for whom the road Tolls

When the Toll Road was brand new-look at all the traffic!

I'll give points to Governor Mitch on his ingenious Toll Road "sale". It may not have been the most conventional way to stuff state coffers with lots of dough (gambling is becoming more traditional), but he did bring some "out of the box" thinking we don't often get from state officials.

Now the merits of his out of the box thinking are fair debate fodder. Is it possible that the state could have better managed the road and thus received greater revenue under a new system? Possibly. Is it likely that all of our proceeds from the lease will fleet away in a "stumble over ourselves for economic development" attitude? Nearly guaranteed. Our state elected leaders are going to have to show great restraint in spending the dough from the toll road; otherwise we'll have some very state of the art infrastructure that will all need massive reconstruction in about 30 years-without the ability to pay for it.

Time will tell. Genius and outside the box thinking is only good when there isn't the need to save your butt politically and the genius can be appreciated by consecutive leaders. Otherwise, in this case, it could be just like a kid in a candy store.