Matt has a state-by-state map of poll closing times. (Um… can we note how gross it is that Indiana’s polls close at 6pm local time?) What the hell, we’ll just borrow the borrowed image:
He also posts on elections of note in Rhode Island. If you want to help out, you should call the Progressive Leadership Fund at 463-5368.
As Jess mentioned, we encourage you to vote YES on Question 2. We also encourage you to vote YES on Question 1, because we’d otherwise lose about $440 million in federal transportation funds. But man do we wish the state would wean itself off of bonds and borrowing. (Though this isn’t the worst time to bet that the feds will be less austere in coming years.)
So the last five bond authorization referendum for highway infrastructure (with matching funds) that we’ve passed over the last decade have been working out for us?!?
I’m going to vote a big fat ‘NO’ on question 1, because we obviously don’t do what we’re supposed to with the money, so why loan more. Maybe it won’t pass and the DOT will have to get really shaken-up and those bozos can be replaced by a working department.
Just because my credit card offers me cash-back doesn’t mean I go maxing it out every chance I have. Matching funds are for states to enact major capital improvements that they would otherwise not be able to afford. We -ostensibly- use this tool to cover normal maintenance, but in reality, I don’t see anyone taking care of the crumbling overpasses and bridges.
Something is -really- wrong with the DOT, virtually every overpass I see is rusting-out, and I don’t actually see anyone sanding and repainting them (which is what you need to do to them to keep them from falling down). We’re skimping on annual upkeep (even though we already borrowed and spent the money to do this, time and again).
Hell, I live right next to the I95 bridge in Pawtucket and I haven’t seen a single work crew on it in two years, except to close it off to trucks because it’s in such poor repair. Shouldn’t there be guys in orange vests crawling all over it with buckets of green paint trying to keep it from deteriorating more?