House, Senate override a Pawlenty veto for the first time

What an idiotic headline. A nice, congratulatory POS response to the latest wallet rape by our legislators. It's a lovely demonstration of bias by Mike Kaszuba and Mark Brunswick.

The actual headline should be something like "State Legislature Passes Biggest Tax Hike in 150 years". That's called...wait for it...honesty.

They aren't exactly up-to-speed on tenses and English language usage, either.

The legislation would increase the state gas tax 5 1/2 cents by fall and then by up to another 3 cents; 3 1/2 cents of the 8 1/2 cents would be in place until bonds authorized under the plan are retired.

The legislation is increasing the state gas tax by the stated amount, followed by another 1/2 cent increase per year.

And we can't forget the part they trimmed from the article. Why was it trimmed, I wonder?

It also will provide a $25 income-tax credit for low-income Minnesotans to ease the effect of the gas tax increase.

Income redistribution. Steal from the rich and give to the poor. Wonderful.

Under another provision, a quarter-cent sales tax increase would occur in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area without a referendum, with all proceeds going to transit projects. The sales tax needs action by the county boards.

And it comes with another sales tax increase for the metro area! I've addressed this before. I'd like to remind the politicians in this state that it is not possible to tax your way to prosperity. Get out of the damn way!

Here are the voting records. These are the jerks that need to be taken out of office this fall. The names in bold are the metro-area congress-critters that voted to disproportionately screw their constituents. Newsflash, folks! The metro-area citizens pay the lion's share of ALL transportation costs in the state! We are already screwed out of most of our share of the transportation budget.

In the senate:

DEMOCRATS VOTING YES

Anderson (St. Paul); Bakk (Cook); Berglin (Minneapolis); Betzold (Fridley); Bonoff (Minnetonka); Carlson (Eagan); Chaudhary (Fridley); Clark (St. Cloud); Cohen (St. Paul); Dahle (Northfield); Dibble (Minneapolis); Doll (Burnsville); Erickson Ropes (Winona); Foley (Coon Rapids); Higgins (Minneapolis); Kubly (Granite Falls); Langseth (Glyndon); Larson (Bloomington); Latz (St. Louis Park); Lourey (Kerrick); Lynch (Rochester); Marty (Roseville); Metzen (South St. Paul); Moua (St. Paul); Murphy (Red Wing); Olseen (Harris); Olson, M. (Bemidji); Pappas (St. Paul); Pogemiller (Minneapolis); Prettner Solon (Duluth); Rest (New Hope); Rummel (White Bear Lake); Saltzman (Woodbury); Saxhaug (Grand Rapids); Scheid (Brooklyn Park); Sheran (Mankato); Sieben (Newport); Skoe (Clearbrook); Skogen (Hewitt); Sparks (Austin); Stumpf (Plummer); Tomassoni (Chisholm); Torres Ray (Minneapolis); Vickerman (Tracy); Wiger (North St. Paul)

REPUBLICANS VOTING YES

Dille (Dassel); Frederickson (New Ulm)

In the house:

DEMOCRATS VOTING YES

Anzelc (Balsam Twp); Atkins (Inver Grove Heights); Benson (Minnetonka); Bigham (Cottage Grove); Bly (Northfield); Brown (Austin); Brynaert (Mankato); Bunn (Lake Elmo); Carlson (Crystal); Clark (Minneapolis); Davnie (Minneapolis); Dill (Crane Lake); Dittrich (Champlin); Dominguez (Minneapolis); Doty (Royalton); Eken (Twin Valley); Faust (Mora); Fritz (Faribault); Gardner (Shoreview); Greiling (Roseville); Hansen (South St. Paul); Hausman (St. Paul); Haws (St. Cloud); Hilstrom (Brooklyn Center); Hilty (Finlayson); Hornstein (Minneapolis); Hortman (Brooklyn Park); Hosch (St. Joseph); Huntley (Duluth); Jaros (Duluth); Johnson (St. Paul); Juhnke (Willmar); Kahn (Minneapolis); Kalin (Lindstrom); Kelliher (Minneapolis); Knuth (New Brighton); Koenen (Clara City); Kranz (Blaine); Laine (Columbia Heights); Lesch (St. Paul); Lenczewski (Bloomington); Liebling (Rochester); Lieder (Crookston); Lillie (North St. Paul); Loeffler (Minneapolis); Madore (Apple Valley); Mahoney (St. Paul); Mariani (St. Paul); Marquart (Dilworth); Masin (Eagan); Moe (Bemidji); Morgan (Burnsville); Morrow (St. Peter); Mullery (Minneapolis); Murphy, E. (St. Paul); Murphy, M. (Hermantown); Nelson (Brooklyn Park); Norton (Rochester); Olin (Thief River Falls); Otremba (Long Prairie); Paymar (St. Paul); Pelowski (Winona); Peterson, A. (Appleton); Peterson, S. (New Hope); Poppe (Austin); Rukavina (Virginia); Ruud (Minnetonka); Sailer (Park Rapids); Scalze (Little Canada); Sertich (Chisholm); Simon (St. Louis Park); Slawik (Maplewood); Slocum (Richfield); Solberg (Grand Rapids); Swails (Woodbury); Thao (St. Paul); Thissen (Minneapolis); Tillberry (Fridley); Tschumper (La Crescent); Wagenius (Minneapolis); Walker (Minneapolis); Ward (Brainerd); Welti (Plainview); Winkler (Golden Valley); Wollschlager (Cannon Falls)



REPUBLICANS VOTING YES

Abeler (Anoka); Erhardt (Edina); Hamilton (Mountain Lake); Heidgerken (Freeport); Peterson, N. (Bloomington); Tingelstad (Andover)

These are the folks who are NOT screwing us over:

Senate:
No senate democrats voted against the bill.

REPUBLICANS VOTING NO

Day (Owatonna); Fischbach (Paynesville); Gerlach (Apple Valley); Gimse (Willmar); Hann (Eden Prairie); Ingebrigtsen (Alexandria); Johnson (Ham Lake); Jungbauer (East Bethel); Koch (Buffalo); Koering (Fort Ripley); Limmer (Maple Grove); Michel (Edina); Olson, G. (Minnetrista); Ortman (Chanhassen); Pariseau (Farmington); Robling (Jordan); Rosen (Fairmont); Senjem (Rochester); Vandeveer (Forest Lake); Wergin (Princeton)

House:
No house democrat voted no.

REPUBLICANS VOTING NO

Anderson, B. (Buffalo Twp); Anderson, S. (Plymouth); Beard (Shakopee); Berns (Wayzata); Buesgens (Jordan); Cornish (Good Thunder); Dean (Dellwood); DeLaForest (Andover); Demmer (Hayfield); Dettmer (Forest Lake); Drazkowski (Wabasha); Eastlund (Isanti); Emmer (Delano); Erickson (Princeton); Finstad (Comfrey); Garofalo (Farmington); Gottwalt (St. Cloud); Gunther (Fairmont); Hackbarth (Cedar); Holberg (Lakeville); Hoppe (Chaska); Howes (Walker); Kohls (Victoria); Lanning (Moorhead); Magnus (Slayton); McFarlane (White Bear Lake); McNamara (Hastings); Nornes (Fergus Falls); Olson (Big Lake); Ozment (Rosemount); Paulsen (Eden Prairie); Peppin (Rogers); Seifert (Marshall); Severson (Sauk Rapids); Shimanski (Silver Lake); Simpson (Perham); Smith (Mound); Urdahl (Grove City); Wardlow (Eagan); Westrom (Elbow Lake); Zellers (Maple Grove)



REPUBLICANS NOT VOTING

Brod (New Prague); Ruth (Owatonna)

Now, for a comparison. Let's see which congress-critters voted to wallet-rape their constituents with a special sales-tax last time and this time. I'm going to ignore the out-state XXXXXXXs, because the sales tax didn't screw their constituents in an uncomfortable spot. I am, however, going to count the metro-area folks, because their constituents probably venture into Hennepin County on occasion. The bold are the actual Hennepin County legislature with a taste for...well, we won't go into their apparent fetishes.

Senate:
REPUBLICANS VOTING YES
None made the re-election cut.

DEMOCRATS VOTING YES
Voted yes both times:
Bonoff (Minnetonka); Foley (Coon Rapids); Higgins (Minneapolis); Metzen (South St. Paul);Scheid (Brooklyn Park);Skoe (Clearbrook);Wiger (North St. Paul)

Couldn't get re-elected:
Kelley (Hopkins); Marko (Cottage Grove); Skoglund (Minneapolis);


House:
Republicans:
Voted yes both times:
Abeler (Anoka); Peterson, N. (Bloomington); Tingelstad (Andover);

Couldn't get re-elected:
Charron (Woodbury);Cybart (Apple Valley);Meslow (White Bear Lake);Ozment (Rosemount); Samuelson (New Brighton); Sykora (Excelsior);Westerberg (Blaine)

Voted no this time:
Beard (Shakopee); Hoppe (Chaska);Wardlow (Eagan);

Democrats:
Voted yes both times:
Atkins (Inver Grove Heights);Hilstrom (Brooklyn Center); Hortman (Brooklyn Park);Kelliher (Minneapolis);Lesch (St. Paul); Lillie (North St. Paul);Nelson, M. (Brooklyn Park); Scalze (Little Canada);Simon (St. Louis Park); Slawik (Maplewood);Thao (St. Paul);Thissen (Minneapolis);

Couldn't get re-elected:
Entenza (St. Paul); Welti (Plainview)

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There are a couple of lessons to be learned here.

The first lesson is to the Republican politicians: If you tax us, you will not get re-elected!

The second lesson is for the Democrat voters: Once a tax-hungry piece of crap, always a tax hungry piece of crap!