Driver Alert: It’s Not the Taxes Stupid, it’s the Spending Priorities!
From Sue Jeffers
The Vote Yes gang has broadened their horizons and expanded into Progress in Motion. They recently posted a new billboard along Highway 280. It reads, “Drivers Alert: No new taxes means no new bridges.”
Many of us remember Transportation Alliance as the folks behind the Vote Yes campaign. (http://www.transportationalliance.com/) This well funded and well-organized group succeeded in raising $3.6 million and worked to deceive voters about the true nature of the MVST constitutional amendment dedicating 100% of the motor vehicle sales tax revenue to “transportation.”
We already know the Transportation Amendment comes at the expense of roads and bridges. It dedicates revenue from sales taxes on new and used vehicles to transportation expenses using a formula requiring a minimum of 40% for public transit assistance and up to 60% for highways effective June 30 2011. Of course, the ugly truth of the amendment is that while it guarantees minimum funding for mass transit, there are actually no guarantees that road and bridge projects will receive any funding at all from MVST receipts.
Progress in Motion and the Transportation Alliance are not looking out for the interests of the taxpayers, nor are they truly interested in improving highway conditions for drivers. Groups like this want one thing: more of our money. Their objective is securing ever- higher taxes for transportation, including transit. Both groups feed at the public trough; both groups know how to play the game and it is their hope that an uninformed general public will again fall for this latest deceit ad campaign.
Instead of opening the debate about spending priorities in Minnesota we will hear calls for a gas tax increase, more transit funding and ousting DOT Commissioner Carol Molnau.
It won't matter that almost 60% of us oppose a gas tax increase, transportation funding is at an all time high and we still don't know why the 35W bridge fell. It won't matter that the DOT is an enormous bureaucracy filled with almost as many rules and regulations as the tax code. It won't matter that LRT is inefficient, wildly expensive and only used by 2% of the population.
It will matter that Commissioner is a Republican.
So until we fully dedicate 100% of the gas tax revenues to roads and bridges, adjust funding formulas or allocate general funds to roads and bridges I will start my own campaign. My first billboard will feature a fallen bridge and read:
Many of us remember Transportation Alliance as the folks behind the Vote Yes campaign. (http://www.transportationalliance.com/) This well funded and well-organized group succeeded in raising $3.6 million and worked to deceive voters about the true nature of the MVST constitutional amendment dedicating 100% of the motor vehicle sales tax revenue to “transportation.”
We already know the Transportation Amendment comes at the expense of roads and bridges. It dedicates revenue from sales taxes on new and used vehicles to transportation expenses using a formula requiring a minimum of 40% for public transit assistance and up to 60% for highways effective June 30 2011. Of course, the ugly truth of the amendment is that while it guarantees minimum funding for mass transit, there are actually no guarantees that road and bridge projects will receive any funding at all from MVST receipts.
Progress in Motion and the Transportation Alliance are not looking out for the interests of the taxpayers, nor are they truly interested in improving highway conditions for drivers. Groups like this want one thing: more of our money. Their objective is securing ever- higher taxes for transportation, including transit. Both groups feed at the public trough; both groups know how to play the game and it is their hope that an uninformed general public will again fall for this latest deceit ad campaign.
Instead of opening the debate about spending priorities in Minnesota we will hear calls for a gas tax increase, more transit funding and ousting DOT Commissioner Carol Molnau.
It won't matter that almost 60% of us oppose a gas tax increase, transportation funding is at an all time high and we still don't know why the 35W bridge fell. It won't matter that the DOT is an enormous bureaucracy filled with almost as many rules and regulations as the tax code. It won't matter that LRT is inefficient, wildly expensive and only used by 2% of the population.
It will matter that Commissioner is a Republican.
So until we fully dedicate 100% of the gas tax revenues to roads and bridges, adjust funding formulas or allocate general funds to roads and bridges I will start my own campaign. My first billboard will feature a fallen bridge and read:
Driver Alert:
It’s not the taxes stupid, it’s the spending priorities!
Labels: Priorities
posted by The Lady Logician at
6:46 PM
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