Whip out the credit cards!

Governor Pawlenty unveiled his transportation funding plan today. But if you were hoping for more money to tackle our transportation and transit woes, you won't find it in his plan. He calls for the same old same old: whipping out the state's credit card so we can build now, and pay later. Given the fact that he remains shackled to his "no new taxes" pledge, I guess this is hardly surprising.

His ten-year plan, which wouldn't kick in until 2007, would involve issuing $4.5 billion in bonds, to be paid back by revenue raised by the current gas tax. Of course, that means that if this future revenue is used to pay interest on today's bonds, it can't be used for anything else. Thus, the boom in construction will be followed by a bust as the state pays back the debt.

He also proposes a constitutional amendment to dedicate the Motor Vehicle Sales Tax (MVST) to transportation and transit. This isn't a bad proposal, but it must be remembered that this money is currently going to the state's General Fund. Pawlenty proposes no new revenue to fill the budget gap that would be created by moving this money from the GF to the transportation fund. Maybe in his world you can dig one hole to fill another and claim to come out ahead, but not in reality.

Bonds are fine for funding transportation projects, as is dedicating the MVST. But if you do these things, you have to increase taxes to pay off the debt incurred by the state, as well as to fill in the hole in the General Fund. A responsible transportation funding plan has to address these issues.