Archive for the ‘Major Moves’ Category

The contradictions between Jill Long Thompson and the only guy willing to run with her, err, her chosen running mate, Dennie Ray Oxley II, are many.

And certain Democrat spin-mistresses are already beating a swift retreat away from his importance to the ticket.

You can bet that they wouldn’t be downplaying the significance of his presence on the ticket if they really thought that he was such a great choice.

The contradictions with what young Dennie Ray II is saying now and with what he has done in the past are even more enlightening, however.

See why after the leap.
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Gov. Mitch Daniels’ campaign picked up some meaningful endorsements today. Labor leaders from across the state announced that Mitch is their man for the 2008 election. Getting endorsements from such a historically Democrat quarter is pretty interesting; especially when you consider one of the reasons cited by a union official in “The Region”. According to Dave Fagan, an officer with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 in Merrillville, Major Moves was a big factor in their endorsement. “Major Moves has brought in about $4 billion with interest for infrastructure. And with that infrastructure is employment, jobs for construction workers across the state.”

For those of you who aren’t from the northern part of the state, Major Moves is (maybe these endorsements single it is now a “was”) a political charged issue. Some quarters successfully painted a picture of the Governor selling the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign entity. Although they didn’t say it, you almost had to wonder if some of these folks were picturing this private company coming into the state and rolling up the Toll Road and taking to some other place. Local political leaders from the party that does not hold the governor’s mansion right now publicly decried the “sale” (they didn’t want to understand the concept of that legal and business devise known as a lease) while privately expressing elation about the money they were getting.

Let’s face it, when you put the politics aside, the Toll Road lease was one of the smartest things Mitch Daniels has done as governor.

After the tragedy in Minneapolis, people all across the nation are wondering if the bridges they’re crossing are indeed safe. A WISH-TV report shows (warning, video will pop up) that of the 5,700 bridges in Indiana, 250 are structurally deficient while 559 are functionally obsolete. The bridge in Minneapolis was labeled structurally deficient in 1990.

So how does INDOT plan to address this situation? When the Indiana House of Representatives was controlled by the Republicans in the first half of Governor Mitch Daniels first term, they passed the highly volatile “Major Moves” program which Democrats still pan today. But in turns out, that Republicans were thinking ahead at the time. INDOT, according to the WISH-TV report says that “many of the major moves projects include bridge rehabilitation” and that “hundreds of bridges will be fixed in the ten year major moves plan”.

So in addition to bringing the state millions of dollars in revenue which helped bring our state out of debt, we also have the money to address the problems and concerns with our bridges to make sure that the tragedy that happened in Minneapolis, doesn’t happen here.