In a post here yesterday, I challenged bloggers to look into whether there is even the slightest chance that the maintenance of the collapsed I-35 bridge in Minneapolis could have been postponed because of a $400 billion-plus infrastructure improvement project known as the Iraq war or the penchant these days for state and local governments to operate on the cheap. Well, we’ll probably never know for sure if the collapse could have been prevented by an accelerated maintenance program, but courtesy of blogger Dick Polman at American Debate, what we do now know is that:
"In 2005, the Minneapolis legislature enacted a hike in the gas tax, with the money earmarked for much-needed road and bridge repairs. But Tim Pawlenty - the Republican governor who has long been billed as a rising star in the conservative firmament, and who has sought to reign on a pledge of No New Taxes – decided that a gas tax hike would violate his principles. So he vetoed the bill. The lawmakers squawked, pointing out that the gas tax at the pump had last been raised in 1988, failed to override the veto.
"Then, earlier this year, the lawmakers tried again. Mindful of the fact that Minnesota’s annual shortfall for road and bridge repairs had soared to $1.8 billion, they enacted another hike in the gas tax. But Pawlenty, deciding that the payment of an additional five cents per gallon constituted an undue tax burden, vetoed this bill as well. And again the lawmakers lacked the votes to override.
"I’m not suggesting that this no-new-taxes governor is personally responsible for the I-35 bridge collapse; the span may well have fallen anyway, even if there had been new state money for repairs.. . . But Pawlenty’s vetoes are symptomatic of a society that thinks it can survive on the cheap."
Plenty of public officials have plenty to answer for on this one, but Governor Pawlenty is at the top of the list.
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