Central Floridians have a new advisory system to be aware of starting today. MetroPlan Orlando has developed a new "MetroPlan Pain Index Advisory System" that lets Central Floridians know when the agency will begin to fight for additional transportation taxes. According to the Orlando Business Journal, Kelley Teague, director of public affairs and strategic planning believes the public's "pain index" is nearing the point at which commuters soon will be more receptive to paying for transportation fixes.Ongoing conversations at MetroPlan social club meetings, which are attended mostly by local politicians, have been centered on the fact that after years of neglect of our local transportation infrastructure, and the gridlocked traffic created by years of unmanaged and uncontrolled growth, the stage has been set to persuade voters to approve a new "Transportation Tax". MetroPlan lobbyists were quick to point out that the need for this new tax is the fault and result of the public's own anti-tax stance. The lobbyists are already predicting that because of the citizens' unwillingness to pay more in taxes that the top funding priorities for the next year will fizzle out, creating a worsening transportation system. It is this degradation in the transportation system that may finally bring in the necessary tax dollars to pay for MetroPlan's fantasy system because of the commuting pain felt by those attempting to drive on the failing system that we currently have today.
It is believed that the introduction of the new color coded pain index system will help to sway the public sentiment about the need to give additional funds for the transportation system they are already being taxed for. As sales tax and gas tax revenues drop because the average person can no longer afford much of anything, MetroPlan board members are quick to point out that they need to find a way to replace the shortfall in funding.
The initial Pain Index alert color has been set to Yellow - or Elevated - as the new monitoring system is launched. "Our hope is that as the Holiday and tourist traffic increases, the alert status, and the pain felt by drivers, will increase to the point that we can finally get paid," noted one MetroPlan social club member close to the story.
4 comments:
MetroPlan is like the school board... more money with no results! What we need are some competitive forces in the market that will ensure that our tax money goes to an organization that actually does something good with it. With the way things are now, if MetroPlan does not deliver, what is the downside for them? Nothing. They just get more money the next year.
Everytime I hear Metro Plan I visualize Wendell(Taxman)McKinnon and Jeanne Van (Tax and Fountain )Meter. I just shutter at the thought of them becoming County Commissioners. Can you imagine how much money they will approve to send over the the Orl. Metro Plan?
God help us. Osceola County can't be dragged down any more. NO MORE ELECTED or PREVIOUSLY ELECTED OFFICIALS!
I think we have been in a pain index of red for some time. If you look at what has been going on with the additions of fees and increases in other taxes, we have all had a net increase on our tax bill. One thing I find interesting about this article is the fact that governments keep increase impact fees to sting people moving into a new home, but it is obvious that is not enough money to do the job.
MetroPlan is just another step towards metro-government. Tax money is being spent by people we do not elect, with very few controls put in place. Look at the expressway authority for a prime example. The need to do an audit on MetroPlan long before we are force to giv them more money.
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