Politics in Minnesota quotes Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, criticizing Governor Tim Pawlenty’s requirement that any project in the bonding bill currently under consideration be for asset preservation and not new construction.
“We can put many more people to work” with new construction projects thrown into the mix, Hausman said Monday at a news conference in St. Paul for the high-speed rail project between Chicago and the Union Depot in St. Paul.
Hausman is just one of many legislators that labors under the fallacy that the purpose of a bonding bill is creating jobs. She compounds that fallacy with the idea that building a high-speed rail line between Chicago and St. Paul that will operate at a loss will somehow be a benefit to the economy. Alice’s adventures in this economic Wonderland are explored in these Minnesota Free Market Institute commentaries:
State Bonding: Essential — or not, period
Bonding Bill: What’s essential (by Alice Hausman)
Bonding Bill: From the taxpayer’s side of the looking glass
Rep. Matt Dean on Bonding for State Buildings
