2 unloading baggage, 1 to hold a green plane side luggage check tag to inform people who checked luggage at the plane to stop and wait for the other two to unload the luggage, 4 to direct people into the terminal.

How many United Airlines employees does it take to operate a concourse to concourse shuttle? Answer: 9

Starting Point: 1 person at the gate, 1 person at stairway landing, 2 people by the door, 1 person driving the shuttle.

Ending Point: 3 people by the door, 1 person at the gate.

How many United Airlines employees does it take to operate a ticket counter during heavy delays? Answer: 3 or less (total 6 possible stations to be manned.)

I’m at the Cedar Rapids airport (CID) and there is one UA flight to Chicago and its delayed 80 minutes or so. There is one lady helping a ‘vip’/first class person and 2 others helping the rest of the crowd at a time where most of them will have to visit the ticket counter to rebook flights due to delays.

What a mess. We see headline after headline about how airlines are hemorrhaging money. The same thing is happening in Detroit. Companies are being forced to keep staffing levels at an unnecessary level based on threats from Unions. I mean seriously; it doesnt take nine (9) people to operate a damn shuttle.

The Senate GOP alternative would seek to place a floor of $575 per student and a rolling average to be recalculated annually in distributing tax proceeds. It also would encourage a constitutional amendment to protect the school infrastructure and property tax relief money from being “scooped” for other purposes and preserve the current system of allowing voters to reaffirm the local option tax every 10 years.

This alternative is built on something that is very hard to find in Des Moines this session.. Common Sense. There is no reason there shouldn’t guarantees put on the money and the citizens of Iowa have every right to vote on local option sales taxation. Apparently these concepts escape some folks..

Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he was “disappointed” Senate Republicans are choosing to abandon the bipartisan path taken in the House to do what’s right for students and property taxpayers in favor of “election-year posturing” and “pandering” to special-interest groups like Iowans for Tax Relief.

First of all, Sentor Gronstal, “bipartisanship” should be broken off when something this atrocious comes along. Second of all the Iowans for Tax Relief is a group that works to lower the tax burden Des Moines places on the citizens of this great state. Would that not then be “pandering” to the citizens?

I believe that Senator Gronstal is just a bit worried that the Democrats in Des Moines might get schooled come November. After all, who wants to keep a party in power that has increased spending more in the first two years of their run than the GOP did for their entire eight year run.

[via Gazette Online]

Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said he won’t allow debate on the measure, which would increase the statewide sales tax by one cent to replace local option sales taxes approved in all Iowa counties that benefit school districts.

There are number of problems with this idea. First of all the whole idea of a LOCAL OPTION sales tax is that we have the OPTION… LOCALLY to regulate our taxation. If this power gets moved to Des Moines thats just another government power grab. Second of all we know how well the state manages money. They cant seem to figure out how to do anythign without raising some sort of fee or tax. So, how do we know that the money from this sales tax increase will be guaranteed to go to schools? ALL OF IT.

Republicans said they won’t support the measure without assurances the money raised won’t be used for purposes other than school repairs and property tax relief. So far, they said they haven’t received such guarantees.

“There are a lot of concerns about the money not being properly protected,” said Senate Minority Leader Ron Wieck, R-Sioux City. “I think the attitude in our caucus could be changed if there was some constitutional protection for the money.”

The measure would do away with current elections that are needed to renew the local option taxes.

If those local elections are no longer held, Republicans questioned whether use of the money would change in future years.

“The concern is we could move forward and in a year, or two years, or three years, the money could be scooped and used for other purposes,” said Wieck.

Uh.. Yeah! There’s no way they will keep that money secured for school use only. Why can’t these guarantees be made? We need this power on the local level and thats the bottom line. Des Moines… BUG OFF!

[via - QCTimes]

In the statistical world the chart above shows a that the price of gas has been almost directly linked the price of crude oil. I have added combined the above chart with a straight line chart below which should help emphasize the relationship and point out an interesting variance.

Notice that in April of 2007 the price of crude and the price of gasoline went off on two different paths. The price of gasoline has remained relatively flat from April 2007 to now while the price of crude oil has continued on an upward path. Another interesting item that is shown in these graphs is that there has been a growing separation in the price of gas compared to the price of oil. Back in 2003 the price of each product was very nearly 1 to 1 and you can see that over the last 60 months there has been a growing gap between the cost of the two products.

Bottom line: Yes, it hurts to pay $50 to fill up your tank but the answers to the problems aren’t as easy as some may think. You can’t attack a problem like this with your feelings you have to attack it with your mind and common sense. Also keep in mind how much of the price of a gallon of gas is made up of taxes. There’s Federal, State, and Local taxes to add to the mix. John McCain is suggesting a Federal Gas Tax Holiday this summer. That one thing could do more for the economy in the long run that any other idea being floated. Then again you could opt for the redistribution of wealth mentality and tax the hell out of the oil companies but you wouldn’t want to steal Barack Obama/Hillary Clinton’s ides now would you?