Minneapolis 4
I’ve been to Minneapolis. It is a nice town full of friendly people.
I do not think I ever crossed the I-35W bridge, though I’ve crossed other Minneapolis bridges over the Mississippi, but I certainly traveled under it on the train–on the tracks that are now closed.
It’s a damn shame the bridge fell down.
It’s a even more of a damn shame that many Americans don’t want to pay for the services that they use.
Dick Polman has the analysis:
Then, earlier this year, the lawmakers tried again. Mindful of the fact that Minnesota’s annual shortfall for road and bridge repairs had soared to $1.8 billion, they enacted another hike in the gas tax. But Pawlenty, deciding that the payment of an additional five cents per gallon constituted an undue tax burden, vetoed this bill as well. And again the lawmakers lacked the votes to override.
I’m not suggesting that this no-new-taxes governor is personally responsible for the I-35 bridge collapse; the span may well have fallen anyway, even if there had been new state money for repairs. (The states provide money for interstate repairs, but most of the tab is supposed to be paid by the feds.) But Pawlenty’s vetoes are symptomatic of a society that thinks it can survive on the cheap.
I will say forthrightly that I don’t like paying taxes, just like I don’t like buying gasoline at $3.00 a gallon.
But both the taxes and the gasoline are part of the cost of getting on with life.
If you don’t want to pay for the services you use, buy an island somewhere and go away so the grown-ups can take care of business.
August 4, 2007 at 10:12 pm
So I’m sitting here watching the news on cable and they are saying that in fact, there is plenty of money available for federal bridge inspection, but that it was just not being used. Or that it was used for things like building that “Bridge to Nowhere” up in Alaska that was a controversy a while back.
Now I should disclose that the report was on CNN, so it may not have been fair and balanced!
Discount tax protesters as immature at your own risk. A lot of government powers may or may not have been abused in recent years, but from the very beginning, the founders knew very well how the power to tax could be abused. Your money never did have the right to habeas corpus.
August 5, 2007 at 2:09 am
“In 2005, the Minneapolis legislature…”
First of all, St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota, not Minneapolis. Maybe that’s a small point but the writer should have his basic facts correct. Of course, Minneapolis may have its own legislature, but if they do I doubt the Governor would care much.
Second, trying to blame the Governor for the bridge collapse is like trying to blame Bill Clinton for the September 11 attacks. Clinton’s critics said he had opportunities to deal with bin Laden but chose not to. Therefore, the terrorists attacks on the USS Cole, the WTC, the WTC and Pentagon, and other US interests where Clinton’s fault. I don’t buy that anymore than I buy the Governor is responsible for the bridge collapse.
This bridge had been classified as “structurally deficient” since 1990. Since 1990, Minnesota has had one Democratic governor, two Republicans, and Jesse Ventura. I didn’t bother to research which party held the legislative majority during those years, but that doesn’t really matter either.
The decision to not close and/or not repair the bridge belongs to the engineers who made it. They are the ones responsible and it’s their PE licenses and careers that will go down the toilet.
August 5, 2007 at 5:46 pm
I want to see Dick Polman walk up to Jesse Ventura and blame him for it.
August 9, 2007 at 9:45 pm
In response to Bill, I missplet “Minnesota.”