Comment by MNAdvocate — August 9, 2007 @ 1:50 pm

Seems like liberals in state and federal governments are trying with these gas taxes.

Welcome to progressive taxation! Population: rich states.

They already pay some of the highest taxes in the nation….how about stop sending trillions of dollars to the Dept of HHS?

Minnesota is consistently one of the more generous states in terms of
“return on federal tax dollars”, typically receiving only 70-80% of the funds it contributes toward federal revenues back in allocatable funds and services. Compare this to, say, Pennsylvania, which by those same calculations received $1.07 in funds on every $1.00 federal tax paid in 2004. (Source: http://www.nemw.org/taxburd.htm.)

You can certainly argue the methodology used to compile those figures, how certain disbursements should be treated, etc., but I would suggest that by any stretch, Minnesota’s citizens in the aggregate do not normally qualify as “looking for a handout”.

Minnesota’s annual federal tax burden is approximately 35 billion dollars. The amount being granted here is less than 1/100th of 1% of that number.

All that said, I can guarantee people that a significant number of Minnesotans (those within my circle of contacts, at the least) would rather refuse the money… most of us take a fair amount of pride in being self-sufficient, actually. We are in general quite fortunate, and have enough resources to deal with the problem here. We really shouldn’t need the help, nor do many of us want it, if it is not freely given. No doubt the mindset of “take whatever you can get” exists amongst some, perhaps even many Minnesotans… but it’s far from universal, I assure you.

The state budget runs about $4+ billion biannually… temporary supplemental state taxation to cover an additional $250 million wouldn’t be an insurmountable obstacle. Whether Gov. Pawlenty (R) and his pawns would be willing to forego such a “windfall” is a different issue, of course. Playing by the apparent rules of the game as set by the rest of the country, it’s sometimes difficult to argue why we shouldn’t simply “grab as much as we can” (I-35 is hardly a road/bridge to nowhere, for example) … but I can say there are some of us that would rather not play by those rules.

My two cents.

that should play well to let the tax-vetoing, infrastucture maintenance ignoring big wheels off the hook…

and with media and fed agency information being manipulated,
we won’t know the facts for quite some time…
…

You are a moron. They were patching in a few inches of concrete ON THE DECK. Just a patch job that didn’t involve anything structural. Patching the holes, barely, like all the roads that as being neglected with republican vetoes.

Please know that my silence is not of my choosing. I think I will spend more time on other sites where this doesn’t occur.

The voters of New Orleans chose Democrats for 50 years, did that prevent their infastructure collapse?

And, ironically, weren’t there construction crews on the bridge at the time of the collapse – repairing the structure.

I resided in Minnesota for my entire life until 1986, and recall that its citizens were rightly proud of their great state. They were more than willing to pay higher taxes to create a high quality of life for nearly all of its residents, putting almost every other state to shame by comparison.

Unfortunately, since that time, it seems that the state has taken a rather hard turn to the right, adopting the Right Wing mantra of lower taxes, regardless of the consequences. By electing politicians who represented these values, such as Pawlenty, Minnesotans ensured that such a disaster would not be a question of if, but when.

Had Minnesotans demonstrated the foresight that distinguished their forefathers, they could have paid slightly higher taxes to better maintain their infrastructure and have been eligible for matching federal funds. Taking the line from a well-known television ad a few years ago, “You can pay me now or pay me later.” By voting as they have, they chose to pay later.

Unlike the situation in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit in late August, 2005, Minnesota has a Republican white male as their governor, the Republican convention coming to the area next year, and a Republican Senator coming up for re-election in November, 2008 (i.e., Norm Coleman, who was losing ground in the polls to incumbent Paul Wellstone, and was the beneficiary of Wellstone’s untimely demise in a plane crash a couple of weeks prior to the election in 2002).

Had the voters and taxpayers in Minnesota displayed some foresight, paying for preventive maintenance on the bridge before it fell would most certainly cost a fraction of the cost as it stands now. There is no doubt that taxpayers from all states (who pay into the federal coffers) are being unfairly penalized by the irresponsible actions of Minnesotans.

THEIR FRIGGIN POLITICAL HOODLUMS, SWINDLERS PARASITES, LEECHES AND FRIGGIN PARASITES

CLEARLY EXPLAINED… RIGHT MAX. LAWFUL 100 MILLIONS
POLITICAL HOODLUMS 250 MILLION

AS I HAVE STATED BEFORE… WE ARE DEALING WITH

POLITICAL
THUGS………

YOU SCRATCH ME
AND
I SCRATCH YOU

COME SMOOZE WITH ME
AND
I’LL SMOOZE WITH YOU

PILE ON THE PORK, STUFF IT FULL OF ALL THE PORK

WHILE WE THE PEOPLE GET THE GREASE PITS FOR SERVICES THAT WE
CAN’T EVEN GET

BECAUSE OF ALL THE CORRUPTION OOZING OF THE SIDES OF THE GREASE DUMP

AND IN REALITY WE THE PEOPLE GET FAR SUPERIOR SERVICE AT A FRIGGIN DUMP CALLED MCDONALD’S

THEN FROM THESE POLITICAL HOODLUMS, SWINDLERS, THUGS, LEECHES, PARASITES AND FRIGGIN POLITICAL CRIMINALS

People are getting upset over a measly $250 million. Why are’nt people upset over the $60 billion Congress just gave to bush to waste on his pet projects before they left on vacation?

Like #13 said, get used to it. And if any opportunities come along to scrape up some cash from the federal government, do it! It won’t be long before you’ll really be needing assistance for some reason, and there ain’t going to be anyone at home to help.

and, i agree – the upcoming republicRAT convention is no doubt a major empetus in getting this bridge going…

they better HOPE it isn’t built in time, though, or it’s liable to fall down again in a few years… but they should have a really nice looking example of “bi-partisan” b.s. to crow about when the time comes…
…

Comment by Alejandro — August 8, 2007 @ 9:54 pm

I heard Haliburton already won the cotnract. So don’t drive on it, and watch out for those cost over runs. Just Kidding, I don’t know if they have won it yet.