Residual Forces

Strib hack Nick Coleman is pissed about the 35W bridge contractors trucks and vehicle taxes. In his column today, we get to see the usual non-monkey at work. He tries to politicize the collapse, as usual, but also does catch Flatiron in a gaffe.

They bought a brand new fleet of trucks for the project.

YES THEY PURCHASED A FLEET OF BRAND NEW TRUCKS FOR THE PROJECT!

Now, I happen to have dealt with road construction companies, and have a more than uninformed knowledge of how they work. I happen to know that they can’t include a new fleet of vehicles into their bids with private companies, because their bids would be skyhigh and rejected. In fact, common sense would lead one to believe that already having the equipment (read: the fleet of vehicles to do the job) is going to keep costs low, and speed the job along, AND make their bid more attractive, since they obviously can and have done similar jobs.

But that is not the case this time. Nope, MNDOT hired a company that will not only do the job for tens of millions more than other bidders would, but also take weeks longer. And it just so happens that the company, Flatiron, also gets to buy a fleet of new trucks, on our dime.

The trucks are from Colorado according to non-monkey, and he turns his rant against MNDOT into a lecture on how much taxes were lost from the vehicles being shipped in. Now, one would think that this should be a teachable moment for non-monkey on high taxes. But nope, he doesn’t get it.

Now, I share the sentiment that the bidding process by MNDOT for the bridge is FUBAR, but I do have to say, we get what we deserve. This is a fine example of why more government and high taxes are bad.

Seriously, the company was smart to avoid our oppressive tax structure for vehicles in MN. Heck, according to non-monkey, over a million dollars of motor vehicle sales tax revenue (MVST) was lost since the new fleet was purchased out of the state.

What is more astonishing is what if they were purchased here.

Those taxes would have been higher due to all our add on fees imposed by the state and local agencies. But, ironically, the higher tax revenue for the fleet would not have entirely gone to pay for the bridge. Nope, thanks to the MVST Amendment that voters foolishly approved last year, no more than 40% of that million plus would go to roads and bridges and at least 60% would have gone to mass transit.

Oh and Coleman also rips on how the Colorado purchase helped Flatiron avoid helping to pay for the new Twins Stadium. Um, well, again, this is a teachable moment for high taxes. If one can avoid paying the taxes, one usually does.

Now, if Flatiron is so dang thrifty with their money and common sense enough to find the cheapest way to get the equipment, why in the hell is their bid so damn expensive?

I’m outraged at how screwed we taxpayers are getting in the process, and how little the Governor and MNDOT Commissioner are doing about it. I expect DFLers to tell me to hand over my wallet, but I kinda expected the Republicans “in charge” to slap their hand.

(crickets)

This bridge rebuilding is going to be a scandal. It will be the next big dig-esque example of wasting taxpayer dollars.

Private citizens and private companies would never hire the most expensive and longest deadline company with out good reason. So what is it? Aesthetics? The new design is ugly as heck.

They obviously didn’t have the capacity to do the job in the first place…. or why did they need to buy a new fleet of vehicles and ship them in? I could understand buying the fleet locally to save the expense of transporting them, but they didn’t do that.

So why is it that I feel like I once again got screwed by my Government?

Oh yeah, because I did!