×

Full of Holes: Justice can’t dodge promises on roads

When touring the state drumming up the vote for his Roads to Prosperity bond funding, Gov. Jim Justice was asked, repeatedly, to find a way to ensure some money would be set aside to take care of the crumbling infrastructure already in place. The deferred maintenance on our secondary roads hit a crisis level years ago.

Justice made a lot of big promises, dressed up in what he thought were country-isms, about new roads, bridges, and finishing proposed highways. In fact $236 million of road bond funding is already under contract for five of those big projects.

… And already, Justice is having to dip into even those projects to meet needs that cannot be ignored any longer.

“Skinny them down” was the phrase he used for projects pending.

So what is not going to get done? What was promised that will evaporate now that the governor realizes the can he thought he would be able to keep kicking down the road has fallen into an enormous pothole, instead?

Politicians love to promise “prosperity.” Our governor even promised he was going to use the money we sent him to build roads to it.

Justice’s intentions may have been good, but blaming former governors will only go so far in distracting taxpayers who now realize the governor’s mouth was writing checks his Division of Highways couldn’t cash.

Next time Justice and his team get the bright idea to promise West Virginians the moon, he’d better be ready for us to point to our roads and remind him — we’ve already got enough craters.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today