I’ll be heading up to watch the tone deaf Anoka County Board of Commissioners vote to increase the tax on commerce for the hard working citizens of Anoka County for the mother of all shams, the Transit Sales Tax. I’ve been told it is going to be a 5-2 route of our wallets.

The meeting is at 9:30 AM this morning. I’m going to go elbow my way past transit contractors and welfare loving corporate representatives. The meeting is being held in the Anoka County Government Center, 7th floor.

I’ve been too busy and frazzled to help debunk the all out lies being used to sell this money and power grab. As this travesty becomes a reality, I will help inform the public so we can have a chance to have our referendum on those who covet our money and their power in November.

Sue Jeffers has a letter in the Strib today about the tax increase sham that is about to take place in the Twin Cities.

Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin wonders how anyone can be against transit investment (Star Tribune, March 23). Simply put, wasting billions of dollars on transit will not reduce congestion or make our roads and bridges safe.

The $1.1 billion soon to be allocated to a dedicated transit fund should have been used to find and fix multiple bridges. That $1.1 billion should have fixed Crosstown, the “devil’s triangle” and several other high-priority projects sooner. It could have added an entire 494-694 loop.

McLaughlin knows how to play this game; taxpayers saw a slightly different version with the Twins stadium. That worked so well this time they will use it in multiple counties to build a train.

Ramsey County Commissioner Tony Bennett tries to justify his vote for the sales tax increase with the tired old either/or lie. He believes he must vote to pass the sales tax increase or property taxes will go up. Now that’s a promise he can’t keep.

Taxpayers are demanding accountability. That $1.1 billion will now not be used to improve infrastructure or to hire cops and will surely never reduce property taxes. The taxpayers’ pocket is a finite revenue source and taxpayers are stretched to the limit.

Commissioners and legislators, who willingly squander $1.1 billion on 19th-century transit boondoggles are only leading us down the path of higher property taxes and higher sales taxes. All the while Minnesota’s families and businesses will continue to drive on congested roads and wait for bridge and road repairs.

SUE JEFFERS, NEW BRIGHTON

I’m tardy in getting to it, but Joe Repya had one in there last week too about the 5 year mark of the Iraq war.

(I’ve been under the weather the last few days amidst the Easter festivites for 2 families, sorry about the absence. This one has been irking me all weekend though.)

Have you been noticing a lot of stories about the 35W bridge rebuilding being ahead of pace? I have, and I dug up into the old stories from when FlatIron (the company who bid the longest timeline to complete the project) won the bridgestakes. Guess what, I have the feeling my suspicions were correct…..

The Flatiron team could earn millions of extra dollars by finishing before the completion date that will be specified in the contract.

It could get $200,000 a day for an early finish — up to $20 million for coming in 100 days early — and a $7 million bonus if it needs to do extra work but doesn’t ask for more time to complete it.

Do you think that maybe the bid conservatively, VERY conservatively, in order to get the bonus? Talk about a sweatheart deal.

Sure, yeah, take your time, oh don’t worry if you think you’ll take the longest, you can still get a great bonus.

The Anoka County Board is set to vote on the Transit Sales Tax increase on Tuesday the 25th. In this story we also find out the cold hard truth about the intended recipient of your hard earned money being taken from your wallet ‘for transportation’.

The Anoka County Board will vote at its Tuesday, March 25, 9:30 a.m., meeting on whether to increase the state sales tax in the county.

The transportation bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature in late February gave the seven metro counties the power to individually vote to raise the sales tax in their county by a quarter of 1 percent from 6.5 to 6.75 percent.

The money from the sales tax increase would be specifically earmarked for transitway projects in the seven-county area.

Transitways are defined as commuter rail, light rail and bus rapid transit, not regular MTC service, according to Anoka County Board Chairman Dennis Berg.

A joint powers board of the counties that opt to levy the higher sales tax would determine which projects would be funded, Berg said.

All the money generated from the counties that vote to increase the sales tax would go into a pool that the joint powers board would administer, he said.

The increased revenues will not be used for roads, bridges, or highways. They lied to us.

The story goes on to describe the process by which the new super bureaucracy (Joint powers board) will operate and let me just say that it is bad….. very bad.

I read the whole thing and now my day is ruined….. check that, my future is ruined as these airheads have sold us out. They will not be building roads with this new money. They won’t be addressing congestion. Our property taxes won’t be going down.

If you want to get angry, read the rest. If you want to assume that the people who are supposed to have your best interests at heart, you really need to read the rest because they don’t.

A republic as long as you can keep it….

A dedicated reader of RF sent word today that the turncoat 6 (R)s that sided with the Democrats to raise taxes $7 billion have been consistently voting with them since. I’ve been wicked busy and haven’t had time to follow their votes, has anybody else?

I stumbled onto this one this morning. It is about how the DFL is trying to destroy our democratic system for politics in Minnesota.

ST. PAUL – On Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 6 p.m., the first hearing regarding changing Minnesota’s caucus process will be held.

Super Tuesday’s heavily-attended precinct caucuses will be discussed at the evening Senate hearing.

The Committee on State and Local Government Operations and Oversight will take testimony from caucus-goers about the conditions of the caucus locations and hear from people who would prefer a presidential primary.

State Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, is planning to push legislation to establish a presidential primary in Minnesota.

Now as much as I don’t like our Caucus system, it is not pleasing to see one party abuse their power to undermine the other. Democrats have iron fist control over the Minnesota Legislature and can pretty much do whatever they want. They believe in a different form of democracy and grassroots activism is different in their eyes than it is in the eyes of Republicans.

It is incredibly troubling that the state government already has so much power over private groups who enter the political fight. There are very few if any private groups that have their operations dictated as do political parties. And now the Democrats are trying to destroy grassroots will and make it harder to get involved and affect change in the world that is Minnesota politics.

But why would Democrats want to make it harder for people, Republicans especially, to affect local and state races? Oh yeah, because they have super majorities in pretty much every one of them and it benefits them to have a fractured and weak Republican base.

The DFL can’t seem to find any plan to fix their budget deficit. Yes, it is their budget deficit, and it would be even larger had someone not at least put the brakes on their spending spree train last year. Of course we can see the beginning signs of the DFL plan for the budget. Surprise surprise, it includes punishing businesses.

She [Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington] said overall, her tax bill would generate about $100 million in revenue to the state.

Raising revenue to the state means there is less money in the hands of businesses to employ workers which means there is less in the wallets of employees to spend in the economy…..

Business leaders also raised concerns about the bill. Jill Larson, with the Minnesota Business Partnership, said at first glance, the bill would discourage businesses from investing in Minnesota. She said cutting tax breaks for research and development and removing other tax breaks would discourage employers from doing business in Minnesota.

“I don’t think it does anything to help grow jobs, and I think everybody’s focus right now is on growing jobs, improving the economy and our concern is that those provisions don’t necessarily get us there,” she said.

Then again it is pretty clear the DFLers don’t really care about real jobs or the economy. They only care about the state’s bottom line.

Whether Democrat or Republican, I think you’ll get a kick out of this!

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, ‘What is Politics?’

Dad says, ‘Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I am the head of the family, so call me The President. Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government.

We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People. The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we will call him the Future. Now think about that and see if it makes sense.’

So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper.

So the little boy goes to his parent’s room and finds his mother asleep not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny.

He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy says to his father, ‘Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now. ‘

The father says, ‘Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.’

The little boy replies, ‘The President is screwing the Working Class while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit.

Join other freedom loving patriots tonight to show your support for the troops.

Join me and other Freedom Loving Americans who stand in support of our Troops at the Lake Street/Marshall Ave. Bridge on the 5th Anniversary of the Liberation of Iraq.  The Anti-war Kooks will be there.  Let’s show ‘em that they do NOT hold the majority opinion.

Bring signs, American Flags, Bells, Horns.

5 - 6 PM

There is a public hearing tonight at 7:00PM @ Hennepin County Eden Prairie Library.

Two public hearings to receive public testimony on the proposed 0.25-percent sales tax increase to support expansion of metropolitan transit options in Hennepin County have been scheduled for Tuesday, March 18, by the Hennepin County Board.

Note: the County Board committee meeting on the 18th has been rescheduled from 1:30 to 1 p.m.

The first meeting will take place at 2 p.m. during the regular Budget and Capital Investment Committee meeting in the County Board Room on the 24th floor of the Hennepin County Government Center, 300 S. Sixth St., in downtown Minneapolis.
The second meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Hennepin County Eden Prairie Library, 565 Prairie Center Drive, in Eden Prairie.
The County Board will hear testimony but will not vote on the proposed sales tax at these hearings. To testify at a hearing, sign up in advance by contacting the Clerk of the County Board. Please indicate which meeting you will attend. Pre-registration is not required.