There's a Name for Kreitlow

Christian Schneider deserves a medal of some sort for actually watching an interview of Sen. Kreitlow (D-SesameStreet) and transcribing a few notes.


Of course, on SesameStreet, 'raising taxes and fees will be a last resort.'


Really?

(Note: Before reading this excerpt, retrieve your puke-bucket for use...)


Forster: Are Senate Democrats going to bring back the automatic gas tax increase?

Kreitlow says that it’s time to admit that it was a mistake to do away with increasing gas taxes automatically, without legislators having to vote on the increase. He says - and I am not making this up - that forcing the legislature to vote on gas tax increases was “putting politics back in the transportation budgeting process.” (He may want to make a phone call to Jim Doyle, who signed the bill into law.) So, basically, asking legislators to actually vote to increase taxes is making it “political,” whereas allowing taxes to go up automatically is not political at all. In actuality, automatic indexing merely absolves legislators from having to take tough votes, which Kreitlow apparently doesn’t appreciate. Plus, when looking at the shabby state of the state’s transporation fund, he may want to recognize that Jim Doyle has transferred $1.1 billion out of the fund in the last 3 budgets to balance the general fund - which dwarfs any revenue loss from the repeal of automatic indexing.

Schneider also notes the discrepancy between Kreitlow's "taxes are a last resort" rhetoric and his enthusiasm for tax increases.

HT: Kevin