Star Tribune to Minnesota - you still aren't taxed enough!

It's a rare mid-day appearance for me today. The lines between work and home are being blurred this week due to vacations.

Last year, during the campaign season, Minnesotans were lobbied HARD to vote for a constitutional amendment that would dedicate the entire amount collected in Minnesota Vehicle Sales Tax (MVST) to updating and funding our transportation infrastructure. It would (the proponents said) solve all of our transportation funding problems. The Star Tribune (shockingly) supported approval of the amendment telling the voters that this was a much needed solution to our transportation "woes". Well either the Strib's editorial writers think we have horrible memories or that we just don't pay attention because they are out today pimping the new transportation talking points issued by their friends in the DFL by claiming that our current gas tax is "too low".

"Today the state's gasoline levy, at 20 cents a gallon, is not only lower than it was in the beginning, adjusted for inflation, but also lower than it has ever been in the intervening 82 years."

When the tax proposals first came out, I asked "Were the residents of Minnesota sold a bill of goods" when the transportation amendment was foisted upon us? The way things stand now, I think that the answer is a resounding yes!

To all my dear friends who spent the last election cycle assuring me that the MVST Amendment would solve all of our transportation funding woes, I ask, are you still so sure about that?