Tonight was the 3rd Annual Edina Aviation Impact Forum, pulled together by Connie Carrino on the MSP FairSkies team. We had a great turnout from citizens, politicians and staff from the airport authority. Our presentation from tonight is below, and you can watch the video here.
1 Comment
Apparently our unelected masters at the Met Council think they need even LESS oversight from the legislature than they receive today. Yes, that's the essence of the proposal to break the deadlock at the legislature over the $135M the Met Council wants for its absurdly overpriced SW Light Rail line (which by the way continues to be embroiled in legal controversy).
From today's Star Tribune: First, the DFL's proposal is the once again centered around a new tax, namely a new 1/ 2 cent sales tax that would push the standard sales tax in both Minneapolis and St Paul over 8%. Secondly, that tax would raise $280M a year, forever. That's right - in order to pay for the initial $135M to complete the SWLRT, we need to commit to $2.8 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years. But the real kicker is that the Met Council's Chair, Adam "Duininck said his pitch to skeptical lawmakers is that the $280 million per year would allow Metro Transit (i.e. the unelected, unaccountable Met Council) to untether itself from state government to the tune of $50 million per year it currently receives from the general fund." That's right. His pitch is that further freeing the Met Council from pesky legislative meddling is a reason why the opposition should approve another tax increase. We can only hope nobody on the "right" side of the aisle is insane enough to buy into that argument.
Meanwhile in Finland, they appear to be hard at work trying to implement a rather radical change in how anti-poverty programs are administered, with a Universal Basic Income for all citizens. The monthly stipend of about $900 would be in lieu of all other social support services, and looks to be an attempt to make real a suggestion from Milton Friedman. This City Journal article is a nice overview of the matter. A Finnish business school buddy of mine from my time at the Stockholm School of Economics notes that the left is now having some second thoughts about this, so we'll see what happens. Of course, a huge reason to do this is to get rid of the inefficient government administration of anti-poverty programs, and put some responsibility back on to the people. Perhaps not by coincidence, given the current refugee crisis in Europe, the stipend would only be available to citizens.
|
Kevin TerrellSure, e-books have a place in the world. I just prefer real ones, in order to make the job a bit harder for any real life Winston Smith who might be out there. Archives
February 2019
Categories
All
|