Big Lake Ripoff

The feds have come up with $157 million for construction for the Big Lake to Minneapolis Commuter Rail line. Add in state costs and the thing gets a little expensive. This is to build rail where there already are railroad tracks. I understand that some track would need to be repaired or bettered and that stations might be needed, but this seems steep. And the thing would still require an operating budget. Yet even Governor “Nonewtaxes” Plenty is in favor.

And it is for a project that the state should be staying out of. There is no constitutional right for somebody who daily goes to somebody else’s city to extract its wealth and bring back to his home city to have the public subsidize the excursion, no matter what level of government is paying for it. [Cf. Transit and Taxes, December 7]

Can anybody spell “ripoff”?