Needs Vs. Wants

More from Logical Lady Sue Jeffers

When Rep. Kathy Tinglestad showed up at her BPOU convention yesterday, she provided a copy of the DOT Legislative audit to justify her vote to support the transit bill. The audit stated that roads and bridges have improved in the last 6 years but funding is falling behind. The report said more money is needed for road and bridge funding. The problem for our legislature is that they are simply not spending money on roads and bridges this year.

Legislators are considering spending hundreds of millions of dollars on various projects instead of roadsand bridges. Just some of the projects include the Thief River Falls pedestrian and bicycle pathways system; ice arena complex in the city of Crookston; renewable energy clean air project in Koochiching County; AgLan Center; electrical system of the Yellow Medicine County Agriculture and Transportation Museum; Bemidji Regional Event Center; regional community center in Upsala; Prairie Ecology Center in Jackson County; Duluth Entertainment Convention Center arena, Paynesville, Cold Spring downtown riverfront redevelopment project; National Hockey Center at St. Cloud State University; Pemberton community center; Mankato to predesign and design a performing arts theater and Southern Minnesota Women's Hockey Exposition Center; Mayo Civic Center Complex in Rochester; Minnesota Wildlife Art Museum; senior center in the city of Mora; Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval; Camp Eden Wood in Eden Prairie; Burnsville Performing Arts Center; Richfield athletic fields, Asian Pacific Cultural Center; acquisition and renovation of a building for St. Paul Youth Services.

Listed below is another $100 million in requests that could also be spent on roads and bridges instead of election year bribes for incumbent DFL districts. As you know this is just a partial list of funding requests. I have attached bill numbers and authors for your convenience.

HF3002 (Moe) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for state trail acquisition, rehabilitation, and repair; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $29 million.

HF 2302 (Welti) Great River Ridge Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1.34 million

HF697 (Welti) Chester Woods Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. No dollar amount listed

HF143 (Peterson, A.) Minnesota River Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1 million

HF2594 (Dill) North Shore state parks and trails funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. (The Committee will only hear the trail portion of the bill at this time.) $9.6 million

HF2461 (Gardner) Rice Creek North Regional Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2.189 million

HF2598 (Hosch) Stearns County; Rocori Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2.02 million

HF2199 (Hansen) South St. Paul span arch bridge funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $800,000

HF2511 (Koenen) Clara City walking path funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $850,000

HF858 (Sailer) Big Bog State Recreation Area funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1.6 million

HF2834 (Wollschlager) Cannon River pedestrian bridge funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2 million

HF2707 (Lenczewski) Bloomington; Old Cedar Avenue Bridge replacement funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2 million

HF1026 (Hortman) Anoka County bicycle and pedestrian trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. No amount listed

HF1369 (Garofalo) Cannon River pedestrian bridge funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1.5 million

HF1522 (Lillie) Gateway Trail tunnel funding provided, and money appropriated. $650,000

HF2284 (Demmer) Mantorville; Stage Coach Trail and welcome center design grant provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $100,000

HF2829 (Hornstein) Minneapolis; Grand Rounds parkway improvements funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $2 million

HF2819 (Johnson) Lower Afton Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $450,000

HF2848 (Bly) Mill Towns State Trail construction funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $1 million

HF2881 (Faust) Mora; Spring Lake Trail funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $100,000

HF2914 (Pelowski) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for the Wagon Wheel Trail; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $249,000

HF2917 (Pelowski) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for an extension of the Root River State Trail; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $1.641 million

HF2929 (Koenen) A bill for an act relating to capital improvements; appropriating money for a segment of the Minnesota River Trail; authorizing the sale and issuance of state bonds. $4.5 million

HF2431 (Nornes) Vergas; Roger Hanson Memorial Trail completion funding provided, bonds issued, and money appropriated. $50,000

Is it any wonder that the citizens of Minnesota have no faith in their elected officials when it comes to solving the REAL problems facing this state. None of this (mostly from the bonding bill) money should be spent on anything other than roads and bridges, roads and bridges, roads and bridges....then when the roads and bridges are finally up to par, then we can take a look at spending money on the "nice to haves".

Translating Political Language into English for the Common Folk

From Logical Lady Sue Jeffers

In the land of ten thousand taxes and fees, left-leaning legislators of both major political parties govern us. Minnesota consistently ranks among the highest taxed states in the nation. The business climate and job and housing markets look bleak. Government expansion, regulation and intrusion are reaching a breaking point.

For the most part, Minnesotans go ahead with their daily lives blissfully unaware of the grisly details of government’s operation, with only a vague notion of the larger situation based on sound-bites from the nightly local newscast.

This legislative session, the big issue is transportation. “Transportation” is has become a buzzword, and a dangerous one at that. For most of us, transportation is an automobile, so when we hear government officials talking about transportation, naturally, we think of congestion, roads and bridges. Bridge safety is a powerful new concern in the public consciousness that easily comes to mind when transportation issues are mentioned.

When politicians hear and use the word transportation they do not mean roads and bridges. They use transportation as a catchall term, often used by design, to obfuscate the truth.

Furthering the obfuscation this legislative session will come in the form of diversions like, who takes the blame for the bridge collapse; firing the DOT commissioner; compensation for the bridge survivors and is the NTSB credible. Knowing there’s a great big pile of money at stake, all interested parties are queuing up to get their piece of the government pie.

While it is important to understand the problem, diversions and possible solutions, it is even more crucial that we understand the terminology. Let’s start by clarifying words that politician’s use and what these words really mean.

“Transportation”- They really mean light and heavy rail transit, buildings (like a bicycle station with public showers for dirty cyclists, for example), bike paths, nature trails, buses and then, if there are any scraps left over, roads and bridges.

“Comprehensive transportation package” - This definitely doesn’t mean roads. This means even more money spent on light and heavy rail and various transit buildings instead of roads and bridges. Whenever you hear “comprehensive” and “package” coupled together with any other word or phrase, there is also a plan to raise taxes bundled into that “package.”

“Maintain fiscal discipline” – This means 8-10% spending increases for the state budget, when inflation is around 2% and taxpayers are seeing less and less real return for their work. Only in government is this called fiscal discipline.

“Appropriate levels of funding” – See above. Yes it is yet another way to say “tax increase.” We will never hear how much is “enough” because there will never be enough, they will always need more.

“Reasonable gas tax increase” – This can not exist without spending reform and accountability first. Any gas tax increase is regressive and hurts families and small businesses the hardest. Ironically it doesn’t matter that 57% of the public does not support a gas tax. What they mean by “reasonable” is the highest amount they could get away with at the moment.

“Multi-modal system” – I so love it when we come up with fancy new terms. Translation: trains, trams, trolleys, light and heavy rail transit. Maybe a bike path. Roads and bridges are definitely not the priority when this kind of language is used.

“Revenue Raiser” – Easy one (and also a Democrat favorite) This is just a fancy way to say “tax increase.”

“Real money” – This one is my favorite. Minnesota has a general fund budget of $34.5 billion. That is just the starting point, our legislators spend much more on top of that. This is apparently not “real money” to them. Real money really means a tax increase.

“Quality of life issue” – Politicians love feel-good words. This one is often used to justify - you guessed it - tax increases. More of our “real money” can then be wasted on solutions we already know won’t solve the problems of congestion and safety.

“Bipartisan agreement” – Hold onto your wallets! This means that all sides agree on the plan to best stick it to the general public and they now have even more of our money to waste on the latest boondoggle.

The outrageously expensive transportation legislation of 2007 that included a metro-wide sales tax increase, a gas tax increase, and a “wheelage” tax (translation: a new tax on your vehicle, “just because”) and a license tab fee increase. It will be reincarnated bigger and more expensive in the 2008 version.

The general public is about to be inundated with a PR campaign pushing costly, wasteful and unproductive non-solutions. Of course, they won’t call it that. They’ll call it “A bipartisan plan for improving our quality of life through a comprehensive transportation package that maintains fiscal discipline and raises revenue with a reasonable gas tax so our multi-modal transportation system is appropriately funded.”

Translation: Big Tax Increases coming in 2008. Congestion and road and bridge safety will continue to deteriorate.

Driver Alert: It’s Not the Taxes Stupid, it’s the Spending Priorities!

From Sue Jeffers

The Vote Yes gang has broadened their horizons and expanded into Progress in Motion. They recently posted a new billboard along Highway 280. It reads, “Drivers Alert: No new taxes means no new bridges.”

Many of us remember Transportation Alliance as the folks behind the Vote Yes campaign. (http://www.transportationalliance.com/) This well funded and well-organized group succeeded in raising $3.6 million and worked to deceive voters about the true nature of the MVST constitutional amendment dedicating 100% of the motor vehicle sales tax revenue to “transportation.”

We already know the Transportation Amendment comes at the expense of roads and bridges. It dedicates revenue from sales taxes on new and used vehicles to transportation expenses using a formula requiring a minimum of 40% for public transit assistance and up to 60% for highways effective June 30 2011. Of course, the ugly truth of the amendment is that while it guarantees minimum funding for mass transit, there are actually no guarantees that road and bridge projects will receive any funding at all from MVST receipts.

Progress in Motion and the Transportation Alliance are not looking out for the interests of the taxpayers, nor are they truly interested in improving highway conditions for drivers. Groups like this want one thing: more of our money. Their objective is securing ever- higher taxes for transportation, including transit. Both groups feed at the public trough; both groups know how to play the game and it is their hope that an uninformed general public will again fall for this latest deceit ad campaign.

Instead of opening the debate about spending priorities in Minnesota we will hear calls for a gas tax increase, more transit funding and ousting DOT Commissioner Carol Molnau.

It won't matter that almost 60% of us oppose a gas tax increase, transportation funding is at an all time high and we still don't know why the 35W bridge fell. It won't matter that the DOT is an enormous bureaucracy filled with almost as many rules and regulations as the tax code. It won't matter that LRT is inefficient, wildly expensive and only used by 2% of the population.

It will matter that Commissioner is a Republican.

So until we fully dedicate 100% of the gas tax revenues to roads and bridges, adjust funding formulas or allocate general funds to roads and bridges I will start my own campaign. My first billboard will feature a fallen bridge and read:

Driver Alert:
It’s not the taxes stupid, it’s the spending priorities!