Residual Forces

State Legislators are gearing up for the bonding bill session by going on a tour to hear first hand from those who want others to pay for their pet projects. This quote pretty much sums up that there is a vacuum on the political right in the real purpose of State Government. There are $4 billion dollars worth of requests for the 2008 bonding bill. Most of them are simply on the wish list, and far from necessities.

“We think it’s time for the state to recognize our citizens deserve something back,” said Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautz.(KSTP)

How about rather than say you deserve to have other people’s money spent on your “performing arts center”, you ask for tax cuts for your citizens, or encourage private entities to build what you think you need? That would be what a real leader would do, but instead, you’re punting responsibility up the chain of command.

Municipal  Welfare, otherwise known as Local Government Aid is why the State is facing a dire predicament if the economy doesn’t correct course, and soon. You see, the State and local Governments have been spending money faster than they can take it in. When a local entity fails, the County or state steps in. When a bureaucrat has a pet project, they manage to find a way to fund it.

They have expanded the dependency on Government through programs, questionable infrastructure and buildings, and through expanded bureaucracies. As soon as the local funding sources (IE property taxes) start to dwindle, we’ll be seeing Municipal deficits of epic proportions. The stalling State economy will soon impact State revenue as well. Meaning we are racing towards another big budget deficit battle.

That’s right, Legislators learned nothing from the $4.5 billion dollar deficit faced just 2 years back. They squandered the $2 + billion surplus last session. Under this lax leadership, State and local spending has increased at unsustainable paces. A 10% growth in state spending requires a 10% growth in revenue (IE taxing). In case you haven’t noticed, the economy is not growing that fast, and likely never will. Many local Cities and Counties also have been on spending binges, and failed in recognizing the housing bubble was destined to burst.

Oh, sure, we could try to tax our way out of this problem, the school Districts do it, but all that does is take money out of the hands of the very people who are the economy. More businesses will leave, unemployment will climb, and more people will become dependent on the Government requiring more money, etc etc etc.

Meanwhile, with all the talk of transportation crisis following the 35W bridge collapse, there appears to be nothing new on that ‘crisis’ front either. Legislators are likely going to piddle away another $1 billion + on school and entertainment oriented buildings in key legislative Districts across the state in the bonding bill. Once they do that, then they’ll start talking about transportation, and by talking about transportation I mean raising the gas tax in order to build more choo choos and social engineering studies.

Summary: Grab you wallets, the lawmakers are coming.