Tuesday, September 18, 2007

IS THE STATE KIDDING?!

“Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:19)

I wish I could say I was kidding about this one, but it was broadcast on the news Monday morning on 96.9 FMTalk AND discussed by fill-in host Dan York that according to Sunday's Boston Globe, a special commission is recommending MA drivers really take some BIG financial hits.

Of course, it's pretty much already in place that tolls on the MASS PIKE will increase in 2008 and again in 2014.  This is IN ADDITION to that!

One proposal which has a good chance of being implemented is raising the gas tax to 11 and a half cents a gallon starting sometime in 2008.

Another (which will likely face stiff opposition) is making virtually all MA State highways (93,95,495, 290, etc.) toll roads.  They would likely NOT have traditional tickets and toll takers who would take cash.  Rather, it's possible that each car would have to have a transponder (like the MASS PIKE "Fast Lane") and that you'd be billed each months for using these roads.  It's even being thrown around that instead of transponders, photos would be taken of the license plate, so you wouldn't even need a transponder and you'd just get a bill in the mail! Requiring G.P.S. devices on cars to track exactly where they're going is not exactly "off the table" either!  Of course, this stuff would face stiff opposition and the likelihood of it happening within 3 years is low, but the "special commission" sees a major revenue shortfall for highway/infrastructure repairs over the next 20 years.  Thus, this is all being talked about for the long haul (no pun intended) and could realistically happen in MA sometime in the next 20 years.

If this stuff really happen will ANYBODY be left living in the state of Massachusetts?!  On Monday, the Boston Herald’s Michelle McPhee continued talking about this later in the morning.  She is outraged as were most of her callers.  The part about us potentially having to have G.P.S. devices in our cars and having the Commonwealth of Massachusetts track all of our moves ia absolutely ORWELLIAN!

I’m not kidding about any of this but you have to wonder, IS THE STATE KIDDING?!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

if they think i'm going to go buy a stupid gps and cater to the state just so they can track my every move and spy on my as if i had no right to privacy at all, they're dead wrong. i'd rather move to missouri and live with amy. and that's saying something. cuz missouri ain't that great.

Anonymous said...

that's right you will come live with me in missouri!