There is a little bit of good news on the transportation tax situation. There may be an opportunity to block at least a portion of the massive $6.6 billion transit bill passed by the Minnesota state legislature. The transit bill included over $1.1 billion of funding for mass transit programs, which would be funded by an increase in the metro-county sales tax and an increase in the vehicle excise tax.

These metro-county .25% sales tax increases must be ratified by a resolution passed by the Board of County Commissioners within each of the seven metro counties in which these tax increases are to go into effect. If a County Board rejects the .25% tax increase, it cannot be imposed upon the citizens of that county.

My sources tell me that the Scott County Board does not intend to ratify the tax increase so at least purchases in Scott County would not be subject to the additional .25% sales tax.

And apparently the new transportation bill will offer up more money for counties to use on county road projects. However, Scott County recently passed a wheelage tax, which allows it to collect extra money from residents when the renew their license tabs. With the unexpected money from the state, will the county repeal the wheelage tax?

I feel for the people who were taken advantage of by predatory lenders. It's terrible. My friend is a former loan officer and he understands how the business works. It's a greedy money-grab for many of these loan officers and people put their trush and faith in their loan officers to help them make the right choices.

(Tip: When you see $300 filling fees on your loan application it's a bogus charge. Tell them to take it off or you walk).

However, this is not a quick-fix problem. The housing market has to sort this out itself. One thing that is not talked about are the insurance companies that are insuring these banks for all these defaulted loans.

I've read many economists say at some point these insurance companies could/will start raising the white flag and say we can't pay anymore. Then what will the banks do to recoup their lost cash? If that happens, the bottom will really fall out of the housing market and the economy, according to many ecomonists that I've read.

There has to be creative ways to help some home owners fix their problems, but there's not a fix-it-for-everyone-in-who-is-in-trouble solution by the government. The housing market has to be left alone to correct itself, which it will in time. That's how market forces operate.

However, I still have a lot of compassion for the people who were taken advantage of and I'd love to see everyone get some kind of help. But how? I'm smart, but not that smart. I will leave it up the policy-makers. But I doubt there's a perfection solution to this mess, certainly not a one-stop government quick-fix.

Thankfully the Scott County Commissioners are in agreement to NOT raise our taxes any more for transportation (see recent story in the Strib). At least some politicians are holding the line.

On a related note, why was the DFL majority in the Minnesota Senate and House in such a hurry to pass the massive transportation tax increase in to law? One reason is that they knew if they waited until after the state budget forecast came out (which everyone knew would be worse than previous projections), the public sentiment would turn even further against such a huge tax increase. Thus, they rushed it through before that information could be considered.

Here is an idea I have been suggesting for a long time (click on link below). If the filthy rich want to pay more in taxes, the government accepts donations. However, it seems the Warren Buffett's and Bill Gates' of the world really don't put their money where their mouth is, because the federal government only received $2.6 million in donations last year! Come on guys, you can afford at least a billion each!

As for Minnesota, Mark Dayton and the other filthy rich liberals are free to make donations to the state government, but I'm betting they don't do it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120787129943306485.html?mod=opinion_main...