Governors Highway Safety Association Suggests Improvements to Prevent Accidents on Pennsylvania’s Rural Roads

Rural America has 20 percent of the country’s population and 46 percent of the nation’s car crashes. A lack of resources, both in cash and workers, poses a challenge to avoiding wrecks and deaths.

Though rural traffic studies have been of questionable quality, a new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) suggests broader cooperation to pool local resources, more public outreach, and better road design to curb collisions.

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Georgia’s Most Dangerous Roads are All in Atlanta: Study

A new analysis has identified the most dangerous roads in Georgia, all in the metro Atlanta area.

Moreover, a fifth of deadly crashes involved drunken driving, while a similar amount (19%) were connected to speeding, the analysis from MoneyGeek, a personal finance technology company, revealed.

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New Study Ranks Tennessee Roads in Top 10 List of ‘Most Dangerous’ in the Country

New research by 1-800 Injured shows that Tennessee roads rank as some of the most dangerous in the country. For the study, states were ranked based on an index of fatality rates per 100,000 people, per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, and per 100,000 licensed drivers to determine a “Road Danger Rating”.

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Despite Campaign Promise from Whitmer, Michigan Roads Remain in Disrepair

Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s campaign slogan to “fix the damn roads” gained viral attention for the Michigan Democrat.

However, as she gears up to seek another term, the state is still burdened with infrastructure issues. Residents of the state are required to pay thousands of dollars annually to repair their vehicle due to poor road conditions, according to one study from the nonprofit organization, TRIP.

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Gov. Whitmer Vetoes $2.5 Billion in Tax Relief

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a GOP bill that aimed to provide $2.5 billion in tax breaks by dropping the personal income tax rate from 4.25% to 3.9%, saying it would blow a “hole” in her $74 billion budget.

“It would force tax hikes on families or deep and painful cuts to services, hurt our children’s ability to catch up in school, force layoffs of cops and firefighters, and kneecap our ability to keep fixing crumbling roads,” Whitmer wrote in her veto letter.

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Tennessee State Rep. Griffey Files Bill to Repeal Gas Tax

A member of the Tennessee State House of Representatives filed a bill Wednesday to repeal the state’s gas tax. 

“The working people of Tennessee are getting hammered by inflation and horrendous energy policy that has caused gas prices to sky rocket! All thanks to the I’m competence of Joe Biden and the Democrats in DC,” Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) told The Tennessee Star. “Tennessee is currently running monthly budget surpluses is in the hundreds of millions of dollars over projected budgeted revenues. This gas tax repeal is a way to try to help working Tennesseans and all those Tennesseans paying bother prices at the pump.

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Senate Passes Infrastructure Bill; Tennessee’s Hagerty Warns of a Move Toward ‘Western-Europe-Style Socialism’

By a vote of 69 to 30, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a $1.2 billion infrastructure bill that Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) warns is an endeavor to “fundamentally move America toward Western-Europe-style socialism.”

“Investing in infrastructure the right way is a wise investment in America’s future and in our long-term competitiveness, but that’s not what we’re being asked to vote on here,” Hagerty told fellow senators in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.

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As Infrastructure Bill Heads Toward Passage, Tennessee’s Blackburn and Hagerty Sound Alarm on Debt

Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn

As U.S. Senate leaders expect to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Tuesday morning, both of Tennessee’s senators, Marsha Blackburn (R) and Bill Hagerty (R) are vehemently opposing the legislation, alarmed by its potential to worsen the national debt.

Senate Democrats have expressed their intention to use a process called reconciliation to avoid any possible filibuster, thus allowing themselves expand the measure to encompass $3.5 trillion in federal spending.

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Tennessee Sen. Hagerty Prevents Hastened Passage of Infrastructure Bill

Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty (R) on Thursday night halted a move by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to expedite advancement of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. 

The spending package is not dead yet, but it will not have the accelerated path to passage it would have enjoyed had all 100 senators consented to quickly moving through over a dozen amendment votes Thursday evening and sending the bill to the House of Representatives. 

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Tennessee Rep. Fleischmann: Don’t Expand Infrastructure Plan Beyond Infrastructure

As the U.S. Senate prepared to approve a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Friday, Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-3) advised against expanding the legislation to include non-infrastructure spending at an added cost of over $2 trillion at least.

The bill passed by a vote of 66 to 28, with 16 Republicans joining all Democrats in favor.

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Michigan House Bill Package Looks to Find $800 Million Annually to Fix Local Roads Without Tax Hike

road construction

A House bill package seeks to put about $800 million annually into local roads without a 45-cent gas tax hike or increasing future debt.

The six-bill package, if enacted, would eliminate the six percent sales tax on fuel over three years and replace it with another excise tax that would fund the 92 percent of local roads that aren’t touched by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s $3.5 billion bonding plan.

Much of that bonding money would go to repair roads in Metro Detroit.

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