How did we find the money to reopen rest areas?

by David Safier

Every time I drive I-10, 17 and 8, I ask myself, How did we find the money to open rest areas that we closed because we simply couldn't afford to keep them open?

I read in a few places, it costs $320,000 a year per rest area. Somehow, we can afford that now, but we couldn't earlier.

I know this comes from the State Highway Fund, so it's a separate pot of money from funds that support other governmental functions. But apparently, nine rest stops have been reopened, including four that needed repair work above and beyond the normal $320,000 yearly expense. That's $2,880,000 per year, plus whatever the added repair work costs. Let's lowball the total at $3 million.

If we absolutely can't afford the $3 million for rest stops, then we can, how can I believe we can't afford $1.4 for life saving transplants? Is a bathroom break so essential we can dig out the money, but health care is a luxury we don't consider to be all that important?

I'm just sayin'. I may be all wrong. If anyone can show me how ridiculous my concerns are, please do so.