See, I told you...

I warned you.

News comes today that plans for the bridge being built to replace the failed 35W bridge must be compromised because of federal funding rules. There had been rumblings that space for a future light rail line would be included in the former replacement plans (set for circa 2015), but since we're beholden to the feds to bail us out for the 35W disaster, it ain't happening.

And not only has the DFL tied their hands on one of their favorite Minnesota topics, light rail funding (because of the moronic MVST Amendment), but now their official publication (the Star Tribune - SNAP!) is playing shell games with taxation information. On Saturday, the Strib published a news/opinion piece (you can hardly define the difference between the two in said rag) that had a sub-headline that read: "Minnesota's financial shortfall for road and bridge maintenance has been decades in the making, the result of complex political tensions, but the disaster may have changed the money picture at last."

So what's the grand solution that the Strib is lauding? Why, raising the gas tax, of course. There's a proposal on the legislature's table to raise the state gas tax by 5 cents per gallon. Seriously, the Strib's dum-dum editors seem to contradict themselves every time the put out an issue. Two easy examples: (1)The MVST Amendment was backed because it guaranteed funding for public transit projects. But of course, now that we have to rely on federal dollars to bail out the bridge, since we can no longer shuffle priorities thanks to the MVST Amendment, we can't even follow through with plans for expanding light rail into a system instead of just a line. (2) Taxes that disproportionately fall upon lower-income people are a disgrace (I actually agree there). But of course, the Strib is seemingly backing this plan (if you read between the lines of the above-linked article), and we all know that 5 cents for anyone and everyone affects low-income folks more than it does upper-income folks. Hence the Taxpayer's League's (a conservative organization) opposition to flat-rate gas taxes (not to mention Jesse "The Brain/Body" Ventura's flat-rate license tab renewal fee).