Oregon gas tax and minimum wage going up?

Bob/Olallawa wrote:

westernrvparkowner wrote:

wildtoad wrote:
I would vote for an increase in the gas tax IF I thought it would actually go to fix the roads here in SC. However, the DOT as such a bad reputation for mismanagement of the funds they already get no one believes it will be monies well spent.

I tend to agree with westernrvparkowner. Two other downstream impacts will be less entry level jobs as more of them are automated or simply eliminated, and continue the US direction of being the high cost producer of goods and services which has it's own repercussions.

If it happens like the OP said, that extra dollar per gallon of gas would go to the highway department and they would use that money to pay the 5 guys leaning on their shovels twice what they are making now. And don't forget the 50 layers of bureaucrats that oversee those workers will need raises too. After all, they are now supervising $15.00 an hour workers, not $7.50 workers. More responsibility, more pay, the American Way.

....REALLY.... as a retired road worker I don't think you really know much about road maintenance wages or the material costs involved. In the 90's hot mix was $16.00 a ton, same supplier now charges $60.00 a ton. Equipment costs, fuel costs both up and labor costs are a union and management negotiated item in most government operations, not minimum wage jobs for sure.

I was joking!!! Everyone who has driven a car has seen construction crews standing around, doing absolutely nothing. It might be lunch time, it might be break time, it might be they are waiting for your $60 hot mix to arrive, but to the guy passing by in his car, it is a snapshot where a bunch of people are being paid to do nothing. I actually do a lot or road maintenance, and guess what, hot mix can be spread equally as well by minimum wage workers as it can by highly paid union workers. I am pretty sure the crew employed by the company that did my driveway were earning much closer to minimum wages than union wages. I would expect that hot mix is more today than it was 20 years ago, most things not involving microchips are. Sorry, but I don't necessarily see the Government handing out contracts to only Union workers as a good deal for taxpayers. In a perfect world, the work would go to the low bidder, irrespective of how they arrived at that bid, providing they didn't break any laws. If a paving company can hire workers at minimum wage and therefore can save the taxpayers money, and the job gets done according to the contract specifications, they should be the one's awarded the contract. I don't believe a worker's affiliation or non-affiliation with a union has any influence over their ability to perform the work. (provided, of course, the union thugs don't break the non-union workers legs, which would then impair their ability to spread hot mix)