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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. The David Strom Show presented by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.
2. More pouting from state legislators in St. Paul.
3. Anoka County’s flim-flam man finally gets his train.
4. Where do your taxes go? Find out online!
5. Coming to a new Twins stadium near you: millionaire dope fiends.
1. The David Strom Show presented by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.
Tune in this Saturday to AM 1280 The Patriot from 9 – 11 am when David will be joined by Jerry Taylor and Clint Bolick.Taylor, a Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies at the Cato Institute will talk about why we need to abolish the federal gas tax and other transportation spending and policy issues. Bolick, co-founder of the Institute for Justice and currently director of the Center for Constitutional Litigation at the Goldwater Institute, is the author of David’s Hammer, the Case for an Activist Judiciary.
2. More pouting from state legislators in St. Paul.
Because Governor Pawlenty won’t call another special legislative session, State Senator Steve Murphy (DFL-Red Wing, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and its illegitimate spawn, the “we-have-nothing-better-to-do-with-our-time-so-we’re-going-to-make-up-committees-so-we-can-stay-in-St. Paul-and-keep-collecting-our-per diem-and-harassing-government-officials Transportation Contingent Appropriation Group”) is refusing to fully fund MnDot’s efforts to keep up with the I-35 bridge reconstruction and their current list of projects. By waiting until the Legislature reconvenes in February before they send MnDot any more money, all Senator Murphy is doing is assuring that he will get plenty of camera time to continue playing the roll of Minnesota’s transportation Messiah.
3. Anoka County’s flim-flam man finally gets his train.
Also in transportation news this week, the Northstar Corridor rail piggies were at last given the federal money needed to complete construction of their commuter rail line that will do nothing to relieve congestion in the NW Metro. The Anoka County Watchdog’s weekly email update has the appropriate analysis:
“This week’s coverage of the Northstar rail pep rally by Paul Levy of the Strib was sloppy to say the least.
“First, the article offered the opinions of only Northstar advocates. The voice of skeptics was nowhere to be found, despite an abundance of those voices (Paul, perhaps now is the time to get to know Commissioner Rhonda Sivarajah).
“Next, the article failed to critically examine the claims of Northstar cheerleaders, primarily one Jill Brown, a “spokesperson” for the project (gotta have one of those).
“Brown claimed that Fridley will benefit from Northstar. That’s odd. Fridley has been crying bloody murder for months, ever since it was announced that the Fridley station has been cancelled. A curious comment like that begged for the question to be asked regarding just how Fridley would benefit from a train that won’t be stopping there.
“And of course there was the usual chorus of commuter rail canards that were dutifully reported without questions, including the old saw about 5,200 commuters per day and the promise of a reduction in traffic congestion on HWY 10. Levy could have pointed out that 5,200 per day is the projected ridership in the year 2025 but that opening day ridership is 25% less than that. Loyal Watchdog readers also know that MnDOT studies have concluded that Northstar will do nothing to meaningfully reduce traffic congestion on HWY 10.”
As for the flim-flam man behind this rail sham, be sure to check the Taxpayers League website on Monday for Phil’s latest column on one of Anoka County goodest and oldest, good old boys.
4. Where do your taxes go? Find out online!
From our friends at the National Taxpayers Union:
“The federal government has announced the early launch of USASpending.org, an online portal to help you find out how your federal tax dollars are being spent. The website was mandated by last year's NTU-backed Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. Better known as the Coburn-Obama bill, it ensures that information about all federal grant and contract spending above $25,000 is published online for ordinary citizens to review.
“This is a monumental achievement for transparency in government. You now have the ability to go online and look at nitty-gritty details about where more than $700 billion of our tax money is going. You can search by recipient name, by agency, even by location down to the city level.
“NTU was instrumental to getting that bill passed, including organizing a broad coalition letter with more than 70 organizations signing on, and now we urge you to log on to the website and put it to use!
“If you are interested in transparency and accountability in government, visit USASpending.org today and let it start with you.”
5. Coming to a new Twins stadium near you: millionaire dope fiends.
Yesterday, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell released his report on steroids in baseball. While only the most polyannish of fans still believed that our national pastime was something to revere, what struck me as funny were actual players that were named in the report. In fact, go pick up Friday’s edition of the Star Tribune and go to the front page of the Sports section. Sure, you’ve got Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield as alleged dopers. But when’s the last time you said to your buddy after a Twin’s game. “man, that Nook Logan really torched us last night.” Or, “yeah, and Jim Parque was absolutely unhittable.” “I thought we had a chance in the ninth, but Josias Manzanillo was just lights out!”
Maybe that’s the real dark side of performance enhancing drugs – they only really work for East German female swimmers.
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's eUpdate is written by Mark Giga
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