Governor Rick Snyder and other Michigan officials cannot be excoriated enough these days. Having poisoned the citizens they are supposed to help, and with GOP officials balking at how to pay for essential infrastructure upgrades, any end to criticism of these asshats does not seem forthcoming. Michigan appointed a Flint-based engineering firm that has just released a study that paints a very stark picture of the cost of neglect.
Replacing 13 miles of water mains every year for the next 50 years. Repairing or replacing five dams. Switching out at least 2,000 lead service lines every year for five years.
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The new infrastructure recommendations from Flint-based engineering firm Rowe Professional Services also come with a price tag of more than $214 million, including $80 million needed to dig up and replace roughly 10,000 lead pipes carrying water to homes and businesses. The new cost estimate to replace lead-based water service lines alone is more than three times the $25-million funding request submitted under the proposed budget from Gov. Rick Snyder.
[My emphasis]
Flint’s water supply problems became nationally exacerbated almost two years ago when the braintrust that is its elected officials switched the drinking water supply. Over the next five years, the cost of water bills for Flint residents are projected to double if these infrastructural faults are not fixed. But in true Republican fashion, Governor Rick Snyder and friends are still nickel and diming the citizens.
Originally, the Snyder administration asked the state Legislature for $25 million in water line replacement as part of a nearly $200-million aid package for Flint, a city of nearly 100,000. The city already has $2 million from the state to replace about 500 lines, according to Baird.
But the governor's top adviser on Flint said in an interview that the figure is likely not enough given new information about the scope and cost to remove lead lines as well as galvanized lines, which are also suspected of leaching lead.
This is a root problem with the Republican philosophy of wanting to prove to their constituents that “big” government doesn’t work—while they still want to work in the government by pretending to make it “work” for citizens.