. At all.

Posted by: Raven | October 8, 2007 4:15 PM

This is just so opposite of how the real world works. Other than Chinese sweat shops and the government, who else replaces machines with people?

Posted by: doug | October 8, 2007 4:27 PM

Well yannow the liberals want to keep NH different from the rest of the world! Real live smiling happy people. (Do you know ANY state workers who smile or otherwise appear happy?? I DON'T- they're all GRUMPS lol) Yea. That's it. Hard working, honest people doing a job that is just so important to our state...NH keeps people working

Posted by: Raven | October 8, 2007 6:50 PM

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What the F#&K?!!! I thought the tolls were raised to FIX roads. Fooled again, suckers!

MORE STATE WORKERS!!!!!!

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