Read My Lips, No New Tuxes. Ummm, or is
it no new Texas? Nope, maybe no new toxins? Nah, it’s
actually the rallying call of all true Republicans trying to
unseat Democrats: “No new taxes.” It’s what our Republican
Governor said just over a year ago when she was running for
office. No * new * taxes. Period. End of
discussion you money grubbing Democrats who just want to grab
money out of our pocket for fuzzy headed social
programs.
So how does Our Governor propose to pay for her proposed
transit system? Yup. Raise the excise tax (not exactly but
equivalent to a sales tax in other states). But that wouldn’t
be enough to pay for the multi-billion dollar project. So she
also wants to raise the vehicle registration tax. But that
wouldn’t be enough either, so she wants to raise the vehicle
weight tax. And the gas tax. And car rental tax. And other
taxes to be named later (after, one might speculate, the
approval of the project has been slipped pass the
voters).
There is no magic bullet. This is exactly what I predicted
would happen no matter who won the election. The budget, over
the long run, can be viewed as a zero sum game. That is, if
you want to spend money on a project, you have only three
options: take money from existing projects, increase taxes,
or do a combination of both.
If this very expensive boondogle should go forward, I will
predict now she will do option three because she will have no
other choice. The magnitude of the cost (once you figure in
the inevitable cost overruns/graft) is just too large for it
to be otherwise.
As an aside, the scope of the project includes the hated,
view stealing double decked highway now PR spun as a “fly over.”
Fly over, I like that. It’s what airplanes, miles up in the
air do. Fly over. It has such a beautiful ring to it. Fly. As
in soaring in the sky or as in free as a bird. This is so
much better than double decked concrete freeway. Oh yes, this
is so much better. Not.
I hate to blow my own horn but…I told you so. The
question now is whether any Democrat is smart enough to
realize there is an opportunity here? I will make another
prediction – the answer will be no. Why? Because never assume
any politician will forgo immediate economic gain (think of
the money being transferred from everyone’s pockets to a few
contractors. Who then recycle those funds to the sitting
politicians). This will be a cash cow with enough slop to
gorge on for everyone, including Democrats. Even as each of
them is slowly, one by one, picked off by Republicans talking
out one side of their mouth about not raising taxes while out
of the other side saying it is necessary and prudent.
Speaking of Traffic. Our City has those
new fangled traffic lights that have sensors built in to
detect the imminent arrival of emergency vehicles. Said
traffic lights then change green so that the emergency
vehicle may quickly, and hopefully safely, pass through the
intersection. The traffic light sensors detect a pattern of
flashes produced by special lights installed on emergency
vehicles.
You can now buy such lights for your own
car/SUV/truck/dilapidated run-down piece of rust. Imagine
that, never having to stop for a red light again! Clear
sailing through town! Never a traffic jam to slow your
progress! All for only $300USD.
But wait, there’s more! The devices, called mobile
infrared transmitters (or MIRT for short), are apparently
legal (insert disclaimer here) in at least some, if not many,
states. See the story
here and hope it doesn’t get too wide spread where you
live.
Speaking of Being Blissed Out. Neowin has
screen shots of Microsoft’s 4051 build of Longhorn
here. Obviously, screen shots can’t tell you everything
about an OS but it is interesting to look at. Be aware that
most of the screen shots are very large (>300KB) so don’t
do this without a broadband connection.
MT Feeling. MT-Blacklist anti-comment
spam version 1.5 for MovableType hit the wire yesterday. Get
it here
from Jay Allen’s site.
Sorry this posting is so late but I tried to get a section
on Apple’s iTunes up but just ran out of time. Maybe
tomorrow. In other news, Dr. K posted. That’s the good news.
The bad news is the reason he hasn’t doesn’t so for awhile is
he is getting a divorce. Sigh. This appears to be the second
Daynoter to do so. Big Sigh.
Aloha!
