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FROM STAR TRIBUNE: “BIG VOTES ON GAS TAX HIKE”
By Michael B. Brodkorb | February 19, 2008
"DFL architects of a $7.8 billion plan that includes tax increases to fund transit, roads and bridges are exhibiting a renewed swagger regarding their chances, but also apprehension that success may again elude them. On Monday, the bill's authors dropped a divisive component known as indexing — which would tie the gas tax to inflation increases — to try to gain enough Republican votes to override a likely governor's veto." Source: Star Tribune, February 19, 2008
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"As it now stands, the transportation plan would raise the gas tax by 5 cents a gallon by mid-September and add as much as another 3.5 cents until the costs of issuing bonds for transportation projects are paid.
In another key provision, license tab fees on many cars and trucks, particularly luxury vehicles, would increase.
The proposal also would levy a half-cent sales tax in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area, with most of the money going toward transit, roads and bridges. The move would not require a referendum. Counties outside the immediate metro area could also join in levying the tax, but they could later opt out.
The metro sales tax would be apart from a proposed three-eights-cent increase in the state sales tax to fund outdoors, the environment and the arts. That proposal will be put before voters in November.
'Who's keeping track of [all] the sales tax, sales tax, sales tax, sales tax increases?' asked House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall." Source: Star Tribune, February 19, 2008
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11 Responses to “FROM STAR TRIBUNE: “BIG VOTES ON GAS TAX HIKE””
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February 19th, 2008 at 10:24 AM
That’s a lot of taxes. Where’s the re-prioritizing of spending that everyone was talking about? Or is it a forgone conclusion that fresh taxpayer cash is the preferred answer to our infrastructure needs?
I like this opt-out idea. Makes it so much more pallatable during an election year.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:28 AM
So, what, exactly do you republicans stand for these days? Seems to me, it can be one of two things:
1) No investment in roads and bridges, assuming that either the 35W accident was a fluke, or that the loss of 13 lives every few years is easier to take than a vote to pay for roads and bridges.
2) All roads and bridges should be paid for by our children and grandchildren through deficit spending masked as bonding.
I remember a time when republicans stood for fiscal responsibility. Now, it appears all they stand for is re-election.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:37 AM
It is a lot of taxes Drew, but we have an enormous amount of work to be done. Everyone knows congestion is horrible in the metro and that many stretches of road in greater Minnesota are deathtraps.
You can live a dream world where the legislature makes huge cuts to education, healthcare and nursing homes to fund roads, but it’s not going to happen.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:53 AM
Joe F. Just what do you stand for?
It has been the DFL who has sent every transportation bill through with so much pork in it we would be foolish to pass it! yet idiots like you give them a free pass because people like you are about your party over what is good for the state.
Why are you not bitching about the bonding projects the DFL has proposed? Why bonding for further spending in social programs and education are just fine with you as long as no Republican was a part of it.
If the bridge disaster was such a big deal to the DFL here, then why do they feel the need to try and pass a bill they KNOW will get the veto?
Because they do not care about the citizens of MN, they have their base to pander to which is transpotation unions for mass transit.
Why do we not suspend some of the wasteful transit project now and get all our bridges in order? Because that will not fill democRat coffers with cash. As some of my liberal friends like to say, “follow the money”.
I look forward to your answer to the above.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:06 PM
No surprise. look who’s in power – liberals.
what do liberals love more than anything? taking from you and giving to them.
sort of a robin hood kind of thing, except robin hood now has a bunch of cops and lawyers that can throw you in jail if you disagree.
i hate the government.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Sorry. Apparently my response contains too much truth, so Michael had to ban its very existence.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:17 PM
No, Republicans DO stand for improving the roads and bridges, not spending pork on the mass transit that only the liberals in the metro area want. If the transportation money the DFL keeps saying they want to raise would actually GO TO THE ROADS AND BRIDGES, I’d agree with the bill, but we all know that won’t happen. they’ll get their money for the boondoggle projects like more light rail (oh, and I was on Hiawatha last night during rush hour and guess what? NEARLY EMPTY TRAINS!) and let the roads fall into even greater disarry. And if people like to complain about Carol Molnau and the MNDOT, take a look at all the road construction that is being done….north on 35E/694, 35W and crosstown…lots of work is being done on ROADS. But if we are told the same lies over and over again, we start to believe them. That’s why I have learned to listen very carefully to what the DFL in this state says. If they actually give us facts instead of feelings we’d know what frauds they are. We have inherited a roads system ignored by years of DFL control, and it’s not an overnight fix, just like inheriting the decimated military that Clinton left us, then have to hear the complaints from the left on how we sent ill-equipped soldiers into war. Well, who made them ill-equipped??? 8 years of Clintonistas robbing the military coffers left our soldiers with next to nothing, and it can’t be turned around in one or two years.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:22 PM
okay, sorry, i went off topic, but I get so sick of hearing the complaints from the left that we are creating a debt for our children. Well, they’ll be driving on the roads, too, as will their children and THEIR children. So yes, I believe that future generations need to pay for some of what they’ll be inheriting. We are doing it for them, but that doesn’t come cheap. And mass transit will NOT suffice. We aren’t London, New York or other metro areas we are often held up to emulate. The metro area is simply not conducive to the type of mass transit dreamt of in legislative huddles. So go online, read the text of the bill and see for yourself what the bill says, and what it will include. And won’t include.
February 19th, 2008 at 12:48 PM
Why is it OK to do bonding for projects like the zoo, trails, and big ice rinks, but it’s not OK for roads? You people are nuts!
We have walking and biking trails all over hell’s half-acre – which in Minneapolis are plowed before crews finish clearing snow from the streets – yet we have unmet needs on our highways?
I say no pork projects until our highways are all in good shape. Period. What’s so difficult about that?
And please, Joe whatever: until there’s a final report backing your case, don’t blame republicans for the bridge collapse. That’s a totally classless move.
February 19th, 2008 at 4:10 PM
Classless is being a liberal.
The nice part is the democRats have been telling us all how we all want this gas tax increase. I think they believe if they say that enouogh it will come true.
This November the local DFL is in trouble for their try at taxapoloza last year. Guess they still think that a vote for a DFL candidate is a known vote for a tax increase, even though in 2006 they did not think they would need to raise taxes.
Should not be long and liberals will wear out their welcome all over the country. While a noisy bunch they may be, they are becoming fewer and fewer each year. I think the middle class is figuring out just what a friend thay have in the democRats.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:38 AM
All I want to know is, who are the so-called Republican house members who voted with the Democratic majority.
They should be inundated with e-mails and tarred and feathered and ran out of the party.