Oh, the tangled webs we weave.....

One of the big "brouhahas" around my fair state of Minnesocold is a scuffle over something called "local government aid," which more or less takes money out of the general fund (income taxes) to "help" poorer communuities, especially those outstate, meet basic needs.  My current town is actually a recipient of this aid, and all in all, about $1.7 billion is spent annually for this.

Another feature of our tax code is a credit for property taxes paid, scaled by income.  And yet another is the fact that a large portion of transportation taxes are diverted towards mass transit--in 2006, evidently about a quarter of the total MN transportation budget was spent on light rail in the Twin Cities.

In my town, there are--thank God--no city buses to harass bicyclists and other innocent parties (for some reason, the worst problems I've had riding are with city buses) while making the environment worse with their F250-like 25 passenger-miles per gallon of diesel.  That said, it illustrates what's really at stake.

Specifically, the registration and gas taxes we pay here are being diverted to light rail in the Twin Cities.  So is the solution to "keep local government aid as is," or is it to cut LGA entirely and keep gas and car registration tax revenues for maintaining roads here? 

I think the answer is simple; if the Twin Cities want their trolley, let them pay for it, and let our cities keep revenue that rightly belongs to them.