New Hampshire needs to spend money to fix its crumbling bridges and roads. Who wants to be driving over a red-listed bridge when it collapses? No one I know. Yet, as reported in The Telegraph on Dec. 22, “Sununu rejects toll increase.” This, after three of five Executive Councilors favored a 25 cent increase, and 26 public hearings were evenly spilt on an increase. There are always people who oppose any tax, but given that public opinion was split, it’s clear that we need to fix/update our infrastructure if we want to maintain ‘the New Hampshire advantage.’

The Telegraph quotes New Hampshire House Speaker Gene Chandler as agreeing with the governor and that, “now is not the time to ask our motorists to pay more at the tolls.” I ask: If not now, when? With New Hampshire unemployment at record lows, help wanted signs everywhere, traffic congestion a daily fact of commuting life and Trump’s vaunted tax cuts about to take effect, why isn’t this a good time to take positive steps to fix our infrastructure?

New Hampshire Republicans, and Republican leadership in Washington, appear to be happy to take the state and country backward into the 1950s rather than leading us into the future. The Telegraph article also quotes New Hampshire Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Marchand as saying “that Sununu has no idea what he’s doing as governor, and … as with Donald Trump, it’s embarrassing to watch.” I suggest that next fall we vote for a governor like Steve Marchand who is looking to take New Hampshire into the future, not the past.