March 6th, 2008 • 5:26 pmThe New Definition of Bipartisanship?
Forgive me if I’m not particularly impressed with the DFL’s definition of bipartisanship as displayed in the House Bonding bill. According to Steve Gottwalt, the bonding bill seeks to spend $927 million. Of that $927 million, $28 million is heading for GOP districts.
What’s particularly troubling is that all of the big arena/civic center projects are in DFL districts. Let’s remember, too, that the bonding bill also includes these DFL pet projects:
The Bottineau Boulevard Transit Way is slated to get $500,000. The Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit is requesting $6,000,000 to “acquire land, or an interest in land, and to design the Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit in Dakota County. The Central Corridor Transit Way is requesting $70,000,000 “For one or more of the following activities for the Central Corridor light rail transit line that will connect downtown Minneapolis with downtown St. Paul.
Then there’s my favorite Metro pork:
$11 million on Como Zoo Gorilla Exhibits.
It’s important to note that the bonding bill exceeds the 3% limit that was agreed upon back during the Perpich administration. The limit isn’t law but it was agreed to to keep Minnesota’s bond rating as high as possible. It’s apparent, at this stage at least, that the DFL is putting a higher priority on spending money than on maintaining the highest possible bond rating. The higher the bond rating, the lower the interest rate, which means that we’d be heaping less debt on the next generation.
I’d bet that that isn’t the picture of fiscal responsibility taxpayers were looking for in 2006. I’ll guarantee that that isn’t the picture of bipartisanship voters were hoping for.
Technorati: Steve Gottwalt, Bonding Bill, Pork, Transit, Civic Centers, Bond Ratings, Fiscal Restraint
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Bonding Bill Passes…
I missed a lot of the debate on the bonding bill today, but I just caught that it re-passed the House 90-42.
This is the bill that spends close to $1.B on “capital investments”. Gary Gross covered a lot of what those “investments” were over….
Trackback by Lady Logician • 02Apr2008 @ 3:38 pm