State Sen. Dick Day (R, Owatonna) did a marvelous job of arguing against the massive transportation bill tonight.  Here are excepts of his statements:

The Pawlenty-Molnau administration has invested more in transportation in Minnesota than any other administration in the state's history. In their very first year in office they successfully sponsored the largest ever transportation package: $800 million for more than 200 highway projects throughout the state, $100 million for road maintenance and safety, and $40 million for transit.

Thanks to the work we have done, congestion has gone down, from a peak of 293 miles in 2003 to 267 miles in 2006, according to a brand new study by the Department of Transportation.

In 2006 we also had the least number of fatalities since World War II (482).

A list of the Pawlenty-Molnau Major Highway Projects in the Twin Cities includes:

• I-94/I-694 from Brooklyn Blvd to I-494
• Hwy 100 north of I-394
• I-394 HOV lane conversion to MnPASS
• I-394 westbound auxiliary lane from Louisiana Ave to Hwy 169
• I-494 from France Ave to Hwy 212
• I-494 from Hwy 5 to Carlson Parkway
• I-494 first portion of Wakota Bridge
• I-94 from McKnight Rd to Hwy 120
• Hwy 100 auxiliary lanes from Hwy 7 to I-394 Hwy 169 at Anderson Lakes Parkway and Pioneer Trail

In greater Minnesota, numerous projects have been completed as well:

• Hwy 371 north of Little Falls
• Hwy 53 in Duluth
• Hwy 52 in Rochester
• Hwy 63 in Rochester
• Hwy 14 from Janesville to Waseca
• Interchange on Hwy 10 at Hwy 32 in Clay County Interchange on Hwy 169 at Hwy 19 near Henderson Hwy 23 through Spicer Hwy 336 from I-94 to Hwy 10 in Moorhead Main Avenue Bridge in Moorhead

Jesse Ventura was the one who reduced tab fees as his part of the three-way budget deal, taking millions out of transportation funding.

We currently spend $298 million dollars every biennium on transit, subsidizing the 4% of people who don't drive cars and don't want to pay the cost of their own transportation. We learned from Sen. Dibble on the floor last night that they have a $30 million shortfall this year that we're going to have to cover. Sen. Day suggested raising fares and taking tickets, which they don't do now. He said, but I can't corroborate, that 50% of the rides are at night and on weekends. I think that may still be true but it's old information.

Sen. Day talked about the 33,000 jobs that this bill is supposedly going to create. He spoke with FlatIron who have about 350 workers on the ground and may hire 100 or more additional workers this summer to complete this $350 million project. Sen. Day speculated that Sen. Murphy must be bringing bricks, 40 bricks at a time. in by rickshaw in order to hire 33,000 construction workers. The Democrats used a federal formula to come up with their numbers, and in fact only 19% or 6,200 of those jobs will go to construction workers. Over 47% (15,500) are indirect jobs such as suppliers of equipment and materials, and 34% (11,200) will be created or supported by the previous workers spending their money for fast food or a pair of shoes.

He also mentioned all the transportation packages he has authored in the past which variously raised the gas tax a nickel, imposed a new car surcharge, raised revenue from slots (he said, we all know why that never passed, but he didn't say outright: a DFL bought and paid for by the tribes), and what we called a light rail TIF which would have captured some of the increased property value from areas along the Hiawatha line--which is in the bill as a captured value study. And last year he carried the governor's bonding bill, which leveraged the MVST money to get $1.7 billion in bonds. None of these ideas satisfied the DFL at the time, but they have all appeared in one form or another in the 2007 and 2008 transportation bill.