Thursday, October 13, 2005

inflation treadmill

Gas tax delay pricey Seattle PI
(I)n the time supporters of (Washington State) Initiative 912 have used to try to repeal the new 9.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase and convince voters that the state Department of Transportation has been wasting money on misplaced priorities, their ballot measure has gobbled up tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
...
The transportation engineers factored in annual inflation over the length of the projects using the 2005 construction cost index of 5 percent as stated by industry analysts Global Insight. The outcome: Even if voters reject Initiative 912 next month, the delays it will have caused sapped $66 million in buying -- and road-building -- power from the $8.5 billion transportation package.

Not examined in this article is the following question: Why is inflation running so high? It is the high cost of energy. Better roads will facilitate more inflation, as the vehicles which traverse said roads burn -- energy.

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