Don C. Brunell
Everywhere I go in Washington talking about the need to pay more taxes to improve our state’s roads and highways, people come up to me and say, "You know, I’d support higher taxes if the Department of Transportation fired those guys who stand around leaning on shovels all day!"
I plead guilty — I leaned on shovels many years ago while working for the city of Walkerville. Even worse, my dad was the mayor of that small Montana town. Hopefully, the statute of limitations has expired so I won’t be extradited and put in the slammer.
Walkerville had one each of the following: dump truck, front-end loader fire engine and police car. We had a sheriff and a maintenance foreman. When it snowed, the maintenance foreman had a list of high school kids that he’d call to help sand the streets. My brother and I were on the list. We got $1.25 an hour, and part of the work included — you guessed it —standing around leaning on a shovel.
We couldn’t sand the streets until the foreman loaded the dump truck with sand. While he loaded, we leaned on our shovels, shooting the breeze. Just about everyone in the city saw us, because the sand pile was right next to city hall on the town’s main street. My dad and the foreman got lots of calls about "those lazy high school kids leaning on shovels, joking around!"
But what the callers didn’t talk about was that, after the truck was loaded and the foreman started driving, we started shoveling sand on the streets and didn’t stop until the truck was empty. It was backbreaking work, and we’d lay exhausted in the bed of the truck as it headed back for another load of sand.
Our city foreman had an easy way of weeding out the "goldbrickers" among us. If the truck wasn’t empty when he thought it should be, he’d drive you home and call someone else. Since we all needed the money, we didn’t want to be driven home after the first load.
Today, anyone who drives has seen road construction workers leaning on their shovels. Work on road projects is sometimes delayed for equipment, materials or other tasks, so there are times when workers will stand by with a shovel in hand. That may be unavoidable and believe me, I’m not excusing those who make a habit of avoiding work. Neither is Doug MacDonald, our new transportation secretary.
Like my dad and the city foreman, MacDonald gets those calls and looks into those complaints. If there is a problem, he corrects it. He is committed to making the Department of Transportation more efficient so they spend our tax dollars wisely. But even if we fired every shirker and corrected every inefficiency in the system, as we should, it would save only enough money to build a mile or two of new roads.
We have traffic jams in our cities and killer highways in the suburbs and rural areas. We can’t move our produce to market and commuters are stuck on freeways wasting time, money and gas. It is going to take higher taxes to maintain our current roads and build new ones.
As an old "shovel leaner" I ought to pay restitution. I’m willing to pay more for gas, license plates or tolls. That’s my penance for my time leaning on a shovel.
I believe we ought to bite the bullet and fix our transportation problems now. It will only get more expensive if we put it off.
Don C. Brunell is president of the Association of Washington Business.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
