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…don’t tell the governor, or he’ll find a way to tax this industry to death as well.

Barges on the Illinois River carried nearly 5 million more tons of products in 2004 than the previous year, while cargo shipments on the Mississippi River fell by more than 3 million tons.

According to year-end numbers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the tonnage of material shipped on the Illinois River rose by 9 percent - from 55,935,869 tons to 60,700,829 tons - while the weight of items sent via the Mississippi River dropped by 9 percent - from 37,767,774 tons to 34,319,247 tons.

Link via Peoria Pundit.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 19, 05 @ 7:30 pm

Comments

They weren’t taxes… they were fees!

Comment by So-Called Austin Mayor Wednesday, Jan 19, 05 @ 8:26 pm
Too late.

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jan 20, 05 @ 8:55 am
Ok, so we’re going to start taxing barges…..

Now, THIS one’s going to be fun. Exactly HOW are we going to start taxing the barges?

I know, we’ll charge them tolls. Oops, can’t setup toll booths on the locks on the Illinois - they’re run by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and as we all know, Rod isn’t on the best of terms with different US government agencies…. Also, there’s just a few ‘minor’ legal issues like taxing “Interstate Commerce” at play here….

Maybe we’ll task the IL State Police to start pulling over the barges for “Speeding”. Oops, Chuck Goudie (WLS Ch. 7) might just have a field day with that one - and we can’t have any negative spin disrupting our weekly press conferences.

I’m getting visions of the toll booth at “Rock Ridge” (see “Blazing Saddles” - Mel Brooks). Btw, didn’t Mel Brooks play the role of the Governor (William J. LaPetomane, who had the priceless line of “We’re trying to keep our phony baloney jobs here!”) in the movie?

If this came to pass, couldn’t this end up being a case of life imitating art?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Jan 20, 05 @ 4:01 pm