Secrets of the City

typical minnesotans. oppose gay marriage cuz it’s too “different”, but don’t have the spine to back it up. hmph.

Well, we won’t go editing our Constitution for just anything… except this.

That modular home looks awesome! At $140/square foot, not that bad of a price either. Of course, lot costs are the killer around here.

Yay for the transportation amendment!

lot costs are the killer around here

Was that a pun on North Minneapolis?

If only I were so clever.

Count me among the first on MNspeak to say the transportation amendment is bad. The state can legislate itself into the discipline of applying transportation-related taxes right back into transportation without an amendment. In ten or fifteen years, this brilliant-at-the-time idea is going to tie our legislators’ hands, and everyone will be pissed off that the state has to raise taxes or make cuts in education, parks, social services, etc. because they can’t extend the belt-tightening to transportation, too.

what programs will lose money they now receive from the tax if the transportation amendment is approved?

I agree with champs. The transportation amendment is horrible policy. The whole point of having a legislature is to make decisions like where and how transportation funding should be allocated. This amendment is just a cop out because they haven’t been able to do their jobs in recent years.

Remember, however, that this was part of a much more ambitious and comprehensive transportation plan that was supported by a broad array of MN’s best and brightest, and by a largely bi-partisan contingency of legislators.

What happened to this legislation after it was passed by both the DFL controlled Senate and the GOP controlled house by fairly comfortable margins?

Pawlenty vetoed it.

Governors cannot, however, veto proposed constitutional amendments, and so this poorly worded remnant of the much larger piece of legislation lingers on.

Also, the MVST could be considered a fee, as opposed to a tax.

In the case of a fee, those using a given government service pay for it directly. This makes some sense, as one component of a balanced source of state government income.

For an example of what is not a fee, see the Health Impact Fee that smokers pay.

On a different subject, I get a huge kick out of the “let’s celebrate the good scholars and not the school athletes” diatribe.

The poor jocks get this one brief moment in the sun. In ten years, they’re going to be working at the carwashes the geeky brainy kids own. Let ‘em think they count for this one small passing moment in time.

potaytoe pohtahtoh, it’s all a semantics debate. Government charges you money for this or that, call it a fee or a tax but they’re still taking your money for some purpose. Trying to group certain kinds of charges seperately from other kinds of charges is pretty asinine and bound to fail becuase it’s got to be a completely arbitrary standard.

the jocks end up working in real estate as loan originators and drive hummers in from the suburbs to go clubbin’ on 1st ave in their party shirts.

The headline post says the modular home is in NORTH Minneapolis and so I thought “hey! Cool, someone is daring to invest this kind of thing in North Minneapolis!” But alas, it’s in NORTHEAST Minneapolis, which is slightly like being on a different PLANET. Dumbass poster.

actually, athletes are the ones owning carwashes . poor bobby b, always picked last for kickball.

Doesn’t matter if you were an athlete or a scholar.

If your parents are rich you will own the car wash, if not you will work at it.

Nothing wrong with working at the Car Wash!