Leo Pusateri writes for all of us (or at least the 57% of Minnesotans who oppose raising the gas tax) in hoping that “the solution to the bridge and infrastructure issue is a prudent, effective measure, rather than a knee-jerk tax-and-spend reaction.”

All the talk about special sessions and gas tax increase as sequelae to last week’s I-35W bridge collapse may turn out to be just that–talk.

I just got off of the phone with Gary Gross, who incidentally just got off of the horn with State Representative Steve Gottwalt. Gross stated, when asked about the probability of a special session, Mr. Gottwalt replied, “God, I hope not!”

There appears to be a substantial number of Republican lawmakers who are seeing the call for raising the state gas tax to be what it is– an opportunistic ploy by DFL lawmakers to ramrod a political agenda by exploiting a tragedy that had absolutely nothing to do with either the presence of or absence of a tax increase. While they certainly see the need to prioritize and ensure the safety of bridges and other infrastructure, they are likewise acknowledging that the answer lies not in an additional burden on Minnesota taxpayers, but rather on a good, old-fashioned prioritization of allocation of resources.

The bottom line is that neither a special session nor a tax increase is required to prevent what happened on the I-35 W bridge from happening elsewhere.

A phone call or email to Governor Pawlenty’s office will go a long way toward ensuring that the solution to the bridge and infrastructure issue is a prudent, effective measure, rather than a knee-jerk tax-and-spend reaction.

Andy, meanwhile, offers some friendly advice to the Governor: 

“if you raise the gas tax, not only will you be virtually admitting that you knocked the bridge down with those vetoes, but you will never get elected again.” 

Aplikowski could not be more correct.  Raising taxes would be nothing short of admitting complicity in the 35W tragedy.  How this fact is lost of the Governor, who has left the door open to a gas tax increase, defies credulity.