The House overrode Governor Pawlenty’s veto of the Mass Transit Subsidy “Transportation” bill.
Six House Republicans broke with the governor to make the 90 votes needed to override. The final tally was 91-41.
Hang on to your wallets, Minnesota. And be careful on those bridges; most of the SIX BILLION DOLLARS is going to go to DFL pet projects, pork, and mass transit. Which you can ride to your next job interview, since the DFL is dead-set on gang-raping the state economy.
The Lady Logician has the names of the six RINO hamsters who betrayed the party and the people who voted them into office:
Rep. Abler
Rep. Erhardt [about whom more below – ed.]
Rep. Tinglestad (hello HD49!)
Rep. Heidgerken
Rep. Neil Peterson
Rep. Hamilton
Kudos to the District 49B GOP, who denied endorsement to Rep. Tingelstad last weekend. I don’t know which districts haven’t held conventions yet, but I’d hope they also either deny endorsements or – better yet – endorse people who won’t betray Republican and Conservative ideals.
Like Keith Downey has a chance to do in Edina. I think we’ll be interviewing him this weekend on the NARN Volume II show (stay tuned for details). If you live in Edina, you need to turn out to support him in ejecting the hamster Erhard from office. If you live in a safe district (or, alternatively, a hopeless one, as I do), you need to pony up time and money to support Downey. While it would be the depth of pretension for me, a humble blogger, to “endorse” anyone, let it be known that I’d really, really like Downey to kick the hamster Erhard’s ass at the March 8 convention, and sweep to victory in November behind a tide of angry, motivated conservatives.
It’s time to put some RINO pelts above the fireplace.
UPDATE: Well, maybe the State GOP gets it after all.
“”And be careful on those bridges; most of the SIX BILLION DOLLARS is going to go to DFL pet projects, pork, and mass transit.””
For crying out fricken loud, How much more blatantly deceptive and mis representative can you be (Rhetorical question, this is a microbe compared to some of your whales here) There is no MOST about it. You guys decided to play hard ball with the funding and you lost. If you would have been willing to come to the table and negotiate in good faith there would have been a better outcome for all of us.
The Trans bill was 6.6 billion, The GOP Caucus proposal was 7.53 Billion. I haven’t heard from the GOP on their spending priorities but their financing piece had some very creative and worthy options to it.
As for the spending, the DFL provided some examples:
– 13 fracture critical bridges, including Hastings and Lafayette
– Highways 60 and 14 get changed to 4 lanes.
Most of the finding is at the discretion of MNDot.
10 year totals per Senate Majority Caucus:
Trunk Highways: $3.4 billion
County State-Aid Highways: $1.5 billion
Municipal City-Aid Streets: $392 million
Greater Minnesota Transit: $58 million
Metropolitan Area Transit: $1.1 billion
over 80% dedicated specifically to roads and bridges. I know your dad was an English teacher, but I can be relatively sure his math is better than that.
Suck it up and take some responsibility for once in your life, You all blew this one, and don’t think I am happy about it one bit!
I was pissed off at Ron, already, given his decision to co-author the Metrocrats’ pistol and ugly gun registration bill.
Notice how the Strib, in its article today, stressed the “bipartisan legislation”? It’s bipartisan because Edina’s two Republican representatives signed as co-authors.
Neither one of them were pro-gun, and Ron would say as much to anyone who asked. (I asked both, and Neil was impossible to pin down until after the election). But I didn’t expect them to work so hard to provide political cover for the DFL’s anti-gun extremists.
SD41’s endorsing convention is Saturday, March 8th (Southview Middle School, 8:15 AM). Unfortunately, I no longer live in SD41, and the endorsing convention in my own BPOU is on the same day (and I’m a delegate, so I can hardly skip it.)
Still, if we have any SD41 delegates reading, make sure you’re heard. And if we have any SD41 readers who aren’t delegates – remember, you can attend as a spectator, even though you can’t vote.
“their financing piece had some very creative and worthy options to it.”
and it never got out of committee. When exactly was the compromise suppose to start?
“You all blew this one,”
No, 6 Republicans, and 85 DFL’ers blew this one.
A transportation bill that is over “over 80% dedicated specifically to roads and bridges.”
Ummm . . . in a transportation bill shouldn’t 100% percent be dedicated to roads & bridges?
What Jeff said. In spades.
“When exactly was the compromise suppose to start?”
It had already started. The Minority caucus tried to play majority be refusing to negotiate. Rather than whine about the nickel, cheer it wasn’t a dime. It started at 10 cents, than 7 1/2, than a nickel, and the GOP refused to budge or negotiate, so you got what the DFL decided to do. As is usually the case, the Left went out of their way to accommodate and negotiate, but they refused. Fortunately, not only was their clear sanity in the Majority caucus, but several on the Right saw the light as well.
“”in a transportation bill shouldn’t 100% percent be dedicated to roads & bridges?””
Ahh, it should be dedicated to Transportation. And those that think that is only roads and bridges are the same ones that think funding should only come off a credit card
Flash
PS: joelr, who’s jeff?!? . . . jdege? That’s like someone calling me Kurt. Everyone would go WHO?!? *laughing*
I’m Jeff. Or, at least, that’s the name that joelr best knows me by. (He’s not met all of my alternative personalities.)
As for the “80% to roads and bridges” – you talk as if raising the gas tax was all the damage that was done. Metro area counties are now allowed to boost their sales taxes without submitting the idea to a referendum. (I thought the DFL claimed to be the “democratic” party?)
Flash-
“”in a transportation bill shouldn’t 100% percent be dedicated to roads & bridges?””
Ahh, it should be dedicated to Transportation. And those that think that is only roads and bridges are the same ones that think funding should only come off a credit card
Priorities, Flash. The lowly taxpayer does not have infinite resources. Surely building a boutique light rail system that serves only a small part of the metro population is a lower priority than, say, making sure bridges and roads are in good repair.
I’m not sure what you mean by “. . . those that think that is only roads and bridges are the same ones that think funding should only come off a credit card”. I think most conservatives would agree that the primary source of funding for transportation infrastructure should come from the users of the same. Don’t know what this has to do with credit card financing.
Mr. Erhardt spoke at our caucus following Mr. Downey (who, by the way, was impressive). Mr. Erhardt was snappy and angry at questioners who challenged him on some of the issues. He clearly does not handle dissent well. He derisively accused Mr. Downey of being “right wing” (Uh, yeah – isn’t that the point?) after Mr. Downey left the room. There seemed to be quite a bit of anger amongst the caucusers over Mr. Erhardt’s political behavior, and he was on the defensive.
Mr. Erhardt appeared to be a bitter and angry old man; I think he knows his representative days are numbered. His departure will mean once less vote for the liberals. Good riddance.
I will do what I can on behalf of Mr. Downey. Won’t you join me?
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Good news! I live in Edina when I’m not away at college. Guess when my spring break starts? That’s right, March 7th. I actually get to participate in local politics. Sweet. I’ll do my best to turn out the vote for Downey.
I already sent my representative, Bud Heidgerken, an e-mail expressing my unhappiness. I warned him that the endorsing convention might not be as smooth as in the past. I will support him come fall, but right now he needs a kick in the arse.
“”Metro area counties are now allowed to boost their sales taxes without submitting the idea to a referendum.””
I have a problem with that part of the financing. This is where some of the creative finacning ideas in the GOP propoals could have been implemented.
“I think most conservatives would agree that the primary source of funding for transportation infrastructure should come from the users of the same. Don’t know what this has to do with credit card financing.””
Because the GOP financing proposal didn’t see it that way. Where I am concerned about the sales tac part, I am comfortable with the nickel gas tax and increas in registration fees. User fees as TPaw would define them. But look up att he post, mefolkes, not only is ;mithc’ blatantly misrepresenting the sepnding in this bill, which for the most part was not in dispute buy either side, he wouldn’t accept any for of new revenue generation.
This could be one of the funniest things I have ever read:
As is usually the case, the Left went out of their way to accommodate and negotiate
On what planet does that happen, Flash?
A piece of Rep Dan Severson’s speach
Sen. Pogemiller is standing up at the Chamber of Commerce meeting & he’s saying that this is going to be a bipartisan bill. This bill has got to go through all the committees. And we’re gonna get bipartisan support for this. You know what? I’m thinking that sounds good to me.
I go to the Transportation Committee & the debate before that committee was “Well should we even offer amendments to dress up this…large animal? And you know what? We said that we were going to take them at their word. They said that they were going to work bipartisanly. And we put four amendments forward. You know how many went on? Zero. This last year & this year, we have had less members, less than 5 percent of the minority’s amendments absorbed into any of this legislation. And so those people who are listening, want to talk about bipartisanship & reaching across the aisle, let me tell you. It ain’t happenin’.
Flash-
“Where I am concerned about the sales tac part, I am comfortable with the nickel gas tax and increas in registration fees.”
I am not a resident of Minnesota. Nevertheless I think a transportation bill in a landlocked state should contain more than 80% spending on roads & bridges.
Where I live the state has got light rail fever. It’ll cost the taxpayers 2.6 billion & increase the use of mass transit on Oahu from 6% to 7% of all commuters.
http://www.lightrailnow.org/news/n_newslog003.htm#HON_20050507
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