doodledee

This column about transportation funding by former State Senator Fritz Knaak left me dumbfounded. I actually had to read parts of it multiple times just to be sure he wasn't being sarcastic.

Case in point:

[...] the underlying source of the resistance to increased motor vehicle taxes [is]: Most Minnesotans, particularly in the suburbs, no longer believe that their taxes benefit the common good. Rather, they believe, with reason, that the taxes are, through politics, channeled to political "winners." Most of them don't feel like winners in the current system.

Whaaa? They don't feel like winners? Then what do they feel like? Losers? Holy crap.

But wait, there's more:

Meanwhile, in the same election that saw massive suburban pluralities for no-new-tax-pledging Republicans in the House, suburban Minnesotans willingly voted for local tax increases for schools and local improvements in which they themselves would receive some kind of direct benefit.

There is an important lesson in this: Suburbanite taxpayers can accept tax or fee increases if they see a direct benefit as a result.

I love that stuff. It makes people look so bad: Sure, I'll pay more so that I personally can have better schools and better roads and better police and better snowplowing, but if you expect me to help somebody else just because they don't have all the good fortune that I do, then you've got another thing coming, mister! (And if they're gay or something crazy like that, then it's double no!)

The other day, a letter writer referred to the DFL's larger budget as their attempt at enforcing 'compulsory, bogus compassion'. The writer argued that by giving as much money as possible back to the taxpayer, the taxpayer would have more control over how their money is eventually spent. (Duh.) I guess the idea is that if you give a bunch of money back to people that instead of buying that new jetski, they'll turn around and use to it better the 'common good'.

I would argue that attitudes like Mr. Knaak's reveal a startling lack of compassion and that as a result, a mandatory minimum level of compassion apparently - and unfortunately - needs to be legislatively enforced.

But hey, who knows, maybe someday we'll get away from that model. Here's hoping.