Senate approves bill with ten cent gas tax . . .

Today the Minnesota Senate passed a bill along - you guessed it - straight party lines to increase the gasoline tax ten cents per gallon. A Star Tribune article describing the bill can be found here. You will recall that Representatives Ron Erhardt (R - 41A) and Neil Peterson (R - 41B) and a handful of other Republicans in the House voted with all of the DFLers to pass a bill in that body to raise the gas tax a dime.

Ron Erhardt has been a transportation heavy hitter in the House for years. He is chair of the Transportation committee, and he sits on Transportation Finance, Taxes, and the Ways and Means Committees. Neil Peterson, a first termer, is pretty much limited to emptying the ash trays and turning out the lights after committee meetings (just kidding, Representative Peterson). Anyway, a big thump of the tail by Spotty for each of them for his vote on this.

Geoff Michel has recently claimed - again - to hold aloft the light of bipartisanship. But it does not seem to be happening on major bills so far. The transportation bill, with support from the other two Republicans in the District, sure seems like a good place that Senator Michel might have tried.

In fact, Senator Michel wants to have a referendum on a constitutional amendment to increase the gas tax; the vote couldn't even take place until the fall of 2006. I am sure that you will never guess where this brilliant idea came from. (I'll give you a hint: his initials are TP.) This is just political cowardice and unwillingness to take responsibility for the transportation infrastructure that is critical to the economy of the state.

Perhaps we could consider a constitutional amendment to enshrine the odd and even watering of lawns. Just an idea.