Posted: 02/19/08 18:56, Edited: 02/19/08 18:58
by Dave Mindeman
I'd like to compare three news stories that came out today:
State Hasn't Invested Enough in its Roads: Legislative Auditor
It's Agreed: Hastings Bridge Needs Replacement, But How to Pay For It?
Pawlenty Orders State Hiring Freeze
I am not sure how you can avoid connecting those three stories without coming to one unmistakable conclusion:
The State of Minnesota is revenue deficient and the Governor has failed in his duties as a fiscal manager.
The Legislative Auditor's report wasn't talking about investments in the last few weeks or the last few months.
Since 2002, the quality of state trunk highways has generally declined.
Remember 2002? The year of Pawlenty?
And regarding the Hastings Bridge. Downgraded again and yet, MnDOT can't even put it on the docket until 2015.... are you kidding? Even Rep. John Kline's office weighed in:
.. Rep. John Kline's office agrees "the Hastings bridge cannot wait until 2015 for new construction," according to Kline's spokesman Tony Young.
Except, Kline's office can only offer constructive criticism... actual construction would require a budget request, (an earmark if you will)... and we already know how that plays out with our "principled" congressman.
We can't even put it into the bonding bill... the preferred remedy of our chief executive:
The borrowing, or bonding, bill the governor proposed includes $225 million for new bridges, but only local ones. Since the Hastings is a state bridge, the bonding bill wouldn't help.
So, I guess we all wait till 2015 or when the bridge falls down...whichever comes first.
But our Governor has a fiscal plan. Yes, let's freeze state hiring. That's the ticket! Of course, he has already been working on this... because we have been reducing state jobs all along. As the legislative auditor points out in his MnDOT report:
Staffing at MnDOT dropped from a peak of 5,649 in 2001, just before Pawlenty took office, to 4,555 in 2007 - a 19 percent decline.
Too bad some of that attrition didn't include Sonia Morphew Pitt or even better.... Carol Molnau.
Yes indeed. No New Taxes has been working out great, hasn't it?
