Where do we go from here?
A lot of people have been speaking out about "who's to blame?" but I don't hear a lot of solutions. AAA over at Residual Forces has a couple of thoughts.
I'm not totally certain I agree with his "repeal the MVST Amendment" solution, although if we could guarantee that the 60% maximum for roads - at least until such time as we have brought our infrastructure up to snuff. If we get that guarantee, I could be convinced...
His second post lobbies against the possibility of a gax tax increase. All last session I was firmly in that corner. While in principle I still think raising the gas tax is a horrible idea (especially when the price of fuel oil is so painfully high) I could be convinced of the necessity of the increase, but there would have to be a couple of caveats that I would like to see tied to it. The first is the condition that ALL gas tax receipts go toward roads and bridges. Not one penny for ATV or snowmobile trails until we get our infrastructure is back on sound footing. The second is that commuters and truckers should not be the only ones to make sacrifices. Roads ARE a common good. Our food comes into the Cities over the roads...most of our goods do! So in order to foster that spirit of shared sacrifice, I would like to see our state Legislature give back the raise in per diem that they gave them selves. I would like to see a minimal (1-2% possibly) cut in state spending ACROSS THE BOARD! Imagine how much money we could "find" for roads and bridges if we were to cut 1% from Education and 1% from Health and Human Services and 1% from all of the state agencies! About the only agency that I would even consider sparing would be Veterans Affairs and if you have to ask why... Lastly, I would like to see a thorough PUBLIC audit of MNDOT. I would like to see what their priorities have been for the last 10 years and what they spent on them (Captain Ed has the list of what the priorites for the Federal funding was).
Even those who don't drive benefit from a functional highway infrastructure. It is high time that the state put their priorities in the right place. Assistant Majority Leader, Sen. Tarryl Clark (DFL-St. Cloud) said (in response to Governor Pawlenty when he saidwas calling a special session to address road funding) that she welcomed the opportunity to revisit transportation spending, education spending AND HHS spending! (I am looking for a link to the direct comment and I will post it when I have it) Well now we know where the Senate Leaderships priorities are, don't we?
Finally AAA had one last point for those who think that raising the gas tax was the "only" answer.
"I would be remiss not to point out the flaw in thinking that simply raising the existing gas tax, and using the current formulas, revenue will dry up rapidly. As the CAFE (miles per gallon) standards keep going up and up, and our vehicles use less and less gas and fuel, we’ll all pay less in gas taxes."
Great point, if we are using less fuel, we are paying less in fuel taxes. If that is the case, how are we going to pay for these new roads?
I'm not totally certain I agree with his "repeal the MVST Amendment" solution, although if we could guarantee that the 60% maximum for roads - at least until such time as we have brought our infrastructure up to snuff. If we get that guarantee, I could be convinced...
His second post lobbies against the possibility of a gax tax increase. All last session I was firmly in that corner. While in principle I still think raising the gas tax is a horrible idea (especially when the price of fuel oil is so painfully high) I could be convinced of the necessity of the increase, but there would have to be a couple of caveats that I would like to see tied to it. The first is the condition that ALL gas tax receipts go toward roads and bridges. Not one penny for ATV or snowmobile trails until we get our infrastructure is back on sound footing. The second is that commuters and truckers should not be the only ones to make sacrifices. Roads ARE a common good. Our food comes into the Cities over the roads...most of our goods do! So in order to foster that spirit of shared sacrifice, I would like to see our state Legislature give back the raise in per diem that they gave them selves. I would like to see a minimal (1-2% possibly) cut in state spending ACROSS THE BOARD! Imagine how much money we could "find" for roads and bridges if we were to cut 1% from Education and 1% from Health and Human Services and 1% from all of the state agencies! About the only agency that I would even consider sparing would be Veterans Affairs and if you have to ask why... Lastly, I would like to see a thorough PUBLIC audit of MNDOT. I would like to see what their priorities have been for the last 10 years and what they spent on them (Captain Ed has the list of what the priorites for the Federal funding was).
Even those who don't drive benefit from a functional highway infrastructure. It is high time that the state put their priorities in the right place. Assistant Majority Leader, Sen. Tarryl Clark (DFL-St. Cloud) said (in response to Governor Pawlenty when he saidwas calling a special session to address road funding) that she welcomed the opportunity to revisit transportation spending, education spending AND HHS spending! (I am looking for a link to the direct comment and I will post it when I have it) Well now we know where the Senate Leaderships priorities are, don't we?
Finally AAA had one last point for those who think that raising the gas tax was the "only" answer.
"I would be remiss not to point out the flaw in thinking that simply raising the existing gas tax, and using the current formulas, revenue will dry up rapidly. As the CAFE (miles per gallon) standards keep going up and up, and our vehicles use less and less gas and fuel, we’ll all pay less in gas taxes."
Great point, if we are using less fuel, we are paying less in fuel taxes. If that is the case, how are we going to pay for these new roads?
Labels: 35W Bridge collapse, Democrats, Journalists and Media
posted by The Lady Logician at
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