DFL’s gas tax lacks accountability

To the Editor:

Democrats are on the hook to voters for giving Minnesota the seventh highest gas tax in the nation. A hundred percent of House Democrats voted for this bill, making our total gas tax 28.5 cents per gallon. License tabs are going way up and the door has been opened for individual counties to raise sales tax a half-cent.

This increase is not going to fund roads and bridges, as we were led to believe. How about $250,000 for a Humphrey Institute grant, $375,000 for a value capture study, $4.3 million for historic property along the Great River Road, $24 million for a district headquarters in Mankato, $8.6 million for a Chaska truck station, $2 million for a design of truck stations in Rochester and Maple Grove, $18.2 million for the renovation of the Minnesota Department of Transportation building exterior, and more than

$1 billion for commuter trains that most Minnesotans will never use.

In case you haven’t figured it out, taxpayers have just been duped by politicians who pander to special interest lobbies.

Clearly, the DFL has placed government budgets ahead of Minnesota’s family budgets. I anticipate November’s election booths will be inundated with voters aiming to restore accountability in our government.

Tags: opinion, gas, tax, roschen