Bridge collapse in MSP

Has it been proven this bridge was ready to collapse and people still were driving across it anyway? Don't think so.

Sometimes, accidents happen, no matter how hard you try to avoid them. It sucks, but that's life.

This "blame game" bull has got to stop.

 

Wasn't Minnesota running a large budget surplus at the time of the gas-tax veto?

 

They were running a defecit when he took office, thanks to Jesse "$350 bucks for everyone" Ventura.

I couldn't tell you where they were at any particular veto. It's a general comment on Pawlenty and his "Health User Fee" style of governance.

 

Minnesota had a surplus this year for the first time in a while. Think it was around 2B.

The gas tax has not been raised in close to twenty years. It was vetoed in 2005 and 2007.

And Zeke, just for you...









Media Jackal.

 

Except that Missouri's roads are rated 48th in the nation or were a couple of years ago. They have HORRIBLE roads.

 

I have a friend who went out to Missouri for grad school, and that's all he talks about-how shitty the state's roads are.

 

Is that something recent? When I lived there in the '90s I thought the roads were fine.

 

A gas tax is now on the table.

startribune.com/587/story1343631.html

 

OK, I'll bite.
What in the hell does that mean?
(I was on that bridge a month ago, BTW.)

 

Nothing new. They've always been bad, but have gotten worse since 1997. Actually, a bridge I drove over every weekend of college going home is one of the critical bridges in the state and the only bridge in Missouri that had the same design as the Minneapolis bridge. It's over Lake of the Ozarks.

 

Frickin' politicians. If Minnesota already had a $2 billion budget surplus, why not use some of that to pay for road and bridge rehabilitation?

But it's better to look like you're doing something than to actually do it.

 

The one at Osage Beach? I drove over that one quite a bit, too.

I used to drive a lot in Little Dixie and the Kirksville area, and I always remember Missouri roads as better than Illinois' but not as good as Iowa's.