Fund it or the Bus Driver gets it!

An old joke tells of a young lad given two nickels, one for his Sunday School offering, the other for a treat on the way home.  He accidentally drops one, seeing it roll into a sewer grate.  The boy looks skyward and says, "Lord, there goes your nickel!"

So it is with the Metropolitan Council.  The Minnesota House passed its Transportation Bill, which as the Minneapolis Star Tribune accurately (!) reported: House voted to reduce spending on light rail, commuter rail and outstate bus service.  But of course, that's not how it's being spun, even by the Metropolitan Council, which as an unelected body should not engage in this degree of political rhetoric.

Not even the Republican Party is stupid enough to force tripling Metro Transit bus fares or cutting service levels in half as claimed.  But truth is, the Democratic Party is no real friend of bus service either.  All they care about are their shiny new trains that are bankrupting Metro Transit even now.  Fares have been increasing and bus service levels have been ebbing lest the Central Corridor never get built.

What the House Republicans have said is get rid of the chaffe like light rail and you should be able to keep the wheat.  After all, you have other failed programs like affordable housing.  You pick which is of least value and cut it.  It seems like a courtesy when the abolishment of the Metropolitan Council as we know it would be an even better policy to consider.

But just as subsidy cuts always seem to result in police and teacher layoffs, the Met Council is ready to lay off bus drivers, the most visible hobgoblin of injustice they can summon.  If they laid off all those connected with light rail, nobody would notice except some grateful Midway business owners.

 

Comments

[Give2Attain]

After spending some time discussing Needs vs Wants with folks, I am simply amazed that some folks have no ability to separate them during a time of low tax revenues. They seem to see everything as a NEED and are willing to fight tooth and nail for them. (ie cutting the NEEDS to obtain funding for the WANTS)

http://give2attain.blogspot.com/2011/03/needs-vs-wants.html

I have to wonder how their household budget survives... "I'll stop buying food to ensure I get that new toy or pair of shoes..." My spouse will cough up the cash when they get hungry enough.

[The Big Stink]

It's the same phenomenon I encountered years ago when I was on a citizens panel aimed at making cuts in District 281. No one gave an inch. One lady said: "I've had five children in music and theater and any discussion of cutting the arts will be over my dead body."

This kind of set the tone.