Missing from the action

"It is hard to believe that in this country, in this day of age, we are still fighting this battle..."

In the 1750's and 1760's the first settlers to this country (even before it became a country) were fed up with burdensome taxes being imposed by the Crown. In fact, they were so aggravated, this became a cornerstone issue which led to the Revolutionary War. No taxation without representation became a battle cry. I sure am glad we have left those days in the dustbin of history. Or have we?

Yesterday, I addressed the issue of four metro counties taking on the Met Council. They were taking the Met Council to task for their continued and growing abuse of power. The four counties hired a Washington lobbyist to bring this issue up in front of the Department of Transportation. They are going to show the DoT how the Met Council was spending hundreds of millions of federal dollars WITHOUT the representation of the people affected. And that violates a provision in the most current transportation bill.

I thought I hit the high points except for one minor thing - I had the counties wrong. After it was pointed out to me, I fixed it. My flub. I just assumed that Washington County was going to be part of this coalition. They are not. And why not? They are affected by this also. Of course, so are Hennepin and Ramsey. But according to most of us, they are lost. A Republican office holder in Hennepin or Ramsey is all but extinct. But Washington County is different. If you are a voter who lives in Washington County, this would be an excellent question to ask of your county board.

An even better question for any citizen in the metro area to ask is this - why do we still have the Met Council? This group which was formed to regulate sewage in the seven country area, has grown into something way, way too big. Plus it operates way outside its legal authority. It is an unelected, unregulated group of bureaucrats.  

Will we get any help what-so-ever from the Twin Cities proper? Is the Mayor of Minneapolis going to throw her weight behind this effort? To right this egregious wrong? Not likely. Besides being a hard core (and life long) leftie, she is also married to someone who sits on the Met Council. No, that is not a joke. How does that strike you? In the real working world, that type of conflict of interest would not stand. One would have to go.

The four counties in this coalition make up 42% of the population in the metro area. Many in the red areas of these counties are fed up, totally fed up, with the Met Council and their shenanigans. We are fed up with our thin skinned Governor who appoints and endorses this group. Rather than ensuring our toilets flush properly, the Met Council is now concerned with how vertical we can live. How to stack us up like cordwood in one of the downtowns. How many trains we can build which we recently found out carry very few PAYING customers. How to get rid of our "carbon producing" automobiles.

Washington County - this is a call to arms. Join the coalition! Defeat the Met Council! It is for reasons like this we have a strong TEA Party, as well as other grass roots organizations. We are citizens, not subjects. No more taxation without representation. Enough is enough.