Bakersfield.com

California is busted, but then that's not exactly new information, is it?  We had a short term reminder of the state's fiscal woes when bills were being paid with IOUs and, if you drive a car, you have a constant and long-term reminder of our depleted treasury in the form of roads and highways that, already in poor repair, continue to deteriorate.  But, my fellow prunepickers, if there is no money for schools, and prison officials have detemined that, to balance the budget, we can now put a large part of our criminal population (having been properly corrected and rehabilitated) back on the street, what are the chances that funds will become available any  time soon for highway repair?  I'm thinking zero and/or nil, take your choice. 

What to do, what to do?  Well, we could just sit and worry.  That would, if nothing else, put us a step ahead of our legislators who, from all appearances, merely sit.  Or, we could step back a century and a half, to 1866 when Kern County was first formed, and pull a page from the playbook of Kern County's early leaders.  They were an innovative and enterprising lot - which means simply that they had no money but a lot of common sense.  They, too, were sorely in need of better roads but, unlike their modern counterparts, they had a plan.  Their plan didn't have a label but we will call it "Pay  to play".and this is how it worked.

Colonel Thomas Baker was a talented and energetic entrepreneur.  On November 6, 1867, the Board of Supervisors granted Baker and his associates the right of way and a contract to "construct, improve, and keep in repair, a waggin (sic) or Turnpike road from a point at or near the junction of Agua Caliente and Walker Basin creeks in Kern County.  Thence to Walkers Basin in said county."  

There  were other specifications, of course.  The road had to be completed and "fit for practical use on or before the first day of January, 1868", a period of about 60 days.  Bear in mind, now, that this was a brand new county that would have little money until tax revenues began to flow into the treasury.  So how would they pay Baker for the road work?  That was clearly spelled out in the remaining contract provisions, to wit: "Said Baker and his associates and assigned shall be at liberty to collect tolls upon said road for a term of twenty years from and after the first day of January next year upon condition that said road shall be kept in good repair for practical use."

Perfect!  The road gets built within a specified time period, there is a quality control provision in that it must be "fit for practical use", a maintenance clause, and it will cost the county nothing.   Hey, we can do this.  Well, it may require modification of the toll rates since Baker's fee schedule looked like this:

For each span of animals .......................75 cents

Wagon or buggy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 1 dollar

Horse and rider,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 50 cents

Each pack animal...................................... twenty-five cents

For loose horses and cattle (each)........... 6 cents

For goats, hogs, and sheep (each)........... 5 cents

Well, it's a concept worth exploring, don't you think?  I do see one possible hangup.  Baker was required to complete his road within about 60 days.  Today, the project would have to be advertised and open to competitive bidding.  Then, once the bid was awarded, the work could not begin until the plans had been subjected to review by everyone from OSHA to the Office of Homeland Securtiy. 

It may still work out, though, because by the time all those agencies have signed off on the project, say, a couple of years down the road, prosperity may have returned to the Golden State and all the wrinkles and potholes on thoroughfares both major and minor will be nothing but a distant memory.