Of Bridges, Minnesota, Budgets and Transportation

OK, real short here, because this isn't complicated.

As some of you know I've lived in Minnesota for the past 14 years and am an economist here. I am very familiar with the bridge because I used to drive on that bridge daily and could see it from two of my living quarters whilst going to college. And I'm just as familiar with the state budget and finances here in Minnesota as well.

So I find it my duty to point out that when the inevitable call from the left comes to raise taxes to pay for crumbling bridges and infrastructure, (when we yet to know the cause of this particular collapse), that it is not a taxation problem, it's a spending problem.

And unlike everybody else out there, I'm going to prove it.

First is the Minnesota state budget. The vast majority of our money goes to two things;

Education and health and human services.

Only 7% goes to transportation.

This may cause those on the left to point and say, "See, SEE!!! We barely spend anything on transportation! We need to raise taxes!"

Well hold on there little buckaroos. The question is what would our overall tax rate in Minnesota be in the first place? Are we taxing enough? As it turns out we're already the 6th highest taxed state in the nation (and by some measures we're 3rd);


Also the state of Minnesota takes 7% of GSP (Gross State Product, my apologies for the age of the chart).


So it's pretty hard to argue that we don't tax enough. Matter of fact, we probably tax too much. And therefore it isn't a taxation problem, as much as it is a spending problem.