Archive for the ‘Capitalism’ Category
With Minnesota’s 2013 legislative session in the books, it’s time to total up the DFL’s damage to Minnesota’s economy. The tax increases will hurt Minnesota’s economy the most are the business-to-business sales taxes on warehousing and telecommunications. The warehouse tax has been tried in several states, including Massachusetts. It’s been quickly repealed because it does lots of damage in a short period of time. I suspect that the DFL will repeal the warehousing tax early next session. If they don’t, the damage that tax will do will be considerable, both in terms of economic damage and in political terms.
Another tax increase that will hurt Minnesotans is the cigarette tax increase. In Chicago, where the cigarette tax is high, 75% of cigarette packs don’t have a tax stamp on them. That’s how many cigarette smokers buy their cigarettes on the black market in Chicago. Follow this link for more on cigarette tax avoidance.
Another way that the DFL hurt the middle class they claim to fight for is through the energy bill, which I wrote about here. Here’s what Rep. Mike Beard, the premier authority on energy issues in the Minnesota legislature, said about the DFL’s energy bill:
House Democrats passed their hugely controversial Energy Policy omnibus bill this week that increases even more aggressive, unfunded renewable and solar mandates on utility companies.
Besides huge technological difficulties implementing the new law, it will increase electric costs for all ratepayers (homeowners, businesses, hospitals, you name it) and decrease the reliability of our state’s energy sources.
This bill benefits, to the best of my knowledge, a few Minnesota solar companies that rely on a mandated pool of government money to survive, even though they have over three decades of federal mandates throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at their industry.
The DFL’s energy bill, passed in the name of global warming, will drive up electricity prices:
REP. BEARD: I still have a picture of a poster in my office that Jimmy Carter’s administration put out in 1978, thirty-five years ago, that by the year 2000, fully 20% of our power would come from solar PB. He dropped $12,000,000,000 on that adventure. And what do we have to show for it? Nothing. One tenth of 1% today, thirty-five years later, is solar PB. And so we’re going to take another run at that windmill, and I’m not talking about the ones on Buffalo Ridge. We’re picking winners and losers and we’re desperately hoping that these are winners this time.
In short, the DFL raised taxes on the middle class by raising the cigarette tax. The middle class will get hurt through higher electric bills thanks to their energy bill. The DFL passed that bill to satisfy another of their special interest allies, namely environmental extremists.
Finally, their multitude of tax increases on small businesses will chase some businesses from Minnesota. Other businesses will keep part of their operations here while expanding their businesses in states more hospitable to businesses.
After proclaiming that the GOP’s budget was filled with gimmicks, especially including the school shift, the DFL’s budget failed to pay off the school shift. In 2012, the GOP legislature passed a bill that would’ve paid off the school shift, which Gov. Dayton promptly vetoed. After refusing to pay off the school shift, Speaker Thissen had the audacity to say that their budget didn’t include shifts or gimmicks.
Thanks to the DFL legislature, Minnesotans will have fewer dollars in their pockets and capital will continue leaving Minnesota at an alarming rate.
Tags: Paul Thissen, Tax Increases, Cigarette Tax, Sales Tax, Inventories, Telecommunications, Solar Energy Mandates, Electric Bills, Middle Class Squeeze, Class Warfare, DFL, Election 2014
This statement on Workday Minnesota’s website is spin. Take this statement:
MAPE, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, and AFSCME Council 5 denounced the corporate-backed “United for Jobs” initiative as a misleading and deceptive paid advertising campaign. The ads target Governor Mark Dayton’s proposal to raise more revenue for public services by raising taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans.
“While the TV and radio ads are designed to make the audience believe that ‘United for Jobs’ wants to safeguard Minnesota families and small businesses, in reality, ‘United for Jobs’ is funded by corporate advocacy groups that want to protect the pocket books of their multi-millionaire members,” the unions said.
Here’s the TV ad that’s been running for about a week:
Here’s the transcript of the ad:
NARRATOR: Minnesotans pay some of the highest taxes in America. Now some Minnesota politicians want you to pay even more. They’d raise the income tax to be the second highest in the country to fuel a nearly $2 billion spending increase. There’s a more responsible way. Go line-by-line. Cut the waste. Do your jobs. Make government more efficient and effective. Be accountable for every taxpayer dollar you spend. Tell Gov. Dayton and DFL legislators they don’t need more of your money. They need to spend it better.
While it’s true that the ad highlights the DFL’s proposed income tax increase, it’s misleading and deceptive to say that the ad “targets Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposal to raise more revenue for public services by raising taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans.”
First, the ad highlights the need for politicians to “go line-by-line” through the budget and to “cut the waste” from the budget. In that context, the focus is on the legislature to do its job of spending the taxpayers’ money wisely.
Second, the ad points the spotlight at “Gov. Dayton and DFL legislators,” not just Gov. Dayton. That’s perfectly appropriate because it highlights the fact that Gov. Dayton, Sen. Bakk and Speaker Thissen are threatening to raise the rates on regressive taxes as well as raising the top income tax rate. Then there’s this statement:
The unions said the ads also mislead the audience into believing that the Governor’s tax proposal for the wealthiest 2 percent of Minnesotans will raise taxes on “hard-working Minnesotans” – insinuating that all Minnesotans will get a tax increase. This is not true. The Governor’s proposal is a targeted tax increase to have the wealthiest pay their fair share, the unions said.
The unions’ statements are intentionally misleading. Their leadership knows that the DFL’s tax bills propose raising the tax on cigarettes by $1.60 per pack and the liquor excise tax from $4.60 a barrel on beer to $27.75 per barrel.
Sin taxes are necessarily regressive. They hit people who aren’t “the wealthiest Minnesotans” because they’re paid by everyone regardless of income. I’d love hearing Eliot Seide explain how AFSCME’s statement is accurate. In fact, I’d sell tickets to that event. I’d sell popcorn at that event, too. It’d be fun watching Seide slip and slither, twist and turn while doing his best to not answer my questions.
Seide, Gov. Dayton, Speaker Thissen, Sen. Bakk and their allies know this ad hits them hard. That’s why they’re responding with this dishonest counterattack.
Seide and company better be prepared to spend tons of money on their advertising campaign because the DFL has given these pro-business groups tons upon tons of ammunition with their tax bills. They’d better pack a lunch for this fight because AFSCME and MAPE will be fighting this fight for quite awhile.
Tags: Tax Increases, Cigarette Tax, Income Tax, Special Interests, Eliot Seide, AFSCME Council 5, MAPE, Middle Class Tax Increase, Tax The Rich, Mark Dayton, Tom Bakk, Paul Thissen, DFL, United For Jobs, Capitalism, MNGOP
This Strib/DFL hit piece is what I’ve been expecting considering the infighting between Ann Lenczewski and Tom Bakk over their tax increase bills. Here’s the lede in Neal St. Anthony’s Strib article:
Regardless, businesspeople aren’t united on these issues. Case in point: Even “United for Jobs” members are lobbying for increased funding for their favorite causes or to retain their tax breaks.
And not every businessperson opposes a tax hike if Dayton can make the case.
“An increase in the marginal income tax rate would have no affect on our business or whether to expand,” said Harvey Zuckman, 62, executive vice president and an owner of Minneapolis-based FirstTech, who also is president of the Twin Cities Metro Independent Business Alliance.
“Our hiring decisions are based on consumer demand and revenue. I put the question to our MetroIBA members and a number had a similar response.”
By St. Anthony’s standards, anything short of unanimity of opinion equals division within the anti-tax increase ranks. It didn’t occur to St. Anthony that there are lots of disagreements within the business community. Apparently, St. Anthony isn’t too sharp on DFL tax increase history. Apparently, St. Anthony doesn’t know about this DFL tax increase disaster. Similarly, St. Anthony isn’t aware of Gene Pelowski’s opposition to Rep. Lenczewski’s 2009 ‘tax reform’ legislation:
Pelowski said lawmakers won’t have enough votes to override a Pawlenty veto of a DFL tax plan, and said the proposals are a “fiction” that will force lawmakers to scramble to craft another budget proposal after Pawlenty’s veto. “We have to do what is real and not go through an exercise of what-ifs,” Pelowski said. “There are no what-ifs. There is only the stark reality of this budget deficit.”
This year’s fight within the DFL on the differing tax increase proposals isn’t something unanticipated. Here’s a post I wrote about the infighting within the DFL over Rep. Lenczewski’s ‘tax reform’ proposal from 2009:
“This bill proposes the most significant tax overhaul in 20 years,” said the bill’s chief author Rep. Ann Lenczeswki, DFL-Bloomington.
In addition to the tax hikes, Lenczewski’s bill removes a variety of tax breaks for homeowners and businesses. Charitable contributions, the mortgage interest tax deduction and the property tax deduction for homeowners are eliminated and replaced with a tax credit based on income. The bill also eliminates several business tax breaks, like the Research and Development credit and parts of the governor’s JOBZ program.
Lenczewski said she wants to clean up the state’s tax code. “Which is to sweep the tax code clean of all of the preferential treatment and subsidies and things we can’t afford anymore and instead bring a fairer, more progressive income tax to Minnesotans based on the ability to pay,” she said.
Here’s Sen. Bakk’s response to Rep. Lenczewski’s proposed tax increase:
Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, said eliminating the current mortgage interest deduction could hurt Minnesota’s high rate of home ownership and higher alcohol taxes would drive some liquor shoppers across the Wisconsin border.
Simply put, the DFL has been split on which taxes should get increased for years. The notion that the business community is hopelessly split in its opposition to Gov. Dayton’s tax increases is DFL spin.
Convenience store operators think that raising the cigarette tax will hurt their retail outlets. What’s more, they can verify the fact that the DFL’s cigarette tax increase will hurt their businesses.
With regards to the Dayton/DFL income tax increase on “the rich”, Teresa Bohnen really has talked with 4 different companies who will likely expand their companies in other states:
St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce President Teresa Bohen says she’s recently talked with four local companies who say they may have to transfer their investments to other states, if the Governor’s plan goes through.
Most important in this is whether the Dayton-DFL tax increases will hurt Minnesota’s economy, strengthen Minnesota’s economy or cause Minnesota’s economy to tread water, gaining a little hear, hurting a little there.
What’s most likely to happen as a result of the Dayton-DFL tax increase is that convenience stores will get hurt, some businesses that were started in Minnesota will expand in other states while other businesses won’t be affected by the tax increases. In other words, the best Minnesota should hope for from the Dayton-DFL tax increase is for Minnesota’s economy to continue treading water.
That’s unacceptable. Then again, that’s what doesn’t get reported when the Strib writes articles that could pass for DFL press releases.
Tags: Ann Lenczewski, Tax Reform, Tom Bakk, Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction, Mark Dayton, Tax Increases, Cigarette Tax, Liquor Tax, Unemployment, Economic Stagnation, Outmigration, Convenience Stores, Gene Pelowski, DFL, Teresa Bohnen, St. Cloud Chamber of Commerce Small Businesses, Capitalism
MN2020, the progressive think tank run by former DFL gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza, is defending Gov. Dayton’s budget:
Minnesota 2020, a progressive think tank that defends Minnesota’s tradition of higher taxes and higher spending, has released a new report suggesting those raw figures are seriously misleading.
Adjust for inflation and the ups and downs in state general fund spending caused by accounting shifts and federal stimulus funding in previous budget cycles and the numbers show a different picture: $40.6 billion in spending in 2002-03, $35.4 billion in the current budget, $35.7 billion in the upcoming budget if Dayton gets his way, and $37 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars for 2016-17.
Even if the governor, who wants to raise income taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Minnesotans to support higher spending, is able to enact his entire budget, less than a third of the real-dollar cuts of the past decade would be restored, said Jeff Van Wychen, director of tax policy for Minnesota 2020.
“These cuts are eroding Minnesota’s fiscal foundation and they need to be reversed,” said Van Wychen during a press conference in St. Peter, one of three held by the organization in southern Minnesota Tuesday.
Van Wychen’s alarmist rhetoric should be ignored. When Andy Aplikowski wrote this post, he highlighted the DFL’s habit of saying one thing, then doing another. Here’s the Pi-Press article Andy highlighted:
Following a hush-hush courtship, top Minnesota lawmakers acknowledged Tuesday, April 16, that they are compiling a multimillion-dollar package of public subsidies and tax breaks to encourage an Illinois-based pharmaceutical firm to add 200 high-paying jobs and undertake a substantial construction project in their state.
The extent of the public offerings is becoming known months into a high-level recruitment. The name of the company, Baxter Healthcare Corp., had been constrained by a confidentiality agreement entered into by Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration. Even lawmakers who have begun voting on the package didn’t know which firm would benefit.
In other words, the Dayton administration is fine with cutting taxes if they’re picking the winners and losers. This proves that the Dayton administration isn’t that worried with “the rich” paying “their fair share” as long as cutting taxes on corporations creates jobs. The DFL won’t admit that they’d be better off cutting taxes across the board and letting companies flourish.
Whether it’s the DFL or their political allies like MN2020, they simply won’t admit that they’re hurting Minnesota’s economy with their high tax, high regulation economic agenda.
This is yet another admission that the DFL’s legislative agenda doesn’t lead to creating jobs. The only time the DFL’s economic agenda creates jobs is when they throw their legislation out the window.
Van Wychen’s talk about inflation-adjusted budget figures quietly avoids talking about the money that’s appropriated that’s totally wasted on foolishness. It’s a clever tactic to ignore a real problem by talking about something that isn’t a problem. Inflation-adjusted budgets assume, incorrectly, that a) government operations can’t and haven’t been improved and b) every penny appropriated in 2002 was spent efficiently.
It’s foolish to think that every penny of any biennial budget was spent on something we need and was spent efficiently. That’s like believing that businesses can’t grow without the government’s assistance.
The bottom line on these discussions is that a) the Dayton administration just admitted that his economic policies don’t work and b) budgets should be based on spending money efficiently on the things we need, not what special interests want. On that count, the DFL is 0-for-2.
Tags: Minnesota2020, Matt Entenza, Mark Dayton, Corporate Welfare, Baxter Healthcare Corp., The Rich, DFL, Tax Cuts, Jobs, Fortune 500 Companies, Pro-Growth Economic Policies, Capitalism, MNGOP
Friday night on Almanac, Rep. Pat Garofalo exposed Rep. Ryan Winkler’s opposition to small business during their debate on Rep. Winkler’s minimum wage legislation. Here’s the transcript of the opening exchange between Rep. Garofalo and Rep. Winkler:
REP. GAROFALO: Today, I was talking with a small business owner in Apple Valley named Erin. She runs Revive Salon in Apple Valley. She was talking to me today that, as a small business owner, she pays more in taxes to the government than she takes home for her family and the Winkler proposal will increase her costs by $5,000. Now Erin knows a lot about her business. She knows how to price her products and she knows she can price it at a maximum price before people are going to stop purchasing those services. Unfortunately, this is an unfunded mandate so the question I’d have for Rep. Winkler and anyone that supports the minimum wage would be how are businesses supposed to pay for these increases?
REP. WINKLER: That’s just the same old line that businesses that oppose the minimum wage have used every single time it’s been increased. In fact, all the evidence, all the history since the minimum wage was enacted in 1938 shows that there’s been no negative impact on employment.
Apparently, Rep. Winkler thinks he knows what’s best for businesses, though there’s no history of him having run a successful small business.
What’s worse is that Rep. Winkler apparently isn’t interested in what small businesses are saying or the effect his legislation will have. The fact that he’s willing to dismiss legitimate issues without a discussion indicates that he isn’t interested in employers.
I wish I could say that I’m surprised but I’d have to ignore this post about how rudely Gov. Dayton was towards St. Cloud business leaders recently. Whether it’s Gov. Dayton or Rep. Winkler, the DFL’s hostility towards businesses isn’t difficult to find.
Thoughtful people know that it isn’t credible to first be hostile to employers, then say that you’re pro jobs.
The ‘proof’ that Rep. Winkler supposedly has that increasing the minimum wage doesn’t affect employment is ignoring reality. Anyone thinking that increasing businesses’ costs during difficult economic times simply doesn’t think staying competitive is important. Apparently, that’s the DFL’s belief, because that’s the playbook they’re following.
Thus far, this legislative session is best known for the DFL’s plan to kill jobs, confiscate guns, debate gay marriage, increase Minnesota’s minimum wage and raise taxes on people that create jobs. Now it’s possible that they’ll get known for raising their pay. Here’s Gov. Dayton’s logic for raising politicians’ and bureaucrats’ pay:
Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has said he supports increasing lawmaker salaries and those of commissioners as a way to keep high-caliber managers from bolting to the private sector.
First, I’d be thrilled if I saw a Dayton administration commissioner who was worthy of getting a pay raise. Second, the whole notion is that I’d rather have the private sector having the best people because that’s the only place where wealth is created.
The Dayton administration is filled with hardline progressive ideologues. I certainly don’t want to increase their pay. As for raising legislators’ pay, I’m not totally opposed to the idea, though I’m opposed to this bunch getting a pay increase. If the DFL continues to oppose pro-growth policies, then these legislators shouldn’t get a pay raise. If the DFL continues supporting policies that hurt the private sector, these legislators shouldn’t get a pay raise.
I’m thinking specifically about the DFL’s support for the cigarette tax, which will hurt convenience stores while also hurting the state treasury. Every time that cigarette taxes are increased, revenues from cigarette taxes shrink because more people change their buying habits. Rather than going to a convenience store, smokers buy their cigarettes at a casino or from an underground dealer. Other options for smokers include buying cigarettes via the internet or by driving into North Dakota or Wisconsin.
Until the DFL stops proposing their radical tax increases, the pay increases shouldn’t go anywhere. If the DFL insists on killing Minnesota’s economy, the pay raises shouldn’t be considered. People shouldn’t get pay raises for doing a mediocre job. Right now, that’s what this administration and the DFL legislature is doing.
Tags: Legislative Pay Increases, Commissioners, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Tax Increases, Cigarette Taxes, Minimum Wage, Gay Marriage, Gun Confiscation, DFL, Capitalism, MNGOP
After reading this Facebook post, I’m wondering if the Interior Department should be renamed the Department of Killing Jobs. Here’s why I’m wondering that:
In a study released last week, Dr. Joseph Mason of LSU demonstrated the vast economic benefits of opening up federal lands to oil and gas development: 500,000 new jobs a year and more than $30 billion a year in federal, state, and local tax revenue over the next seven years alone. That’s just for starters. The study also shows that opening new federal lands to oil and gas production will create a cumulative $14.4 trillion in economic activity. But instead of seizing the opportunity to unlock the benefits of expanding oil and natural gas exploration, the Interior Department on Feb. 6 identified 23 renewable energy projects for priority permitting.
Environmentalists have been making dire predictions about how fossil fuels destroy the environment for almost half a century. At minimum, the vast majority of those predictionsm have been off by orders of magnitude.
For instance, the president of the Sierra Club wrote an op-ed in Outdoor Life magazine in the mid-1970′s about the trouble the Alaskan Pipeline would cause the Barrows caribou. He predicted that it would disrupt the migration route of the Barrows caribou for a maximum of 3-5 years of oil from Prudhoe Bay. The Alaskan Pipeline opened in 1978. It’s still pumping oil from Prudhoe Bay. That’s almost 35 years later.
That’s just part of the consideration for these permits. The biggest reason why fossil fuel permits should be let at a more robust pace is because they make sense economically and environmentally. Permits for renewable energy projects don’t make sense because renewable energy is expensive. People need high-priced energy like they need a heart attack.
It’s a shame that the Obama administration is set in its ways. They’re bypassing the opportunity to stabilize our energy supplies, which stabilizes energy prices. That’s precisely what’s needed right now.
This information should outrage people:
As the table below indicates, BLM’s priority projects would be capable of producing about 44 trillion Btu of energy annually. To put that in perspective, oil wells in North Dakota produced more than 127 trillion Btu in Nov. 2012 alone. That’s almost three times more energy in one month than BLM expects all of its priority wind, solar, and geothermal projects to produce in an entire year. Not only that, but in the last 14 months for which there is data, North Dakota’s energy production, increased by 46 trillion Btus a month. In other words, the increase in North Dakota’s monthly production over the last fourteen months was greater than what the Department of Interior’s pet projects will produce over the course on an entire year. Plus, unlike solar or wind, oil can be used when and where it is needed.
Think about that. The Bakken created 3 times as many Btu’s in a month as these solar and wind projects will create in a year.
Over the course of a year, the North Dakota oil fields would produce 1,524,000,000,000,000 Btu’s. The BLM’s priority projects would create 44,000,000,000,000 Btu’s. That’s a difference of more than 3400%. There’s no justification for the Interior Department’s decision making. There’s only rationalizing their decisions, quickly followed by tons of alarmist-sounding spin.
Considering the fact that the Interior Department is preventing this much economic opportunity, there’s no reason not to rename them the Department of Killing Jobs.
Tags: Interior Department, Energy, BTUs, Permits, Fossil Fuels, Job Growth, Economic Growth, Renewable Energy, Sierra Club, Environmental Activism, Alaskan Pipeline, Democrats
When KSTP Political Director Tom Hauser asked Gov. Dayton about Gov. Dayton’s tax increase proposal, Gov. Dayton reflexively regurgitated the ABM/DFL Chanting Point that the rich weren’t paying their fair share. It isn’t acceptable any more to have the fascists within the DFL and ABM to define fair share. It’s time to challenge their chanting points on this.
First, it’s insulting to think that the DFL thinks some members of the MAPE or AFSCME are paying their fair share. They’re sucking taxes from productive members of the private sector. In far too many instances, these people are political cronies of high-ranking officials at a university or department commissioner or do-nothing council. They often are put in do-nothing jobs like PR director of a tiny office that nobody’s heard of before. Sometimes they’re hired to be a “legislative liaison” in the MPCA or the BCA. Legislative liaison is a euphemism for taxpayer-funded pro-big-government lobbyist.
People in these position frequently draw salaries of $75,000-$150,000 but the DFL thinks that they’re actually contributing something meaningful to Minnesota’s taxpayers. I’m still waiting to hear the DFL’s/ABM’s explanation as to what these millstones contribute to Minnesota’s GDP or competitiveness.
Compare that with entrepreneurs. The first 5-10 years they’re in business, they frequently work from sunrise until midnight, sometimes later. They employ anywhere from 10-40 people if it’s a small business. If it’s a mid-size business like Quad Graphics, they employ 250+ people, all of whom have been offered quality health insurance. With Quad Graphics, the company pays a significant portion of the health insurance premium.
It’s easy to quantify these companies’ contributions towards a fiscally healthy Minnesota.
Next, the ABM/DFL definition of paying their fair share is based solely on the government’s take of these entrepreneurs’ profits. It’s never defined by anything other than contributing to bigger government. The entrepreneurs’ definition of paying their fair share is frequently measured by how families’ lives are improved through lower-priced goods and services, inventions and innovations that make like easier or through improving profits because they’re producing things of value.
If a pollster were to ask which is the more sensible definition of paying their fair share, there’s little question that the people would pick the entrepreneurs’ definition over the ABM/DFL definition of fair share.
Though the DFL endorsing convention for the special election caused by Rep. Steve Gottwalt’s resignation isn’t until Jan. 26, the matchup is essentially set. That’s because Joanne Dorsher is the DFL’s only declared candidate for the Gottwalt special election.
After winning Saturday’s GOP endorsing convention, St. Cloud businesswoman Tama Theis will meet Ms. Dorsher in the Feb. 12 special election to represent HD-14A.
After a drama-filled convention, the GOP can now get into the serious business of getting Theis’s message out, then getting their voters out.
This was a drama-filled convention for several reason. First, Saturday’s GOP endorsing convention wasn’t settled until the seventh ballot. Second, this was a hotly contested endorsement, with Theis, former St. Cloud city councilman John Severson and Iraq War veteran Scott MacHardy each acquitting themselves well.
John Severson led the first and second ballots with 13 votes each time, with MacHardy getting 12 votes and Theis getting 11 votes the first ballot. On the second ballot, Theis got 12 votes and MacHardy 11.
Theis got the most votes on the third ballot with 14, followed by 12 votes each for Severson and MacHardy. Theis got the most votes in each of the following ballots until she won on the seventh ballot.
Ms. Theis will need to hit the ground runnning, starting Monday, because the DFL would love to steal this special election. They know that anything can happen in a special election.
Ms. Dorsher is a known commodity in St. Cloud, having been a member of the St. Cloud School Board and after runnning against Rep. Gottwalt in 2008. One that’s certain is that EdMinn’s foot soldiers will be out in force for Ms. Dorsher.
The biggest question is whether the business community does a better job of getting out their vote than EdMinn does in getting out the pro-government voters.
It’s indisputable that the Twin Cities DFL has repeatedly voted repeatedly to kill precious metals mining projects in Ely and Hoyt Lakes. It’s indisputable that Iron Range DFL legislators didn’t criticize the State Executive Council when they shafted miners this week. They’ve tried spinning their votes in a variety of ways but the truth is inescapable: the metro DFL hates mining and will go to extraordinary lengths to stop future mining projects from becoming reality.
It isn’t surprising that Gov. Dayton voted to shaft the miners. As Prof. Kent Kaiser highlighted in an op-ed over a year ago, Gov. Dayton has a history of shafting miners:
Indeed, Dayton’s actions this month were more consistent with his actions two decades ago. At that time, when he was on the State Executive Council as state auditor, he called for the postponement of mining lease votes so he could consult first with the Sierra Club.
While Gov. Dayton’s actions throughout history have been disgusting, they pale in comparison to what he’s done, with the help of the DFL’s militant environmentalist allies, to miners and the Iron Range.
After the 2010 U.S. Census, it was noted that the median household income for St. Louis County, which is the heart of the Iron Range, was $44,941, compared with the statewide average of $57,243. That’s a $12,302 disparity between St. Louis County and the statewide average. It gets worse when compared against Sherburne County’s median household income, which is $71,704, a disparity of $26,763.
It isn’t just the income disparity that paints the truth about the DFL. It’s the fact that the Twin Metals project in Ely and the PolyMet project in Hoyt Lakes would create 1,000 high-paying mining jobs that would end that income disparity while dramatically lifting Iron Range’s economy from mediocre to exceptional.
Notice that I said those project would create 1,000 mining jobs. That’s before factoring in the support jobs those operations would require. That’s before factoring in the possibility of manufacturing operations moving into cities like Hibbing, Grand Rapids and Eveleth to take advantage of the minerals.
That’s before talking about how other mining projects would boost school funding through mining leases in the school land swap areas that the DFL and their militant environmentalist allies are preventing. Some estimates say that these projects could add $2,000,000,000 to the school trust fund over the life of those mining operations.
The clear message from Conservation Minnesota and Friends of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is that precious metal mining is a different, more environmentally unsafe, type of mining. Kennecott has a sterling reputation for limiting and reducing emissions. While this video is of their mining operation in Utah, they were good stewards of their Flambeau River mining operation in Wisconsin. Here’s what their Flambeau River mine:
This link includes an aerial photo of what the Flambeau Mine looks like 16 years after it ceased operations.
Conservation Minnesota, another subsidiary of the Dayton Politics family of political operations, talks the environmentalist talk. Kennecott walks the environmentalist walk.
It’s clear that Kennecott is the real steward of the land.
Tags: Conservation Minnesota, Alida Messinger, Sierra Club, Mark Dayton, Environmentalists, DFL, Kennecott Mining, Daybreak, Utah, Flambeau River, Wisconsin, Twin Metals, PolyMet, Minnesota, Conservationists, Median Household Income, Jobs