July 12, 2005
Pioneer Press: Taxation good, representation bad
Apparently the New York Times isn't the only newspaper that bemoans how hard it is to evade the democratic process these days. Bob Sansavere of the St. Paul Pioneer Press today has a column raging about how state legislators are holding up a "minuscule tax" (total cost to taxpayers: $353 million) for a Minnesota Twins stadium just so they can spent time on frivolous matters like passing a state budget. Writes Sansavere:
These legislators need to suck it up, deal with the Twins' bill, and then head home.And let's not hear that they're concerned about procedure. The stadium bill passed through two committees in the House but hasn't gone through a single Senate committee. Bell believes that a desire to follow the traditional process could be stalling some legislators from wanting to act and, if that's true, it's a lousy excuse.
Bell is, of course, Twins stadium czar Jerry Bell, who is quoted three times in Sansavere's article. Twins president Dave St. Peter gets three more citations, while Vikings stadium honcho Lester Bagley gets one. Total number of stadium critics, or for that matter state legislators, quoted in the piece: zero. I guess that's better than putting words in the mouths of opponents, but only slightly.
