Who pays the bill?

I saw a sign today that left me confused; a flashy, professional sign that urged me to vote “no” on Question 1 to stop the mess. I had to wait unti I got home to check that, yes, Question 1 is the turnpike widening referendum. I don’t know what the mess is, but I do know who paid for that fancy, confusing sign — the road engineers, paving contractors, and lawyers who had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to distort this referendum and confuse the public with the help of expensive media consultants.

I’ve driven a lot of roads in Maine, including the Turnpike, and there are many important roads in the state that need $100 million a lot worse than the southern end of the Turnpike. And if that’s the foolish way the state is going to spend money on its roads, then we need a change.

Increasing public input to the planning process is not a mess of red tape, it’s a way to keep the Department of Transportation from wasting our money trying to cram something we don’t want down our throats. Anybody remember the hundreds of thousands of dollars DOT wasted designing a midcoast Route 1 bypass nobody wanted?

I’m going to vote “yes” on No. 1 to stop the lies, to stop the short-sighted money-spenders, and to stop the Turnpike widening so that Maine can spend our money on the roads that need it. Sumner Roberts Orrington