Monday, February 18, 2008
It Is Not High Noon In Minnesota
The date: February 16, 2008
The Place: The St. Paul Pioneer Press aka Twincities.com
The LINK to the story. As usual, if the link brings you to a "register for free before we let you read the story" page, just search via Google by the title and author
Note: I am not dissin' on SPPP writer Bill Salisbury - he's a fine writer. I'm dissin' on the Tax and Spend Democrats.
Excerpt:
Minnesota legislators will get their one and only shot next week at passing a bill to increase taxes for roads, bridges and transit projects, legislative leaders said Friday.
House Speaker [Margaret Kelliher], DFL-Minneapolis, and Senate Assistant Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, said both chambers plan to vote Thursday on transportation legislation that would raise an estimated $8.4 billion over 10 years for a massive building program.
The legislation would:
* Increase gasoline taxes 7 1/2 cents a gallon.
*Levy a half-cent sales tax increase in the metro area.
*Boost license tab fees.
"This is the bill," Kelliher said. If it doesn't pass, the House will not take a run at a second bill with a lower price tag.
Large Marge is blowing smoke. If you believe Minnesota House and Senate Democrats - if the above bill and its price tag is vetoed - won't come back with a lower priced plan, I have oceanfront beach property to sell you in tropical International Falls.
Everyone knows that when Democrats get what they want they come back and ask for more. And when they don't get what they want, they retool and come back, trying to pull the wool over your eyes with a different plan. It happens every time.
Excerpt:
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has threatened to veto the bill because it increases taxes.
If he does, Kelliher said, she would move for an override vote "fairly quickly." Democrats hold 85 of the 134 House seats, but they need five Republican votes to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to overturn a veto.
House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, [Republican - Marshall, MN], has said repeatedly that the House Republicans would vote to sustain a Pawlenty veto. But Kelliher said DFLers have been courting Republicans.
"We think we have the votes to override," said [Large Marge].
The Democrat politicians in Minnesota latched on to the catastrophic collapse of the I35-W bridge as a lifeline example to raise taxes and raise fees. These Democrats will latch on to any tragedy and exploit it in order to advance their political ideology of raising taxes and fees.
On both a state and national scale the collapse of the bridge gave Democrats a reason to use the word "infrastructure" - the way other people use the word "the" - as a scare tactic to confiscate more money from the pockets of the taxpayers. Democrats love to panic, or at least give this impression. The Sky is Always Falling for Democrats - always.
The bridge did not "just fall down." Its collapse will likely be explained by the NTSB as due to a variety of causes; insufficient gusset plates used from the very beginning of the design, extraordinary weight placed upon the structure during its repair and possibly its de-icing system which may have contributed to the steel being prone to advanced corrosion.
No one has to worry that Minnesota's Republican politicians will ever be too conservative, because they're not. The Dems will find those five Republicans needed to override a veto. If by some magical miracle the veto is sustained, Large Marge and her fellow Socialists will waddle back with a toned down transportation bill that taxes us just a little bit less than what they originally wanted.
Democrats never go away and they are never satisfied with how they have screwed the taxpayer. They always want more. This much we know is true.
©2008
Labels: I35W, MN Legislature 2008
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