2014 MN House Election

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David Greene
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » June 11th, 2014, 8:50 pm

Note that currently all dollars from the Highway Trust Fund are in fact subsidized dollars. For some years now, Congress has been making transfers from the general fund to the Highway Trust Fund because the latter ran dry after multiple failures to raise the federal gas tax.
Well, we're all still paying a federal gas tax, of which a large portion goes into the HTF, so that's not entirely true. The cash transfers have been making up the difference in spend vs revenue.
But we keep borrowing from the general fund. The HTF has a debt to the general fund, at least if proper accounting were done. The gas tax can't even cover principal payments because we keep borrowing. So in effect all of the HTF dollars are subsidized. The gas tax just makes them subsidized to a lesser degree.

twincitizen
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby twincitizen » June 24th, 2014, 2:23 pm

Getting this sort of back on topic, but also keeping on the transportation theme. If the DFL does not maintain a majority in the MN House, there will be no more transit for a very long time. I don't think many people understand that SWLRT construction is going to consume the entire CTIB capital budget for at least 6 years. Beyond that, the state contribution (10%) to the project would also be on the line, which would need to be backfilled by CTIB. If you have hopes of seeing more transitway projects built, they will not happen for a very long time without a boost to the transit sales tax. That means no Bottineau, no Midtown, etc. for probably close to a decade. We urbanists may not agree with the suburban bias of the Southwest and Bottineau routings, but we probably still agree that the lines should get built and the sooner the better.

I'm hoping that DFL party leaders make this abundantly clear this fall. Obviously more attention will be on Dayton and Franken, but I hope there is still some serious focus & funding put on the close MN House races, with a specific focus on transportation issues. It's going to be incredibly close. Even if Dayton and Franken sail to re-election, we could still lose the MN House because some of the races are just that close. A handful of the seats were won by a single percentage point in 2012, which was a higher turnout Presidential election year. Mid-terms are historically worse for Democrats. The DFL is going to lose seats in the MN House, that much is absolutely certain. The real question is which seats, and how many. If the DFL loses 7 seats, then it's a 67-67 tie...likely with some non-transit-loving rural DFLers. I sincerely doubt that a single Republican will vote for more transportation funding, as the "Override Six" did back in 2008, especially if we're only talking about a transit sales tax.

mattaudio
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » June 24th, 2014, 2:33 pm

I'd gladly give up SWLRT and Bottineau as long as we also starve the beast for road funding. If we saw a major shift away from subsidizing the automobile, then market urbanism and market mobility will lead towards more sustainable and significantly more progressive outcomes.

MNdible
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby MNdible » June 24th, 2014, 2:41 pm

I'd gladly give up SWLRT and Bottineau as long as we also starve the beast for road funding. If we saw a major shift away from subsidizing the automobile, then market urbanism and market mobility will lead towards more sustainable and significantly more progressive outcomes.
Ah, yes. The old cutting off the nose to spite the face trick. Spoken like a true believer.

You know what else would cut down on automobile traffic? Making our metro area utterly non-competitive in a global marketplace.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » June 24th, 2014, 2:55 pm

It would burden us to loose the chains of a financially unsustainable system that is pushing governments and households towards poverty? Sounds horrible!

Oh yeah, and "staying competitive in a global economy" brings us wonderful things like billion dollar stadiums, freeways to nowhere, environmental destruction, and massive subsidies to bring jobs to town.

Back to reading World Made By Hand.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby Rich » June 24th, 2014, 3:42 pm

I'd gladly give up SWLRT and Bottineau as long as we also starve the beast for road funding.
So you’d deny the suburbs any alternative to the automobile, while at the same time denying road funding which makes automobile travel possible?

mattaudio
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » June 24th, 2014, 5:09 pm

The suburbs denied themselves an alternative to the automobile. People can move, especially once market forces are allowed to provide the feedback loop that says that certain land use patterns are not sustainable.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby MNdible » June 25th, 2014, 9:18 am

That's the kind of positive, big-tent message that will ensure the Democrats stay out of power for decades to come.

mattaudio
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » June 25th, 2014, 9:21 am

It just depends on if one's passion is political power, or if their passion is building financially viable, progressive communities.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby MNdible » June 25th, 2014, 9:25 am

...or, if your passion is being a back bencher in the minority party who has no impact on policy whatsoever, idly watching and holding ill-attended news conferences while the GOP dictates the agenda.

mattaudio
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » June 25th, 2014, 9:41 am

Whichever party spends less on transportation at the state level, and shifts all funding responsibilities to the lowest level of government possible (whereby bad investments will be allowed to fail) will lead to the most progressive transportation and land use outcomes.

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FISHMANPET
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby FISHMANPET » August 12th, 2014, 9:26 am

I cast my vote in the primary. I'm in 60B so my vote really matters. Khan vs Noor is gonna be a nail biter.

David Greene
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » August 12th, 2014, 9:55 am

People can move, especially once market forces are allowed to provide the feedback loop that says that certain land use patterns are not sustainable.
You are way, way too bought into the idea of the Free Market (tm). There is no invisible hand. The whole idea of The Market (tm) solving everything is absurd on its face.

That, and people can just up and move? Do you have any idea what that involves for a family?

David Greene
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » August 12th, 2014, 9:56 am

It just depends on if one's passion is political power, or if their passion is building financially viable, progressive communities.
I don't want progressive communities. I want inclusive communities.

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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » August 12th, 2014, 9:58 am

Whichever party spends less on transportation at the state level, and shifts all funding responsibilities to the lowest level of government possible (whereby bad investments will be allowed to fail) will lead to the most progressive transportation and land use outcomes.
Wow. Just wow. You honestly believe these decisions should be hyper-local? Guess we don't need a Met Council, then.

mattaudio
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby mattaudio » August 12th, 2014, 10:04 am

Yes, I'd rather have Minneapolis tax dollars investing in Minneapolis investments, like better transit stops or more human streetscapes, than have our taxes subsidize a sprawlscape through county stroadification and park & ride-based transit.

We share a desire for "inclusive communities" and I assume we share a desire for progressive outcomes. But the reality is that our current system is failing miserably to produce such outcomes in the realms of transportation and land use, precisely because we've removed feedback loops in the marketplace and replaced them with subsidy of the sprawlscape. It's really unfortunate if a political ideology (government good, markets bad) gets in the way of preferred political outcomes (progressivism, inclusivity).

David Greene
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby David Greene » August 12th, 2014, 10:33 am

It is not black-and-white.

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FISHMANPET
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby FISHMANPET » August 12th, 2014, 8:33 pm

Looks like Kahn won the primary. I saw on Twitter that with 10 of 12 precincts she had 75% but with all 12 precincts she only had 55%.

grant1simons2
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby grant1simons2 » August 12th, 2014, 8:41 pm

It looked to be a very close race, Kahn only had 400 more votes than Noor

gpete
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Re: 2014 MN House Election

Postby gpete » August 13th, 2014, 6:32 am

Not as close as many of us were expecting. I really thought Kahn was in deeper trouble when the early voting turnout was so high.


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