Tag Archives: boondoogle

$3 million T-SPLOST for sprawl on Cat Creek Road

Three million dollars buried on page 90 of the

171 page T-SPLOST Unconstrained Investment List
for the Southern Georgia Region
to funnel traffic along Cat Creek Road to Moody Air Force Base, promoting sprawl in far north Lowndes County,
in an area the Comprehensive Plan says should be for agriculture
and forestry.

In amongst the boilerplate and the red herrings (“potentially reducing
the incidence of crashes”, “mitigating congestion”) is the real purpose
of this project:



Also as a part of the project, protected left turn lanes will be added at
various intersections along Cat Creek Road. The proposed intersections
include Pine Grove Road, Radar Site Road, New Bethel Road, and Hambrick
Road.

There’s a more long-term reason, too, which is hinted at with this
further unnecessary work:

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$10 million T-SPLOST to widen New Bethel Road for Lanier County sprawl?



Lowndes County wants

$10 million dollars in T-SPLOST funds to widen New Bethel Road from 2 to 5 lanes,
even though Bemiss Road (GA-125) is right next to it and also connects to GA 122.

That $10 million might save Lanier County residents about one minute
getting to Lowndes County to spend their money,
while promoting
more sprawl of developments into Lanier County.



It would cost a lot less to put a four-way stop or a light
at Walker’s Crossing where GA-122 and GA-125 meet.

The details of this $10 million boondoggle are appended below,
extracted from this 171 page PDF.

-jsq

Project Sheet

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Texas still susceptible to private prison boondoggle

Even though Texas has

cancelled some prisons
and

closed at least one private prison,
private prison companies continue to push to privatize Texas prison services.

Mike Ward wrote 30 April in the Austin American-Statesman,

Lawmakers chafe as push continues to privatize prison health care




“There is a push on to change the system we have, a system that is
cost-effective and is a national model, even before we know whether there
will be any real savings,” said House Corrections Committee Chairman
Jerry Madden, R-Richardson .

“I think it’s something we should look at, to see what the real facts
are, but I don’t think we should be rushing to a decision right now
about this,” Madden said. “Most of the Legislature, I believe, think(s)
that a decision this big — whether the system should be privatized
— is one that we should make, not some board or agency.”



The American-Statesman first reported the privatization efforts in March
and that top aides to Gov. Rick Perry have been involved in some of the
meetings with vendors and lobbyists.

More from the article:

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