GARDEN PARKWAY FUNDING CUT FOR NOW
Turnpike Says “Verbal Assurances” For Future Money
Chamber lines up candidates for 2012 run
Thanks to your phone calls to legislators and visits to Raleigh this spring, the General Assembly refused to put any money towards the Garden Parkway for the coming year.
Senator Kathy Harrington originally convinced the Senate to cut all the money for the Garden Parkway. But $17.5 million for election year 2012-13 got put back in because Republican House member Bill Current said he would not help his party override the Governor’s veto unless he got his pork belly money put back in. Governor Perdue had vetoed the budget because she felt the classroom teacher cuts were too deep.
By voting to cut all parkway funding, the Senate had tried to take the politics out of road building. The Senate wanted to put the savings into repairing our decaying bridges and potholes in our existing roads because building new roads is like putting a new roof on a house that is eaten up with termites.
Even the federal government has figured out that the Garden Parkway is a boondoggle. This fall it again denied funding for the toll road to no where.
 Reproduced permission of Charlotte Observer |
I don’t think there would be much support for a project in NC that
appears to benefit SC the most and takes away growth from the I-85
corridor on the order of 10- 15 percent.” Jill Gurak, chief project engineer, to Turnpike Authority (May 13, 2010) |
Political back room deal to put the money back in?
The Turnpike Authority says it has “verbal assurances” from state legislators the Garden Parkway will get all the money it needs when they are ready to build. That means next spring Gaston citizens will have to go back down to Raleigh to make sure Current and his cronies don’t cut any high dollar backroom deals against the will of Gaston County.
Even though the state plans to charge between $3.50 and $5.50 for each 22 mile trip (which includes six miles of two-lane road), lots of state and federal tax money is still needed to build the back country road. And right now, the state legislature cut all funding for the Garden Parkway, except for $17.5 million in election year 2012. But if that last little bit of money isn’t taken out of the budget next spring, it will cause mischief for homeowners and businesses who can’t improve or sell their property until the final stake is put through the heart of this tax sucking toll road to nowhere.
There is no doubt Rep. Current is trying to shovel the Garden Parkway down our throats, even though his constituents told him plainly this spring they want no part of the state welfare plan for well connected developers. Current, for example, invested in land along the Garden Parkway until he passed those investments on to his son in 2008, according to the Charlotte Observer. Turnpike Authority documents reveal the Garden Parkway would condemn private property from families that have held their land for generations, siphon jobs from Gaston County into South Carolina, and increase congestion on I-85. In the process, a few well connected investors stand to make millions, according to the Gaston Gazette and the Charlotte Observer.
Chamber lining up Parkway candidates for 2012
There is a good bet Current will be forced from political life in the 2012 election because he was caught on camera this spring yelling at constituents politely exercising their constitutional rights. Two pro-Parkway county commissioners say they want Current’s job, and parkway supporter Wil Neuman says he is interested in running for the job in 2012, too. Candidate Donnie Loftis, for example, spent the spring making calls and driving down to Raleigh telling legislators the county was all in favor of the developer giveaway, and Commissioner Tom Keigher wrote letters saying the same thing. With each of the three candidates in its pocket, the Gaston County Chamber couldn’t be more satisfied with the choices.
No money, no jobs, but the Chamber pays $35,000 for a study that says so
Even if it had the money (which it doesn’t), the Turnpike Authority is still a long way away from being ready to pour asphalt. The Authority’s $20 million study concluded the toll road would use scarce North Carolina tax dollars to shift 950 badly needed jobs into South Carolina. Not only is there a memo in its files suggesting the Authority actually underestimated the job losses created by the parkway, the Authority is already being sued for fudging traffic and population growth data in connection with the Monroe Bypass. The job losses to South Carolina are probably worse.
But the Gaston Chamber paid local economist John Connaughton $35,000 for a puff piece that promises the Garden Parkway will bring 1600 jobs to Gaston County, and then spent another $10,000 on cable TV ads promoting Connaughton’s candy cotton. Connaughton is the same economist backers hired to promote the Whitewater Center and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Both are financial failures. Now, thanks to Connaughton, Gaston County taxpayers are picking up the Whitewater losses -- Gaston County for $1 million, Mount Holly another $1 million, Belmont and Gastonia for $500,000 each. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are under water for a combined $9 million. Connnaughton has never explained what sank his predictions.
What kinds of jobs will the Garden Parkway really bring? Ask the topless dancers at the Tassels Cabaret in Matthews, who are counting on the Monroe Bypass toll road to boost their business. “It will increase traffic and customer walk-ins,” said dancer Audrey Hansen, who is looking forward to the additional exposure.
Promoter Dwyane McAllister says he didn’t see the funding cuts coming, but he is going to do everything he can to get the funding for the toll road paid up next year. Supposedly that means trotting out the discredited Connaughton study and promising an endless amount of jobs and a pot of gold at the end of the road to nowhere.
Let’s fix the roads we have. Let’s stop pretending this toll road is supposed to make Gaston County better. Let’s insist that elected officials listen to the 77 % of Gaston County that is opposed to the Garden Parkway. Gaston County residents simply won’t pay $5.50 to cross the county on a toll road that includes six miles of two lane country road and the taxpayers shouldn’t be asked to guarantee a project that is doomed to failure like Greenville’s Southern Connector.
Our weapons are the truth and your hard work. Keep it up.