The DFL-glutted Senate is Happy To Demand More Money for a “Better” Minnesota:

A more-than-$500-million annual tax increase for roads and transit survived its first test Thursday in a state Senate committee, suggesting that legislators’ appetite for new revenue and the investments it would fund will fuel a long and spirited debate at the Capitol.

The measure includes a 10-cent increase in Minnesota’s gasoline tax of 20 cents a gallon, a half-cent sales-tax hike in the seven-county Twin Cities area that would require no voter referendum, higher vehicle-registration renewal fees and statewide county-option wheelage taxes of up to $20 per vehicle per year.

If the bill were to become law in its present form, it would raise more than $1 billion a year by 2012 through increased taxes, borrowing and a tax transfer approved by voters last November.

“We’re going to move the state forward,” said Senate sponsor Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing. “We’re tired of sitting in the same spot.”

Expect the DFL to stay on one message if no other; “Taxes” equals “progress”, “forward”, a “Better Minnesota”.

Most elected Republicans, including Gov. Tim Pawlenty, oppose the smorgasbord of new taxes and fees in the bill, which passed the Transportation Committee on a straight party-line vote of 11 to 7.

Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, said Republicans on the committee offered no amendments Thursday because it would have been “almost like putting a helmet on a kamikaze pilot.”

Thanks for nothing, Dick Day. You have been skittering about the center for most of your career. You’ve kept the “Carlson Republican” flag flying.

Thanks for turning into a “tax hawk” exactly one career too late.

Murphy estimated that his current bill would cost an average family of four with two cars less than $200 a year to “save lives, improve roads and transit, create jobs and bring economic benefit for everybody.”

Day put the tab at up to $580 a year for a three-car family, which Murphy said would still represent a savings off the $800-a-year “congestion tax” allegedly borne by gridlocked Twin Cities commuters. But Sen. Gen Olson, R-Minnetrista, said such savings wouldn’t accrue for many years, if at all.

The great untold story; we’ll still be paying the “congestion tax” in the Metro, because the DFL is committed – thanks to the “Transportation Amendment”, which passed overwhelmingly last fall, 40% of these increases will be going to fund Mass Transit, which predominantly moves people from where they aren’t, to where they don’t want to go.

A billion will be squandered on the Central Corridor light rail line, connecting the two Downtowns (and connecting them badly, according to current plans), which will scarcely affect congestion on 94, much less 494; the clots on that stretch of road aren’t caused by people going from downtown to downtown, but by people going from Wisconsin to Eden Prairie and from Minnetonka to 3M.

To which Murphy replied: “I can guarantee that after 10 years of this program congestion will be reduced in the metropolitan area.”

And if your “guarantee” doesn’t get met, Mr. Murphy? What then? A guarantee without a remedy for default isn’t much of a guarantee at all.

Nice to know not everyone at the Capitol is insane:

Said Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung: “The Democrats took a transportation bill that started out loaded up with tax increases and added a few more. This bill is the original veto-bait transportation bill.”

One might hope.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 6:24 am and is filed under Minnesota Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.