A recent article in the Omaha World Herald, discussed  a Nebraska Department of Roads meeting with the Federal Highway Administrator.  The meeting was about getting highway projects through the layers of environmental approvals needed and the various delays experienced.  Most states and localities try very hard to “dot the I’s” and “cross the T’s” on the environmental issues.   I will not get involved with that discussion here.

The interesting point in this article is an example of one interchange/bypass project which received a location decision in 2001. (That is the first hurdle for the process.)  A bit more of the process and by August 2007, the cost was expected to be $35 million and ready to go (per the article). Then apparently a third review of the project and now additional comments.  The cost of the project is now estimated at $52 million. That is almost a 50% increase.

As we face shortages in the highway funds at every level of government, the cost of delaying a project is eating into what we can afford to accomplished with the funds we have.

We have written before about the shortage of highway funds as well as the rising costs of projects.  We continue to encourage public-private partnerships as method of guaranteeing faster project delivery at a guaranteed price.  

On Friday, U.S. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) sent a letter to AT&T and several other companies requesting that they verify that the health care bill’s passage will indeed cost the corporations additional expenses. This came after AT&T, which employs 9,000 people in the St. Louis area, said it would record a [...]

A decade ago, education expert Dr. Jay P. Greene published a study for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan about the direct costs of developmental (or remedial) education for colleges and industry. His conservative estimate then was that developmental education cost Michigan an astounding $601 million each year, and cost the entire United [...]

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna has taken much heat for his decision to join a lawsuit against the new health care bill by 13 other attorneys general from around the country.
 
But to paraphrase the words of the old saying on Pres. Harry Truman’s desk, he can stand it – he’s staying in the kitchen.
 
McKenna, a Republican, opposes the new law because he believes it places an unconstitutional burden upon individual citizens who will be forced to purchase health insurance – the individual mandate – and because it will force the state of Washington to expand Medicaid eligibility to budget-busting levels in violation of the state’s rights under the 10th amendment.
 
The Seattle Times has endorsed McKenna’s position saying he “has the clear authority to argue that the new health-insurance law violates the Constitution, and to sign on to a lawsuit to that effect.”
 
McKenna also appears to have the people on his side. A SurveyUSA poll showed 55 percent of Washingtonians either thought health care should be left alone or that the newly enacted bill went too far.
 
Not surprisingly, Gov. Christine Gregoire and Democrat leaders in the legislature are shocked, SHOCKED to hear of his opposition to Obamacare.
 
Democrat foaming at the mouth goes to hyperbolic extremes. On his Facebook page, Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia, called for McKenna to be disbarred for filing a frivolous lawsuit. If anyone is an expert on things frivolous it’s the good gentleman from the 22nd District, Mr. Williams. He is, after all, the numero uno bag packer for state employee unions, bragging on his legislative Web site that he’s one of only five legislators with a 100 percent scorecard from labor. He takes their orders real good!
 
Then there’s Oregon Attorney General John Kroger. Apparently he’s too busy delving into the highest priority of Oregon citizens: the $2.3 million severance package for departing University of Oregon athletic director Mike Bellotti.
 
Mr. Kroger can’t be bothered joining his colleagues from around the country to fight for the constitutional rights of Oregonians, but he can get exorcised over Bellotti’s severance package. Those dollars will be chump change compared to the eventual bill his constituents will pay because of Obamacare.
 
While these pages have disagreed with Rob McKenna in the past, on this issue he is stand up. He is taking a gutsy stand in support of Washington’s taxpayers and citizens and the U.S. Constitution, and LibertyLive.org applauds him for it.

Yesterday, the Heritage Foundation released an edited volume, One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty. Contibutors include the Cato Institute’s Tim Lynch and former U.S. Attorneys General Ed Meese and Dick Thornburgh….

The REACH Alliance launched Operation Restore, a campaign to restore the funding for Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) Program to $75 million.  The EITC, which before being cut provided scholarships to 44,000 low- to moderate-income students, was slashed during last year’s budget debate (thought funding for school districts was increased by over $300 million).

The average EITC scholarship is around $1,100, compared with per-pupil spending of $13,000 in schoo districts – thus saving taxpayers over $400 million per year.

The new campaign features news about the EITC, a page to contact your lawmakers, and town hall forums across Pennsylvania:

• Erie:  April 12  (AM)
• Pittsburgh:  April 13 (AM)
• Philadelphia:  April 15 (two sessions)
• Allentown:  April 16 (AM)
• Harrisburg:  April 19 (AM)

Check OperationRestorePA.org for more details.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama last week, but that won’t stop opponents from continuing to try to shoot it down, or at least shoot holes in it. If you have ever tried to read the provisions of the bill, you know that it is excessively [...]