So yes, the governor of Minnesota is calling a special session in light of the recent bridge collapse. Fine. But he made one fatal error in calling this special session, and that was leaving the agenda wide open. Whereas he should have specified that the session will address transportation issues and that is it, he didn’t and now the local liberals are moving in for the kill.
According to the STrib, Mayor Coleman is seeking a tax hike in the city to fill a budget gap if he can’t get State money out of the special session.
Interesting. It sounds an awful lot like a threat. Give me more State money or I’m going to tax the crap out of my people. Sound about right? It sounds a lot like he is trying to get the citizens of St. Paul to leverage pressure on the Governor to give in for fear of their own rising taxes. After all, a 15% property tax levy is a big card to play, and for property owners it’s an ominous threat.
So, by the numbers, St. Paul has a $17 million dollar budget gap. Of course, instead of working to balance a really bad budget, Coleman just wants more money. Typical. Tax and spend. Why fix the problem when you can either rape the State for aid or rape the taxpayers for more money and just continue spending? Personally, if I lived in St. Paul I would question a tax increase to cover a budget gap when the city just spent money to build an “immigrant” library for the city (i.e. a library for non-English speakers). Or maybe they should be spending less time and effort trying to figure out how to best embrace the RNC protesters and a bit more time figuring out where they’re hemorrhaging money. Or would that be asking too much?
Either way, this is a cheap shot at the State government and a blunt attempt to exploit the bridge collapse for political and economic gain. After all, at what point should it seem ok to use the special session set forth to address transportation issues to ask for more money for police and parks and recreation. Worse yet, when is threatening your citizens with tax increases to try to increase your leverage with the governor ever a good idea? This is just absurd… And it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Expect to see proposed tax increases across the board as this special session draws near.
Check out the differnce in opinion on Pawlenty on the same subject.
http://thesamerowdycrowd.wordpress.com/
Of course, there are things we do know. We do know that we underinvest in transportation. Numerous analyses show that our roads and bridges are in disrepair and not meeting our needs. That’s a problem we can address now, and kudos to Governor Pawlenty for finally stepping up on that front.
And as always, you know that there is enough money in the budget already, if they would just trim several of a number of ridiculous and worthless programs.
you mean things like multi-language public libraries and immigrant recreation centers? Naw… That might hurt somebody’s feelings, and it’s better to tax the “fortunate” than hurt somebody’s feelings who are “less fortunate” than the rest of us