Marty's Follies

I see Marty Seifert, is back at it again. The House Minority Leader is still throwing a temper tantrum over the transportation bill that was passed.

Marty had initially wanted to run ads filmed at fuel pump TV monitors at gas stations, But Holiday Gas Stations refused to run any political ads from those monitors. But that is not stopping Rep Seifert from wanting to blame the Democrats in the State Capitol for higher gas prices. Mr. Seifert goes on to say

You pay, they pump. Who's to blame for higher gas prices? It's the Democrats in
the State Capitol

Sorry Marty, I'm not buying it.

With Big Oil bringing in 123 billion in record profits last year. I don't think the 2 cents increase will make that much of a difference considering that big oil has raised the price of gas by 51 cents since the bill was passed in February.

In a story on MPR Freshman Rep. Julie Bunn, DFL-Lake Elmo said she understands that some of her constituents may be concerned about higher fuel prices, but she said the gas tax increase will be dedicated to road and bridge construction projects throughout the state. She said her constituents will benefit from accelerated projects like an added lane on I-494, the reconstruction of the Hastings Bridge and other projects through the added funding.

"We are already seeing the benefits for our area of having broken this logjam
and moving us forward on adequately funding transportation in our state," said Dunn.

Rep Robin Brown stated in a press release that:

Freeborn County will receive an additional $10 million over the next ten
years; Mower County will receive an additional $12.3 million. The city of Albert
Lea will receive just over $2 million. This new funding will not only go a long
way toward fixing area roads and bridges, it will also offer relief for property
owners who have been picking up the tab

Other House DFL staffers said it's unfair for Republicans to blame high gas prices on the recently passed gas tax increase. They say the price of a gallon of gas was $2.96 when the transportation bill passed in February. Now, the price of gas is $3.49 a gallon. They said the gas tax increased two cents a gallon on April first, just a small portion of the jump in the price of gas.

One economist agrees with that assessment.

"The day to day politics have got nothing to do with the price of oil being
at $3 or $3.40," said Jerry Fruin with the University of Minnesota's Department
of Applied Economics.
Fruin said global factors are more at play with the
rising costs. He said China and India's increased demand for oil and a slowdown
in oil production are the main reasons for high gas prices.

"We've seen unprecedented demand and a failure to increase supply to
keep up with it," Fruin said.

Remember this legislation will help stimulate the economy by creating over 30 thousand badly needed jobs over the next five years. Better roads, safer bridges and more jobs sound like the right thing to do in these hard economic times.