Today’s Tribune column: “Whips, chains and economic development.”

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It’s time for an integrity check — time for some overdue introspection, and time to start asking candidates for office to speak definitively on their positions with respect to the Bridges Project boondoggle, both in general terms, and in the more specific sense of the pure havoc to be wreaked on Southern Indiana if tolls are instituted on existing bridges.

One Southern Indiana’s embrace of tolling to actualize an out-moded transportation “solution” is tantamount to killing the villagers in order to save them. The city council’s shaky embrace of 1SI is an embarrassment, but at least is as yet reversible.

As a whole, Southern Indiana has the power to put the brakes on the madness. However, it will require brains and courage. Both exist here. It’s going to be interesting to see if, for once, we’ll use them.

BAYLOR: Whips, chains and economic development

For instance, there is the Godzillaesque boondoggle of the Bridges Project, which 1SI supports with a zeal bordering on the religious, and which will require tolls on existing bridges that plainly will discriminate against working Hoosiers while fatally impeding the flow of commerce into Indiana from Kentucky, all for the sake of a “fix” that will be outmoded long before completion.

Green, future-oriented, regional transportation alternatives, anyone? Don’t ask 1SI to espouse them. In a world of solar panels, 1SI is mining coal with pick and shovel.

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