BAD LEGISLATION!

This commentary focuses is on legislation that vastly increases the truck axle weights for St Charles County. There is much that can be said about how legislators OK such lawmaking and the huge bridge failure in Minneapolis should serve as a warning. Legislation hustled through at the last minute and "strategies" crafted by lobbyists that are likely the result of big campaign donations does not, in this case, consider the condition of the roads and bridges in St Charles County and, therefore, is unworthy of support.

We should thank Councilman Joe Brazil who first raised the red flag on this issue and point the finger of shame at those legislators who inflicted these large increases in truck axle weights on the roads and bridges of the county.

We talked to our local Representative about this after we received an inquiry from a reader who felt that comments we had made in a previous blog were not valid. Our Representative said he would check on it but thought that the Bill did not deal with St Charles County and only affected a county on the Kansas-Missouri border. After checking further, he admitted that, yes, it did affect St Charles County and he then went on to explain how he had not really read the Bill, was not aware, etc., etc.

It should be obvious that any legislator who voted for this "deal" did not represent the interests of his or her constituents who must daily travel over county roads and bridges. The increases in truck axle weights were not just minor ones. They increased the allowable truck axle weights by nearly 6000 pounds each axle!

Our information indicates that the provision allowing these vastly increased weights was slipped in at the end of many pages of a bill at the last minute by a legislator whose district was not even close to St Charles County. So, why did he sponsor it? Does this smell like a deal? You bet!

That's still no excuse for our legislators, the area that would be most affected, supporting it.