The bridge money could be spent elsewhere. But the money for the access road to the bridge that isn’t being built would have gone back to the Feds. So Gov. Palin decided to spend your tax dollars and mine on a Road to Nowhere.
McClatchy scores again! Not only does the story include the obvious (but, as far as I know, previously used except in this space) “for it before she was against it,” and not only does it call Palin on the misrepresentation she made at her rollout, but it provides one delicious new detail:
The state is continuing to build a road on Gravina Island to an empty beach where the bridge would have gone — because federal money for the access road, unlike the bridge money, would have otherwise been returned to the federal government.
So the governor, who decided to spend the federal money that would have paid for the Bridge to Nowhere on other projects, is still building the Access Road to the Non-Bridge to Nowhere with your tax dollars, and mine.
Bonus fun fact: As Mayor, Palin cut the museum budget and fought an increase in the library budget while pushing for a publicly-funded ice hockey arena.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman