Governor Dayton’s transportation advisors are advocating taxing the crap out of gasoline, and jamming people onto buses and trains.
The recommendations include two ways to raise $15.2 billion through a higher gas tax — an upfront hike of 10 cents per gallon followed by annual 1.5-cent increases for 19 years, or a series of 3.5-cent increases over five years with 1.5-cent increases for 15 years afterward. The state gas tax currently sits at 28.5 cents per gallon, including a 3.5-cent surcharge.
That’s forty cents a gallon. So far.
And when Democrats see Money Pits, what’s their first urge?
Fill them with (our, taxpayer’s) money!
Another $4 billion for transit would come from increasing the sales tax in five Twin Cities counties by a half percentage point, or a nickel on a $10 purchase. Raising vehicle license tab fees roughly 10 percent would bring in another $1.1 billion.
Let’s make sure we’re clear on this: this is a removal of five billion dollars from productive use in this state’s economy, to build more “light rail” to run from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie, from Minneapolis through the Brooklyns, from Minneapolis to wherever people aren’t and don’t currently want to go.
Democrats around money are like pit bulls around hamburger:
The 19-member group led by Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel picked the costliest of three options it studied.
What do us conservatives always say? “Elections have results”.
And one of the results of this past two elections is that Scott Dibble is now creating tax policy…:
The report comes as the Democratic governor is preparing to unveil a tax overhaul after pushing for years to raise income taxes on top earners. It’s unclear how the array of transportation taxes will fit into his plan. Democrats will take over both houses of the Minnesota Legislature in January, creating an opening for tax increases after years of Republican resistance.
“My sense is the governor would very, very much like to get us back in a posture of making these needed and key investments,” said Sen. Scott Dibble, a Minneapolis Democrat who served on the advisory committee and will head the Senate Transportation and Public Safety Division.
…which is a little like putting Kim Kardashian in charge of the Department Of Sleazy Guys And Video Cameras.
UPDATE: Dave Thul in the comments notes that the GOP should let Governor Messinger Dayton and the DFL run this straight through the legislature. I agree; let them have their names on the votes. And any Republican that votes for it, to give the DFL “bipartisan” cover on this stupid idea, should get primaried back to the stone age.
GOP lawmakers should let the Governor run this proposal through the legislature on a straight up or down vote so the DFL can take all of the responsibility for tax hikes that will hit lower income voters disproportionately.
The only amendment they should offer is an elimination of per diem travel expenses for members of the legislature, and instead offer all senators and representatives free bus and light rail passes. Good for the goose, good for the gander.
And the scary thing is that transit actually does MORE harm to the environment than ordinary cars. Average passenger miles per gallon of diesel fuel for transit is about 25 pmpg–equivalent to less than 20mpg in gasoline. Your car, unlike a city bus, has the good sense to stay parked when you’re not riding it, and the city bus needs to go outbound in the morning and inbound in the evening, and keep moving at off peak hours, too. And don’t even get me started on road wear with city buses–each one does damage equivalent to hundreds or thousands of ordinary passenger cars.
Mark Dayton; let’s kill the economy and the ecology too!
This is such poetic justice that if it wasn’t hurting the sane citizens of the state that knew this was coming and voted against this type of crap, it would be comical! I hope the resident sycophant libturd trolls enjoy their increased taxes for transportation that I would bet that they rarely, if ever, use! It seems that DemocRAT voters really are low information, useful idiots because they continue to believe that “tax the rich” will not affect them.
I hear Sioux Falls is lovely this time of decade.
Paid $2.89 a gal this morning…’course we don’t have any choo-choo trainz down here; our hood rats are still on their own for getting from their cribs to the mall.
BTW, what davethul said.
Davethul…I agree. One of my biggest pet peeves is liberals who don’t particapate in the policies they want to force on people. Think Algore’s giant yacht and his mansion that has the electricity usage of a taconite plant. Or a well-off lefty I used to work with who preached global warming nonstop…..yet he and his wife would fly to San Francisco several times a year just for short vacations. (wait, maybe jet exhaust doesn’t contribute to global warming).
Well……those of us in the east metro can drive to Hudson to get low cost beer, products with 5.5% sales tax, and soon fill up on gas there. And for your smokers…..and fireworks fans, you can’t go wrong. Wisconsin will eventually swing back to Democrat, but the Tavern League is very powerfull and will keep taxes down.
It will be like what happened in Duluth about 10 years ago. High priced Duluth liquor stores wanted the police to enforce the law against bringing more than a case of beer or a couple of bottles of liquor across the border. Everyone went to Superior to save money on booze. Minnesota stores couldn’t compete due to Minnesota laws and taxes, so instead of voting for pro-business politicians, they wanted TSA style checkpoints on the bridges from Superior.
So, why do DFLers hate the poor?
Chuck, you forgot about Al’s second mansion, in CA, which also uses enough electricity to power Santa Barbara. Of course, I can’t resist stating the obvious; Al has moved to the state that invented environazism. And, as I’m out and about town driving to and from appointments, I’ve noticed that people with lefty campaign stickers on the back bumpers of their (insert name of Japanese car model here), are typically driving with their feet through the floorboards, chatting on their iPhones and doing generally stupid stuff. Apparently, they didn’t get the memo!
Once again, I’m glad I moved across the St. Croix. Keep this up Minnesota, I urge you! You’ll only keep driving my property value up.
I’ll give the advisors credit for being upfront about on whose backs they want to place the burden: the middle class, which will pay more for just about everything because the price of energy directly impacts everything. No liberal twaddle about making evil millionaires pay for it all. Somebody realizes that talking point to be the fiction that makes Chris Matthews leg tingle, and nothing more.
As Mitch has said, much of the Twin Cities will do okay as professionals will want to live in the exciting big city. So corporations most likely will keep HQ here for their mid and top level employees. Where we will hurt is the start-ups, and the more mundane jobs. Those that can be outsourced to other states (or countries). And manufacturing. Or businesses that are highway based (delivery services for example).
From the Sioux Falls Development Foundation:
“BETTER BUSINESS. BETTER LIFE.
You know the reasons Sioux Falls is a great place to grow a business. Here in Sioux Falls, operations can be up and running faster than anywhere in the nation — and the friendly Sioux Falls business climate helps companies prosper.
Best of all, local and state governments in Sioux Falls are PRO-BUSINESS. That means less red tape, fewer taxes and higher profits for your company. We can help your growing business with a variety of services.”
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