Potholes On The Road

Editorial - ovember 15th, 2007 - Smithfield Herald

North Carolina’s transportation woes will soon be over.

After all, Gov. Mike Easley, Senate leader Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney have put together a crack team to examine road building, its financing and other transportation-infrastructure issues.

An insurance company executive will lead the 24-member 21st Century Transportation Committee, created as an alternative to a legislative special session. The committee will include nine current legislators, four local government elected officials and two members of the state Board of Transportation.

Now, there’s what we need. More politicians advising politicians about formulating public policy.

Nowhere to be found on the committee: a civil engineer, an urban planner, a road-construction manager, a demographics expert, an asphalt-firm executive or an expert in road financing.

I love it! You don't see sarcasm as often as you should in an article about state government. However the corruption that is common in North Carolina government is certainly cause enough to start being sarcastic. Recent articles included the charge that Jim Black's son threatened retaliation if someone dared to challenge awarding him a contract even though his quote was 3 times the low quote. Does anyone think this is not common practice in the corrupt environment that the Democrat Party has created here in North Carolina?

A major reason is indicated in this article. There is a serious problem with transportation in North Carolina. Easeley-Basnight-Hackney, in typical Democrat fashion, create a committee with no one expert in this field to look at the problem and solely politicians in charge. They have a problem and they increase the amount of political influence. That assures two things. The problem will not be solved. No one will point out the political influence being asserted to assure the corruption continues.

That is intolerable. A perfect example of the corruption that is eviscerating any confidence our state will ever fix the problems. Just the opposite is occurring. Perdue and Moore are benefitting from huge amounts of campaign contributions from Republicans. Why would any Republican contribute to these Democrats? Because, in a self perpetuating cycle, they want to make sure they are not cut off from a chance to participate in the corruption. No one thinks it will end. The Republican Party is not doing this. Individual Republicans are. This is exactly why socialist cultures become so corrupt. Everyone simply wants to make sure they get to participate. In the end it destroys the society.