Get Ready to Rumble!
OK - I have the video streaming up and running, the live blog of the floor vote of the Transportation Bill will commence as soon as the session is gaveled to order. Newer entries will be at the end of the post so keep refreshing and scroll down.
10:08am and Representatives are still meandering to their seats. At this rate, we should get a call to order in about 10-15 minutes.
10:37 and still no call to order. It looks like maybe 1/3 of the legislators are even on the floor so I suspect we will be waiting a little longer.
10:48 on the phone with an equally bored Gary Gross. At this rate, we might get a vote at about midnight? Seriously, do you suppose that there is some backroom negotiations going on and that may be the reason for the delay?
10:52 and a SLEW of legislators just walked in. Maybe, just maybe we will get started on this some time today.
10:55 FINALLY we have a call to order! Starting off with a prayer and a moment of silence in honor of the communities of Marshall and Cottonwood.
11:02 - the roll is closed and a quorum has been attained. It's time to get this show on the road! While you are waiting for the main show, swing over to MDE and read his post about the armtwisting that has been going on behind the scenes.
11:05 - FFA Day at the Capital. Introductions are made of some of the FFA reps in attendance and a proclaimation is read by various outstate representatives.
11:12 and it is time to rumble. HF2800 is on the floor. Rep. Lieder (DFL Crookston) calls it a "safer roads" bill? If there is money going to "transit" then it is NOT a roads bill! Roads and bridges, roads and bridges, roads and bridges....it's that simple guys!
11:16: Oooooo a $25.00 tax credit for the working poor to offset the increase in tabs and gas tax and the increased metro sales taxes. How generous. I'm sure that will buy a lot of food for the families of the working poor.....Oh wait - the tab fees will only increase if the vehicle is new or never registered in MN before? There goes the new car industry. I can see that there will be a rush on used car sales in MN if this is passed.
Speaking of the metro sales tax....NO REFERENDUM will be allowed on this. Does anyone remember the outcry when the legislature did this same thing for the Twins stadium? If we are going to increase the metro sales tax for anything it should be for metro roads FIRST. Remember, roads and bridges, roads and bridges, roads and bridges!
Rep. Heidgerken hits my point - no money will be raised if there is an influx of used car sales. He also talks about the increase in transit costs and who will bear those costs. The answer was that Hennepin County is on the hook for the cost over-runs for the Hiawatha line.
Rep. Eastlund brings up a point about the tab fees and how dealers would get hit the hardest by this because they are the ones that buy the out of state vehicles.
11:34 Rep. Marquardt (DFL- Dillworth) brings up the trope that this bill will create 30,000 new jobs A YEAR and that it will decrease property taxes! I would really like to see where he gets that data, because I know that our property taxes have not gone up due to transportation funding....it has been because of out of control spending on things like city halls and community centers....not making roads.
Rep. Kohls (R-Victoria) is asking Rep. Marquardt about some of his claims - like where this bill says that cities and counties will reduce property taxes! He wants to know where that dollar for dollar reduction will be! Rep. Marquardt gets the Joe Soucheray "B as in B S as in S" award for answering the question "What page is this on?" by saying that it is on "every page of this bill".
Oh goodie - we are getting into the LGA debate. I suspect we shall be hearing from Representative Beard soon enough.
10:08am and Representatives are still meandering to their seats. At this rate, we should get a call to order in about 10-15 minutes.
10:37 and still no call to order. It looks like maybe 1/3 of the legislators are even on the floor so I suspect we will be waiting a little longer.
10:48 on the phone with an equally bored Gary Gross. At this rate, we might get a vote at about midnight? Seriously, do you suppose that there is some backroom negotiations going on and that may be the reason for the delay?
10:52 and a SLEW of legislators just walked in. Maybe, just maybe we will get started on this some time today.
10:55 FINALLY we have a call to order! Starting off with a prayer and a moment of silence in honor of the communities of Marshall and Cottonwood.
11:02 - the roll is closed and a quorum has been attained. It's time to get this show on the road! While you are waiting for the main show, swing over to MDE and read his post about the armtwisting that has been going on behind the scenes.
11:05 - FFA Day at the Capital. Introductions are made of some of the FFA reps in attendance and a proclaimation is read by various outstate representatives.
11:12 and it is time to rumble. HF2800 is on the floor. Rep. Lieder (DFL Crookston) calls it a "safer roads" bill? If there is money going to "transit" then it is NOT a roads bill! Roads and bridges, roads and bridges, roads and bridges....it's that simple guys!
11:16: Oooooo a $25.00 tax credit for the working poor to offset the increase in tabs and gas tax and the increased metro sales taxes. How generous. I'm sure that will buy a lot of food for the families of the working poor.....Oh wait - the tab fees will only increase if the vehicle is new or never registered in MN before? There goes the new car industry. I can see that there will be a rush on used car sales in MN if this is passed.
Speaking of the metro sales tax....NO REFERENDUM will be allowed on this. Does anyone remember the outcry when the legislature did this same thing for the Twins stadium? If we are going to increase the metro sales tax for anything it should be for metro roads FIRST. Remember, roads and bridges, roads and bridges, roads and bridges!
Rep. Heidgerken hits my point - no money will be raised if there is an influx of used car sales. He also talks about the increase in transit costs and who will bear those costs. The answer was that Hennepin County is on the hook for the cost over-runs for the Hiawatha line.
Rep. Eastlund brings up a point about the tab fees and how dealers would get hit the hardest by this because they are the ones that buy the out of state vehicles.
11:34 Rep. Marquardt (DFL- Dillworth) brings up the trope that this bill will create 30,000 new jobs A YEAR and that it will decrease property taxes! I would really like to see where he gets that data, because I know that our property taxes have not gone up due to transportation funding....it has been because of out of control spending on things like city halls and community centers....not making roads.
Rep. Kohls (R-Victoria) is asking Rep. Marquardt about some of his claims - like where this bill says that cities and counties will reduce property taxes! He wants to know where that dollar for dollar reduction will be! Rep. Marquardt gets the Joe Soucheray "B as in B S as in S" award for answering the question "What page is this on?" by saying that it is on "every page of this bill".
Oh goodie - we are getting into the LGA debate. I suspect we shall be hearing from Representative Beard soon enough.
Rep. Emmer (R-Delano) asked Rep. Lieder if he could guarantee the citizens of Minnesota would see a property tax reduction and the short answer was no....
Just a quick aside. I will be dropping off live blogging in about 5 minutes and jumping over to MidStream Radio where Jazz and I will be talking about the faux McCain adultery scandal and Rep. Lesche's breed ban bill. I hope you will tune in for a while.
Quick update - Rep. Buesgens is making a great point about how this bill is not about more money for roads and bridges if we are saying that the bill will reduce cities and counties spending on roads and bridges!
Labels: MN Legislature, Roads and Bridges
posted by The Lady Logician at
9:58 AM
2 Comments:
8.6 billion divided by 35,000 jobs equals $245,714.29 per job.
By
Anonymous, at 11:27 AM
Good point and if you look at the KSTP video you would see that it is not even 35,000 jobs.....it's more like 16,000!
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 2:01 PM
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