In light of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the Boston Globe reports today that more than 500 (of more than 5,000) bridges in Massachusetts are rated as "structurally deficient," the same classification as the I-35W bridge in Minnesota. Many of those bridges are in the Greater Boston area, and -- though it is hard to tell from the graphic -- I believe some are in East Boston. (I say this because the Globe did a story on bridges needing repair a number of years ago and they mentioned one of the two that connect Eastie to Chelsea.)Two weeks ago an underground steam pipe exploded in Manhattan, killing one and injuring dozens. The pipe, which was 83 years old, and the bridge, built in the 1960s, push into the spotlight the disrepair that America's infrastructure suffers from. It'll take $20 billion to fix the bridges in Massachusetts alone, including the 101-year-old Longfellow Bridge pictured above. Imagine the cost of fixing all of the bridges, pipes, roads, etc. that need to be renovated or replaced. Now add that to the money needed to actually secure our ports and airports, to fix our schools, to make Social Security solvent and to do everything else that we say we must to keep the country strong and safe. It's a daunting amount, and the 2001 Bush tax cut ($1.35 trillion) combined with the war in Iraq (estimates are a total price tag of $1 trillion) don't leave us in a good position to handle these colossal costs.
I'm a Democrat, and our political adversaries like to hang us with the "tax and spend" label, but the only solution I see to solving some of these problems is higher taxes. No one enjoys paying taxes, but most of us would agree that the cost of maintaining and securing the nation should be paid for collectively and that's why we pay taxes. Of course, there is massive waste and corruption, and we need to do a better job of getting a handle on that, but before we build more and grow more we should fix what we've got so that nobody gets killed by an exploding underground pipe or by driving off a bridge and into a river.
1 comment:
I'm glad to hear that you support paying taxes. People need to understand that the only reason we have whatever infrastructure we have (and at whatever quality) is because of the taxes we pay. If we want bridges that don't fall down, roads with no potholes, clean water coming out of our pipes, buses/trains that run on time, and effective public schools, then we all have to contribute. We all benefit from well built, well maintained infrastructure.
With that said, the state could do more to raise the money needed for these public goods. The tax burden cannot exclusively be borne by individual taxpayers. Businesses and corporations who also benefit from the same infrastructure should be required to pay their fare share.
I would like to see a question posed to our candidates about their ideas to increase state revenue.
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