Free Republic

At 8:10 a.m. on Monday, April 27, the Metropolitan Council released the startling news that the price tag of the proposed Southwest light-rail line had increased by $341 million to $2 billion. Met Council Chair Adam Duininck said in a news release at the time that “all options are on the table,” including not building the line at all. E-mails among Duininck, Metro Transit officials and other political players — including Gov. Mark Dayton — obtained through a Minnesota Data Practices Act request reflect the behind-the-scenes positioning in the days leading to the announcement. The 231 pages of e-mails don’t...

It’s a progressive paradise.Public employees get 30 vacation days a year. Anyone who works over eight hours in a day gets paid time-and-a-half. Employees have strong rights.The minimum wage is high: 77 percent of the median wage.Environmental regulations are settled beyond the pressure of local economic interests. The forests and mountains are pristine destinations for ecotourism.Energy costs are kept high, pushing consumption down to a level deemed “socially beneficial”. Utilities have strong public backing and provide jobs to thousands.Union jobs in shipping are protected from outsourcing to cut-rate foreign competitors.The social safety net is buoyant and provides a solid working-class standard...

"When I ran the second time, I didn't say that — and you didn't ask me. So we'll have to leave that as an open question." When taxes are "an open question," we think we know the answer. So the state with the highest income and sales taxes in the nation is now looking at new tax revenues to pay for roads. That probably means a gas tax hike, in a state that already pays America's highest prices at the pump and ranks as a "tax hell" in most ratings by business and taxpayer groups. But hey, things can always...

DETROIT may be one of the only cities in the rich world where it is possible for someone on a fairly modest income to buy a street. At the edges of Boston-Edison, a historic district of gorgeous old houses built as one of the city’s first wealthy suburbs, so low has the cost of housing fallen that fairly grand houses can be acquired simply for the cost of back property taxes. ..Chief among the costs that are higher in Detroit is transport. One of the reasons people who live in Manhattan don’t mind paying so much for housing is that...

While the media has rushed to pick apart policy proposals from Republican presidential candidates, not much attention has focused on Hillary Clinton’s positions — because she hasn’t staked out any. Even though she has campaigned for months, Hillary has avoided taking any positions at all until Saturday’s relaunch in Roosevelt Park. Even that speech was a laundry list of slogans rather than any serious commitments or policy proposals, more like a State of the Union speech and delivered with less aplomb and personality.After some media criticism about the lack of substance, Team Hillary let the media know that her...

A pitch mailed by the Kalamazoo Public Schools to a local nonprofit asking for help passing a millage hike on May 5 included the following: “For many years, the state has underfunded public education, and local school districts have needed to make significant budget cuts as a result.” The letter also stated that Kalamazoo Public Schools had cut spending by about $10 million in the last five years. The special education tax hike squeaked through with just 51 percent of the votes. According to the Kalamazoo Public Schools’ audited financial reports, its costs for all “governmental activities” – (the overall...

The political class -- they build themselves new office buildings and such -- live in a different universe from the rest of us, and the rest of us are getting routinely pickpocketed. No greater proof of this truth exists than the remarks of St. Paul's own City Council Member Dave Thune last week after Metro Transit released the financial figures for the first six months of the Green Line. Passengers boarding the Green Line from its debut in June, 2014 through the end of the year paid $6.21 million into the farebox, or about 35.8 percent of what it costs...

It may not have the clout of the official monthly Dept of Commerce Retail Sales report not due out for two more weeks, but in retrospect considering how many credibility issues with seasonal adjustments government data has had in recent months, the Gallup Consumer Spending report may have become far more realistic than official government data.In which case all hope of a Q2 GDP rebound abandon, ye who read this: after a strong April, in which the average consumer reported a daily spend of $91, $3 higher than a year prior, and the highest spending month since before the great financial...

While Metro Transit's Green Line isn't exactly paying for itself through passenger fares, it's doing a better job than most other Minnesota public transit options. Passengers boarding the state's second light-rail line from its debut in June through the end of 2014 paid $6.21 million into the fare box, or about 35.8 percent of what it costs to operate the 11-mile route. "I think 35 percent is a really good percentage," said St. Paul City Council member Dave Thune. "I love it. I think it has been a success. The kind of traffic it's seeing, going from one end of...

The House Republicans recently released a proposal that would dedicate an extra $1 billion annually to roads by 2019. A chunk of the extra money comes from redirecting money from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to the state’s transportation infrastructure. The MEDC is the state’s corporate welfare arm, which hands out select subsidies to corporations and oversees the film incentive program and the Pure Michigan advertising campaign. Specifically, the House GOP plan would redirect $185 million of spending on “economic development” programs to road construction and maintenance. The MEDC does not want its funding cut and responded with what is...

Washington wants to spend more. Just four years ago, the nation's rapidly expanding debt was seen as Washington's number one crisis. When House Republicans took the majority in 2011, they made it their overarching mission to rein in spending. Together with the White House, they agreed to limit spending for the next decade by the use of budget caps. Now those spending ceilings are unpopular with members of both parties.

Back when he first announced, I figured upwards of 65 percent of the Jeb Bush presidential campaign would consist of him cautiously criticizing the obvious weak points of Bush 43 policy, one of which assuredly is spending. If you’re linked by blood to a president who left office under dismal circumstances, job one is explaining how you’ll be different. Then Megyn Kelly asked him about Iraq, Dubya’s biggest liability, and we watched Jeb spend a full week grasping for ways not to squarely disagree with his brother.Which is to say, this shouldn’t be newsworthy but I guess now it is....

Hours after a chaotic end to the 2015 legislative session, Gov. Mark Dayton said he wants to summon lawmakers back to the Capitol to fix an "insufficient" education funding bill. Dayton renewed his promise Tuesday to veto the $17 billion spending bill that had yet to cross his desk, noting it left out his top priority of universal preschool. That means lawmakers, who came within $25 million of a deal that didn't materialize before the end of the legislative session Monday, will have to come back to St. Paul in the coming weeks for a special session held somewhere other...

EVERY day, millions of Americans rely on a remarkable network of roads, bridges, subways, trains and buses to connect us to work, school and opportunity. But our transportation system, once the envy of the world, is in jeopardy. In New York City, subways and buses are overcrowded and often unreliable, and roadways and bridges are in dire need of repair and rehabilitation. From the next phase of the Second Avenue subway to plans to connect the Metro-North Railroad to Pennsylvania Station, to the proposed new subway line under Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, there isn’t a short- or long-term expansion project...

According to New Jersey Watchdog, Christie reportedly spent over $82,000 of taxpayer money on concessions at MetLife Stadium. Christie paid for food and drinks at MetLife with a debit card 58 times over the 2010 and 2011 NFL seasons, accruing a bill of $82,594. That means he spent an average of nearly $1,500 on food and drinks every time he attended a football game.

The Metropolitan Council continues to struggle with a marketing problem that just won't go away. The projected cost of extending light rail from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie has ballooned to $2 billion, which would make it the largest public infrastructure project in state history. That certainly would be a lot of bridges repaired and lanes of freeway added. Mark Fuhrmann, the project director for Metro Transit, said the other day that delaying the project could jeopardize federal funding. In other words, if we don't act now, we could lose the government's contribution needed to build the line. The government's share?...

The Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s 2013 pension overhaul, unraveling an effort by lawmakers to rein in benefits for the consistently underfunded public-sector system. The current pension shortfall is estimated at $111 billion, one of the largest nationally. The high court affirmed a decision in November by a state circuit court that the legislative changes violated pension protections written into the state constitution. The decision is a victory for a consortium of public-sector unions while creating a huge challenge for new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who already faces a yawning budget deficit for the coming fiscal year.

As recently as 2010, the estimated cost for the Southwest Light Rail Transit line was estimated to be $1.2 billion, or about the cost of a new football stadium. Then the cost jumped to $1.7 billion because somebody spun the magic wheel. Now the cost is projected to be $2 billion. OK, $1.994 billion, but if they find an endangered earthworm or an especially exotic cattail, all bets are off and the project will shoot over $2 billion in a European minute, for the Metropolitan Council loves to keep playing Europe. The train stops are called Royalston, West Lake, Blake...

[1]WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said at a town hall meeting the minimum wage should be raised to $15 per hour and advocated for expanding Social Security benefits.“If one person is making $18 million and another person is making $118,000 a year, who pays more into Social Security? Neither, they’re paying the same because there is a cap upon which after you, at a certain level, you don’t pay anything more and that level is about $118,000,” Sanders said at the meeting in Washington.“If you lift that cap, and you don’t have to start at $119,000, you can...

The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are asking lawmakers to put a new tool in their toolbox, so to speak: a parking surcharge that could eventually fund downtown amenities like pedestrian walkways and bike paths. Proposed legislation would allow the Twin Cities to impose a tax on non-metered parking, including stalls in public and private ramps and surface lots, within a defined area of their respective downtowns.