Posted: 06/26/07 16:27
by Dave Mindeman
This has to be discussed...because it is delusional and precisely why the Republicans in the Minnesota House are just plain wrong.
In a Glencoe paper, Rep. Art Shimanski shared an opinion piece with the title: GOP caucus saved Minnesotas billions.
If that were true, then we should all be thanking the House minority for their mathematical genius. But, as is usually the case, the problems lie in what is not said.
Here is the first quote from Shimanski's article:
House members held the line against over $5 billion in new, job-killing tax increases. In cooperation with the governor, who made very clear from the beginning that there were some initiatives that would be "poison pills" - making an entire bill unsignable - House members promoted the values that Minnesotans hold dear.
$5 billion...wow..sounds like a lot. But, a lot of that money was offset by property tax relief. New taxes on the wealthy to give a break to property owners already hit by a slumping housing market. That particular bill had a net increase in taxes of zero.
And one of the poison pills alluded to by Rep. Shimanski is an effort to take inflation into account for state budgeting. Most of you understand inflation... you know... the thing that made the Crosstown Project cost an additional 30% during a 3 year delay in execution. The thing consumers are noticing in the produce aisles. The increases the state takes into account on the revenue side of things but pretends doesn't exist for spending purposes.
And then there is the gas tax increase...or as Shimanski puts it:
A large amount of the $5 billion in proposed tax increases were a direct result of the Omnibus Transportation bill. If it had been passed, taxes and fees contained in the legislation would have put a great burden on the typical Minnesota family.
Now, I hope Rep. Shimanski understands how transportation costs work. If a road has to be fixed...we do have to pay for it. Right? MNDOT has repeatedly told us, they have no money. We steal money from the dedicated transportation funds to cover general expenditures. That would seem to indicate a lack of money. Now, maybe Rep. Shimanski has discovered a new way for the state to increase revenue, but last time I looked, the state does not sell commodities and doesn't have any fee for service businesses. So, it would seem that taxes, (dedicated transportation taxes like the gas tax) are the only revenue source available.
That means we either watch the roads crumble and traffic congestion continue to clog up the highways and the air, or we actually pay to fix it.....and the irony of it all is that the continuous delays will simply cost us more later. Thank you, Rep Shimanski.
Shimanski summarized this way:
In the end, we stuck together on behalf of Minnesotans and the wallets that are already struggling with the price of fuel.
Alright... Rep. Shimanski... I will be glad to hold you responsible for all this. Your caucus stuck together and made sure that Minnesotans will get what they pay for... no fixes and no progress.
