IT'S NOT A THRUWAY, IT'S A THIRDWAY (via Pepys):

For Whom the Road Tolls (MITCH DANIELS, 5/27/06, NY Times)

AS Americans hit the roads this Memorial Day weekend, debate is building about how to pay for the first-class transportation network that everyone agrees the United States requires. The money from gasoline taxes no longer comes close to meeting needs. Nationally, the gap between road-building needs and projected tax revenue is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and growing. Almost every governor I talk to faces a seemingly intractable shortfall.

When I became governor last year, my administration inherited a gap of at least $3 billion, equal then to 10 years of new road construction. Long-sought, long-delayed projects languished on the drawing board. For Indiana, a centrally located state that calls itself "the crossroads of America" and has great promise as a logistics and distribution capital, the opportunity cost of inaction was enormous.

A case can be made for higher gas taxes, but no economically rational or politically imaginable increase could close a gap this huge, even if leveraged through reckless borrowing. The only alternative to throwing in the towel was to bring to bear that handiest of revenue sources, Other People's Money.

For all the chatter about Dick Lugar as a Secretary of State or Evan Bayh on the Democrat ticket, it's Mr. Daniels who matters nationally.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 27, 2006 7:51 PM