I got this nice little email from the people at StopTheTollRoad.com and I thought I would share!
PHONY LETTERS SUPPORTING PARKWAY EXPOSED
SENATE INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY
EMAIL OR CALL LEGISLATORS TO CUT TOLL ROAD FUNDING
Tuesday morning the Charlotte Observer reported Rep. Bill Current leaned on the Governor’s office to falsely tell legislators the DOT wanted funding for the Garden Parkway toll road put back into this year’s budget, even though DOT said it couldn’t use the money. Click here to read the Observer story.
“Nobody was trying to be sinister about anything. I was just trying to lobby all I could to get the appropriation for the (Garden Parkway) this year, to get it done,” Rep. Current told the Gazette on Wednesday. Current later told his fellow legislators “I want you to know your representative did not have any idea at any time of promoting his personal wealth on this project.”
Fortunately, DOT’s Chief Operating Officer, Jim Trogdon, took steps to cancel the Governor’s letter, and he went out of his way to make clear to legislators that DOT did not want the funding for the Garden Parkway toll road this year because it simply could not get the project going at this time. Lawmakers have called for hearings to look into the phony letter doctoring. Click here to read the WRAL story.
Today, the House budget lines up with the Senate budget to cut next year’s funding for the Garden Parkway toll road.
But here is the punch line: Rep. Current tried to take advantage of his colleagues by getting Governor Perdue to falsely state that the DOT wanted that money for the Garden Parkway toll road this year. It is becoming well known, of course, that Current, like a number of other elected officials in and around Gaston County, had a direct financial interest in land along the route of the Garden Parkway toll road until he “sold” it to his son.
The Garden Parkway toll road is a toll road that was ordered up by lawmakers before any impact analysis was done. State projections now show that the $1 billion road won’t relieve congestion or create jobs, as political officials and other supporters like Rep. Current and House candidate Wil Neuman promise. As the Charlotte Observer asked in its Wednesday editorial, why are lawmakers “so attentive to a road project that is good for one thing: padding the bottom lines of investors, including some of their own.”
It is time to take the politics out of road building. Today and tonight, send emails or get on the phone and tell the Representatives on the attached list that DOT endorses the Senate transportation budget which takes the funding from the Garden Parkway and puts it in projects that are useful to the state – like fixing the I-85 bridge over the Yadkin River. Feel free to call their attention to these articles – they have been running in the Raleigh News and Observer as well as in the Charlotte Observer and Gaston Gazette.
Your contacts with the legislators on the attached list today and tonight will undoubtedly make a tremendous difference. Urge as many of your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors to make these contacts. If ever there was a time to get the politics out of road building, this is it.
Rep.. Current’s refusal to listen to the will of his county voters makes ever so clear why it is so important to vote in the July 17 Republican runoff for the only replacement who is opposed to the Garden Parkway toll road, Dana Bumgardner. Putting Mr. Bumgardner on the Republican ticket would mean that come November, voters would have both a Democrat, Dodie Reese, as well as a Republican, who are opposed to the Garden Parkway toll road. And replacing Rep. Current is what it will take to stop this toll road to nowhere dead.
Our weapons remain the truth and your hard work. Keep it up. You have made a huge difference already, and we have just begun to make the difference that counts. Please click here to make a contribution that helps get the facts out.
On behalf of Alan Albright, Stephanie Armstrong, Jeff Barefoot, Marion Beach, Dot Delano, Warren Ellington, Stacey Ivancic, Scott Kagen, Tina and John Medlin, Neil Moore, Mary Nehring, Mark and Anita Painter, Heather Pierce, Sue Rutledge, Carolyn Sly, Bill Toole, and many others, thank you for your support!
Stopthetollroad.com is not affiliated with any party or candidate.