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I was shocked while watching the news last week when I saw former State Rep. Matt Entenza holding a news conference standing next to a highway bridge with the claim that the State Transportation Department doesn’t have enough money to fix our bridges.
My first thought was that this was old file footage from last year, when the debate was raging over raising the gas tax. But no, to my amazement this was Matt Entenza last week standing in front of a bridge saying that even after the $6.6 billion tax increase for transportation, “It still wasn’t enough.” Just last February the legislature increased the gas tax, the sales tax and auto license taxes to the tune of $6.6 billion over the next ten years.
Despite an influx of billions of dollars for road and bridge construction from the legislature’s override of Governor Pawlenty’s veto of a massive transportation funding bill, Mr. Entenza and his liberal cronies don’t think it’s enough. They believe taxpayers should fork over another $2 billion a year for transportation.
Mr. Entenza, founder of Minnesota 20/20, a pro-tax think tank, doesn’t make the claim that MNDOT has the wrong priorities or that there is too much red tape. No, instead he flat out says there isn’t enough dough! That’s right, $6.6 billion isn’t enough; the state needs another $2 billioneach year to fix our state roads and bridges. Perhaps we should determine how the first few billion get spent before we give MNDOT another couple of billion a year more.
In the view of Mr. Entenza and his liberal friends, it’s not enough that Minnesotan’s are already paying higher gas taxes, higher sales taxes, higher excise taxes, and higher license taxes, we still don’t seem to be paying enough. It’s never a matter of priorities, it is always the knee jerk response of “it’s not enough.”
Even after serving 16 years in the Minnesota House and witnessing first hand the continual demand for more and more spending, I am still in awe that no matter how much taxpayer money is handed over for education or welfare, “it’s never enough.” But now, it appears we must add the transportation special interests to the chorus of “it’s not enough.”
In July 2007 I wrote a column entitled “Education Funding: Is it ever enough?” As we all have witnessed over the years, this is a constant theme played out in every legislative session. As legislators worked in May to close a billion dollar budget deficit at the end of the 2008 session there was that never-ending “need” to add yet another $44 million to the K-12 spending pot.
And if you haven’t been following the Rep. Greiling (House Chair of the Education Finance Committee) road show this summer, there has been a refrain of “the need” for another billion dollars per year for K-12 education.
To put this all in perspective, Minnesotans are already paying higher taxes, and the state budget forecast in November is anticipated to show a multi-billion dollar shortfall. These facts don’t seem to faze the “it’s never enough” crowd in calling out for billions more in additional spending.
You have to love that “can do” spirit. With the economy heading south, the jobless rate climbing, gas prices above $3.50 per gallon and food prices still climbing, the tax and spend crowd continues to proclaim the answer to our economic woes is to spend, spend, spend!
Whether it is transportation, education, or health care, the liberals’ answer to our economic situation is to continue their theory of “taxing us into prosperity”. A billion here and a billion there; the tax and spenders at the state capitol can never find enough money to fund all their wants and wishes.
In these difficult economic times, the most prudent course of action for state government would be the same resolve of most Minnesotan families: focus their spending on what is necessary, not additional wants.
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