Pit & Quarry, December 2010

RoundTable ConFeRenCe tax increase were going to face this every three years or every year Theyll talk to you off the record about it that they support it but ask them to go ahead and carry that through They know its a poison pill HEINEMANN Theres no question that its not popular to talk about raising taxes There is a lot of public that agree that we have to do something the guy with the traffic jam Unfortunately it takes bridges collapsing and everything else for anybody to really grasp it What most of the public dont understand is the deterioration we have on some of the roads right now If we dont maintain it now if we wait two years there is no maintenance left You have Hingst to replace it Thats great for jobs We have great projects If we think we have a funding problem now what is it going to be like in two years Its not getting any better Its not like wine Thats a real problem NICELY In Milwaukee they all of a sudden had to do an emergency shutdown on the overpasses to repair it and replace it That was great and was taken care of but it took the funding from another project that was planned Now that project cant happen because there was an emergency road repair that had to be done It comes back to that theres not enough funding out there WILLIFORD Part of the question here is alternative options On the federal level here in Tennessee theyve put together a task force and study groups and they look at all these different options It always comes back to an immediate increase in user fees You can talk to your local politicians on the state level and you can talk to your federal politicians and they all understand the problem They all agree but there is a public perception They dont want to increase the user fees or the gas tax But I go to the pump you go to the pump it changes 10 cents all the time We could put a new Festge five year bill in where the gas tax would go up 2 cents a year and no one would ever know it NICELY Nowadays theres a vote going on and the populus is saying we will pay for what makes sense and will get the economy going and provide jobs Were not going to pay for things that are just social programs or wasteful spending The politicians are still not hearing them Maybe in the future when we elect some new people that will change SUZIO Theyre looking at history Historically whenever theres been a gas tax passed the incoming party was no longer the incoming party after the gas tax Anytime weve had a gas tax passed in this country people have paid attention to who voted for it and unfortunately not returned them to Washington TANEL The challenge is were sitting around this table and thinking the vast majority cares Youre dealing with people that on the nightly news theyre learning about Lindsay Lohan They dont care Thats a huge disconnect in what we all think and want in this room versus what everyone else wants The sad part is it might take a little bit Tanel of that shock marketing You dont want to be promoting a bridge has fallen but thats whats going to get peoples attention You add the fighting between Democrats and Republicans and whats really of importance the highway bill which should be a bipartisan issue and its getting lost as well Theres not going to be much that happens unless we do sort of a multi approach where it is state and federal and everyone here is acting on their own as well as with their associations RICHESSON Will ConExpo Con Agg 2011 help jump start the aggregate industry A question for both producers and suppliers SWANK I dont think any trade show itself will jump start the industry The trade show is not the one producing aggregate or equipment However it will be a good barometer for both producers and manufacturers to see what the feelings are around the country and the different regions and to see what is going on It is a good forum for people to get together and discuss Through that means ConExpo is very good every three years it happens but theres maybe a little more importance this year Johnson HEINEMANN I agree as well I dont think the show is going to jump start it It is a bellwether of things to come We take a close look at who the attendees are and percentage of the attendees Were taking a look at with the equipment we have what we can provide the consumer producers Were going to have a lot of new equipment there but were also going to talk a great deal in our booth talking about cost and value our company provides to the producer We are not going to stuff the booth with equipment Were going to stuff the booth with ideas to control costs MATSON Were looking for technology Were looking for anything that the suppliers can do for us to lower our costs We pretty much know what equipment is out there Were looking for how to lower cost Thats the value Thats why we send people to these shows Looking at irons nice but we want that interface 34 PIT QUARRY December 2010 www pitandquarry com