Archive for the ‘Dave Kleis’ Category
Monday night, the St. Cloud City Council met for a scheduled study session for the purpose of laying the groundwork for creating a regional airport authority. The meeting opened with Councilman Jeff Johnson speaking about the role that workforce infrastructure might play in attracting an airlines. Johnson teaches aviation at St. Cloud State.
Something Councilman Johnson mentioned in his address was reaching an agreement with a prospective airlines to do maintenance work in St. Cloud. Johnson said he could envision a tech college, presumably St. Cloud Tech College, offering a training course that would teach aviation maintenance.
Johnson said “Having an overnight regional airline maintenance facility at our airport would be much more cost efficient than having it in Chicago.”
Johnson pointed out that St. Cloud is playing catch up because they’re attempting to bring in an airline while bigger cities are attempting to keep regional air service. He cited the need for the entire community to pull together to attract regional air service, including the city, the education community and the business community.
Workforce feeder programs for pilots and maintenance personnel might tip the scales in St. Cloud’s favor, Johnson said.
In an interview with retired Aviation Professor Emeritus Patrick Mattson, Professor Mattson said “St. Cloud offers plenty of open airspace and airport space that could easily accommodate aircraft maintenance.”
During the study session, Mayor Kleis cited the fact that St. Cloud wouldn’t be in the running for air service if not for the entire region being behind it. Mayor Kleis said that the inclusion of cities and Benton, Stearns and Sherburne County was critical to attacting the airlines’ attention and consideration.
The next step in the process of creating a regional airport authority is drafting the resolution, followed by the St. Cloud City Council approving the resolution before sending the resolution to other cities and counties for their approval.
The most apparent negative to the process is St. Cloud State’s unwillingness to be a team player in helping attract a regional airline. Having them on board would be seen as a positive. At this point, that isn’t likely.
Tags: St. Cloud, City Council, Airlines, Workforce Development, Pilots, Maintenance, Regional Air Service, SCSU, St. Cloud Technical College, Competition, Chicago
9:13 — The convention is now open.
9:19 — Media present thus far are David Pundt of KLKS from Brainerd, Tom Scheck from MPR & Ed Morrissey of HotAir.
9:30 — St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis addressing the delegation. Prior, Rep. King Banaian of St. Cloud led the Pledge of Allegiance.
9:35 — Sarah Anderson, Kurt Daudt named temp chairs of the Convention.
9:59 — Kessler, Rachel Stassen-Berger is in the hall.
10:15 — Credentials report now in the books.
10:50 — Harry Niska now addressing the Convention about rules.
10:52 — Jerry Ewing from Platform Committee: the rules were followed from precinct caucuses to county/SD conventions to CD conventions. Oppose the amendment to allow new items to be added to the platform.
10:55 — Amendment is defeated.
11:22 — Rules Committee report debate getting contentious.
11:23 — Rules adopted.
11:25 — Agenda adopted.
12:15 — Kurt Bills: “Amy says that our problems are too big to solve. I say that our problems are too big to miss.” Wild cheers from the faithful.
12:20 — Laura Brod nominates Pete Hegseth for U.S. Senate.
12:30 — Pete Hegseth is now making his presentation for why he should be the next U.S. Senator from Minnesota.
12:31 — “I’m not running to be popular.”
12:32 — “It hasn’t been just Democrats that have gotten this country in trouble.”
12:34 — “Do people know that she has a more liberal voting record than Keith Ellison? Not yet, but they soon will.”
12:55 — Schudlick “I don’t have alot of money. Maybe it’s because the money comes from the special interests.” Harold, perhaps you don’t get the money because you’re boring after a gazillion runs for office.
1:40 — First ballot is starting.
2:40 — Still waiting for first ballots results.
3:03 — Severson 501 23.47%, Hegseth 450 21.08%, Bills 1,135 53.16%
3:26 — The buzz in the hall is that Bills will win on the second ballot.
3:28 — Light-hearted moment of the day: Kurt Daudt announcing that a person with a white car has a parking ticket. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the car hasn’t gotten towed.
4:25 — It’s over. Bills wins with 1,353 votes; Dan Severson got 439 votes, with Pete Hegseth getting 349 votes.
When John Pederson, Steve Gottwalt and King Banaian scheduled Friday night’s town hall meeting at St. Cloud’s Public Library, they had no way of knowing that public employee unions were planning on disrupting it. Things didn’t get ugly immediately but it didn’t take long before things got out of control.
The first question of the night was directed at Dr. Banaian, the economist, not Rep. Banaian, the Minnesota House member. Here’s the statement and question: “Study after study has shown that right-to-work lowers wages for all workers. Is this true?” Banaian said that there are many studies on the subject but no conclusive evidence in either direction, in the minds of labor economists.
After that, the meeting went downhill fast. When Rep. Gottwalt attempted to respond to a different question posed by a union member, a different union member interrupted, asking “Are you wearing your legislator’s hat or your Coborn’s hat”? When Rep. Gottwalt replied that he’s no longer employed by Coborn’s, the man who interrupted quickly apologized.
That was the first time union members in the audience interrupted. It certainly wasn’t the last time. In fact, union members in the audience made interrupting the rule, not the exception.
In fact, the most confrontational moment came when Rep. Banaian was answering another right-to-work question. Jerry Albertine interrupted, saying “Don’t sit there with your hairspray and your tie, you’ve never worked labor, and say you know what the unions are about.”
That was a statement Rep. Banaian forcefully responded to, saying that he’s a college professor who’s paid union dues to the IFO for over a quarter century.
There were approximately 100 people in the room, with approximately 60-70 of those people union members. AFSCME had a strong presence at the meeting. AFSCME was clearly visible in their bright colored logo on the back of their windbreakers.
Several times, Rep. Gottwalt mentioned how union members, many of whom are nurses, have told him that they want the choice of whether to be in a union or not. At one point, a person in the audience suggested that Rep. Gottwalt was lying, saying that it was convenient that these union members didn’t have names and that they wouldn’t come forward.
Rep. Gottwalt said that Friday night’s union antics are why they haven’t come forward, saying that they don’t want to deal with the unions’ retribution to those ‘wandering from the faith’.
The meeting lasted a little over an hour. During that time, 2 questions were asked about Photo ID, another question asking for a law requiring a legislative panel review whether legislation was constitutional and one question about the closing of the Aviation Program at St. Cloud State.
Another gentleman asked about the the possibility of a constitutional amendment ballot question for an Initiative and Referendum system and about Sunday licquor sales. All other questions were about a potential right-to-work constitutional amendment.
If not for the presence of St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, the meeting could’ve taken a nasty turn. That’s attributable to the unions’ disruptive, disrespectful behavior.
The unions quickly turned the event into an us vs. them confrontation. They quickly turned it inot a 1 percent vs. the 99 percent confrontation. They came armed with their predictable chanting points. They came intent on citing each of those chanting points. They didn’t come to discuss. They came to start a full-fledged confrontation.
They succeeded in that last point, though it’s safe to say that they didn’t change anyone’s mind on the issues they cared most about.
BTW, about the townhall meeting I mentioned in the title: it never had a chance. This was a union pep fest, pure and simple.
Tags: Unions, Right to Work, 1 Percent, 99 Percent, Confrontation, AFSCME, DFL, Steve Gottwalt, King Banaian, John Pederson, Dave Kleis, GOP
Tonight’s townhall meeting at the St. Cloud Library was a portrait of Minnesota Nice. That doesn’t mean there weren’t a number of sharp questions and suggestions on how to solve the state’s budget crisis.
One woman that identified herself as working for a nonprofit asked if they’d get paid for work they’d done during a government shutdown. She also asked whether that would affect federal dollars. Another lady asked how the budget could be the biggest in state history and still be considered an all-cuts budget. That lady then asked why anyone would think that raising taxes won’t take money out of the private sector.
Though things got a little contentious during the last segment of the meeting, it was nothing like the contentiousness from last Monday’s townhall held at the Haven Township Hall.
During the second segment, Chuck Rau said that “Fifteen years ago, private employers moved away from defined benefit pensions to defined contributions because we had to.” He then asked why state employees hadn’t gone to that type of retirement system.
Mayor Dave Kleis moderated the event, breaking things down into half hour segments. Twenty minutes of each segment was devoted to people asking questions, with the other 10 minutes devoted to King answering questions.
Rep. Steve Gottwalt was scheduled to co-host the event but wasn’t able to attend. In the middle of Tuesday afternoon, I saw a tweet talking about a brief negotiation period on the HHS bill had yielded some positive results. As a result of that, the tweet said that they’d be holding another negotiating session starting at 4:00 pm Tuesday afternoon.
Shortly after seeing that tweet, I contacted Rep. Gottwalt to verify whether he’d be participating in the negotiations or whether he’d be participating in Tuesday’s townhall. Shortly thereafter, Rep. Gottwalt confirmed to me that he’d be participating in the HHS negotiations.
During the event, a wide range of questions were asked. Others chose to make suggestions. Though not as many as last week’s townhall, many questions focused on “the richest [fill in percentage] percent” paying their fair share.
King responded to most of the questions, including answering one tax the rich question with a question. King asked what percent was a rich person’s fair share. He then noted that capital and labor were more mobile than they were a generation ago. He then said that that’s why it isn’t possible to raise taxes on the rich without risking capital flight.
The crowd of approximately 60-70 people were generally well-behaved compared with last week’s agitated bunch that pushed the message that Republicans had to compromise with Gov. Dayton. Then again, Tuesday night’s group wasn’t as filled with public employee unions as last week’s event was.
Mayor Kleis, Rep. Banaian and the audience each deserve kudos for the integral parts they played in the townhall. There were still disagreements but they each played a role in showing how people can disagree without being disagreeable.
Technorati: Townhall Meeting, King Banaian, Dave Kleis, Minnesota Nice, Taxes, Unions, Capital Flight, Labor, HHS Budget, Negotiations, Shutdown, Pensions
Saturday morning’s townhall meeting featuring all 6 area legislators was certainly well-attended, with over 150 people attending. St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis moderated the event, doing a good job of keeping a good pace to the many people who wanted either for their questions to be answered or to have their voices heard.
Here are the notes I took at the meeting:
9:05– Hosch up first because he has 4 townhalls to attend. Talking deficit. “It’s gonna require compromise” to solve the deficit.
9:10– Rep. Gottwalt, Rep. Banaian & Sen. Pederson introduce themselves first, then Sen. Fischbach and Rep. O’Driscoll introduce themselves. Rep. O’Driscoll compliments Sue Ek & Kevin Poindexter of Rep. Banaian’s staff for putting this event together.
9:15– First question Emily APAC member says mobile home owners have been abused. Says they’re putting legislation together to do background checks on mobile home park managers. Talks about managers admitting that they’re selling drugs out of their office.
9:20– Retired judge dealing with the guardian ad leitum says their budget was cut by $1,000,000 a year.
9:25– James Rugg mentioned the SCSU Aviation Dept., then asked why universities aren’t focusing more on knowledge-based programs, not social-based programs.
9:27– Two more higher ed questions, one advocating for smaller cuts. Sen. Fischbach answers that they’ll be closely scrutinizing the budget. Rep. Banaian talks about voting against House Higher Ed bill, then says he’ll be taking a closer look at some things in Senate Higher Ed bill.
9:35– Lady talking about health care cuts causes them to miss their maintenance of effort targets. That causes them to miss additional fed funding. Sen. Pederson now addressing the question, saying misinformation is out there that he’s addressed with constituents.
9:40– Woman says she’s worried about cuts to HHS bill re: children with disabilities. Rep. Gottwalt says they’re seeking, on a bipartisan basis, waivers to increase flexibility for the health care programs. Representative Gottwalt then says that a 44% increase was the PROJECTED INCREASE & that we’re still increasing spending by 5%.
9:45– Bruce Hentges “Thanks for keeping education a priority.” Concern is with “redistribution of funds”, much of it dealing with Special Ed funding. Question is about losing special ed funding even though ISD742’s overall funding isn’t being cut. Rep. Gottwalt says that they’re working on reforms that they’re working on. Rep. Gottwalt then says that if ISD’s “enact certain reforms, the money is there.” Rep. Banaian says that they’re reducing mandates so ISD’s can start closing the achievement gap. Rep. Banaian also says that eliminating mandates will increase flexibility for the ISD. Sen. Pederson then talked about legislation they’re in the process of writing that should be submitted this week.
9:53– Rockville city councilmember Duane Willenbring thanks the delegation for the Green Acres fix. Rep. O’Driscoll says that the conference committee report is finished & should be on Gov. Dayton’s desk before May 1, noting that that’s an important deadline.
10:00– Small business owner asks about getting gov’t out of businesses. Says that the state lost almost $500K delivering service that small businesses could do better. Rep. Gottwalt says that they’re working on getting gov’t out of the way.
10:05– Sonja Berg talking now about LGA…says that they’ve had LGA cut by $3,000,000 the past 3 years. Asks for offering regional centers more flexibility.
10:10– Gentleman says that he & his wife just built their dream home west of St. Cloud, then says that Minnesota’s laws are holding back the economy…emphasizes the need for regulatory reform.
10:15– Lori Dieters from SEIU asks what will be done to “fix the real problem” of the wealthy not paying their fair share. Dieters says revenues are lost because jobs are being privatized into jobs that “pay $8/hr. & that they don’t get health care.”
10:20– Teamster union member asking about family planning dollars & sex ed.
10:22– Engineering professor saying that there’s a need to eliminate some of the higher ed schools in the MnSCU system.
10:30– Gentleman is talking about raising taxes, sharing the pain.
Most of the questions centered on either raising taxes, reforming MnSCU or cutting spending. It was apparent that some people with disabilities were worried about getting kicked off state programs based on their belief that the HHS budget was getting slashed.
As Rep. Gottwalt said, they’re increasing the HHS budget by $500,000,000. They’re also implementing several reforms which will save more than $100,000,000. Rep. Gottwalt said it’s unrealistic, and unsustainable, to increase the HHS budget by 44% per biennium. That’s what’s scheduled through the budget tail from last year’s HHS omnibus bill.
Consider the fact that the HHS budget is 25% of state general fund spending. That’s approximately $8,000,000,000 off the top this biennium. Increasing the HHS budget by 44% would add approximately $3,500,000,000 to the HHS budget this biennium.
That isn’t sustainable. What’s worse is that a $3,500,000,000 increase in the HHS budget would almost wipe out the HCAF. When that fund is depleted, Minnesota state law REQUIRES that people be kicked off taxpayer-subsidized health insurance plans.
We mustn’t forget that the MMB said then-Candidate Dayton’s planned tax increase would generate $1,900,000,000 in new revenue. That’s approximately 54.2% of what’s needed to pay for the projected 44% HHS spendng increase.
Saturday morning’s meeting was well-received by most in that most everyone got to ask their question or say their piece that wanted to speak up. The legislators certainly took the questions seriously.
Most importantly, it was important that the legislators got a reminder of where people were at before starting the home stretch of the session.
Technorati: Townhall Meeting, Steve Gottwalt, King Banaian, John Pederson, Dave Kleis, Michelle Fischbach, Tim O’Driscoll, Larry Hosch, Taxes, HHS, HCAF, Deficits
According to Gov. Dayton and the DFL, LGA cuts are directly tied to property tax hikes. Mark Haveman disputes that:
Mark Haveman, with the Minnesota Taxpayers Association, said it’s true that property taxes increased over the past eight years when LGA was cut. But he said property taxes also increased in the early 1990s when LGA funding increased.
“Even in the LGA boom days, there has always been historical increases in per capita city property taxes,” Haveman said. “They’ve been lower than in recent periods, but that doesn’t say it won’t happen.”
Haveman said he believes local governments would spend differently if they didn’t receive state aid.
This information supports my contention that it’s tied directly to local spending decisions, not LGA. In the fat times, people expanded local governments beyond their mission.
Having read through St. Paul’s operating budget in 2008, I know whereof I speak. Though I don’t remember the specific things in the budget that I would’ve cut, I remember thinking that I could’ve cut a third of their operating budget and nobody would’ve noticed.
The thing that should frighten people is that reading through St. Paul’s operating budget took me an entire week. A CITY BUDGET!!! I’m betting that I could get through St. Cloud’s operating budget in a day, possibly a little bit longer.
I spoke with a friend last night who lives in northern Minnesota. We spoke about how cities can save money. I told him about the fact that I’m a 4th of July baby, which explains why I’m such a big fireworks addict.
Last year, after another year of cutting St. Cloud’s budget, Mayor Kleis spoke to the community about the city not paying for the event. Several of the major businesses contributed to the fund. Local citizens contributed, too, some giving $5, some giving $50, some giving $250.
By the time they finished collecting money, they’d collected enough money to put on the most spectacular fireworks display in my lifetime. It lasted about twice as long as in previous years. The fireworks were much more dramatic, too. In short, businesses and private citizens provided the solution to what had previously been a government expenditure.
I’m betting that last year’s solution will become tradition.
The point is that local communities can often provide solutions to things that shouldn’t have been government expenditures in the first place.
This likely wouldn’t have happened without the Great Recession. Using the DFL model, however, the first reaction likely would’ve been to raise taxes or to lobby for more LGA rather than looking for this type of solution.
Technorati: Property Taxes, Mark Dayton, LGA, DFL, Prior Lake, Mike Myser, Reform, Mark Haveman, Research, Dave Kleis, Conservatism
Yesterday afternoon, an Aviation Department student attending the SD-15 townhall meeting asked about transportation in general and aviation in particular as an economic development tool. I didn’t get the young man’s name but it’s clear he sees SCSU’s Aviation Department as a tool for economic development.
Clearly Mayor Kleis does, too, as he addressed the subject during Saturday’s townhall. He said that the minute that get a regional carrier serving either Chicago, Denver or Atlanta, businesses will move here.
The thing I keep returning to are the comments at last Monday night’s City Council meeting. According to the students, there is a pilot shortage coming, probably within the next 2-3 years.
At last week’s city council meeting, Mayor Kleis recommended the city council adopt a resolution sending the official message that they see the Aviation Department as important to St. Cloud’s economic viability.
Setting aside the Aviation Department momentarily, what I’m wondering is what level of public input went into the process. It is, after all, a community asset designed to generate economic prosperity while educating people. What weight was given to that input? Could other programs have been put online statewide to save money? Would these savings have kept core, job-creating programs open?
The 10 biggest programs at SCSU are: Mass Communications with 379 students enrolled, Criminal Justice Studies with 319, Accounting with 295, Management with 293, Elementary/K-8 Education with 285, Finance with 253, Psychology with 245, Marketing with 222, Community Psychology with 214, Aviation with 192 students.
Other programs with more than 100 students enrolled are Nursing with 177 students, Social Work with 137 students, Studio Art with 133 students, with Communications Studies 131 students and Biomedical Sciences with 106 students.
Speaking global prioritizing and budgeting, how many subjects should get moved into a new online university? Obviously, you couldn’t do that with classes like biology, chemistry, etc. because of the lab times but how many classes could fit into that new model?
Yes, I know that the vast majority of universities offer online classes. What I’m saying is that we should identify which university offers the best program for each subject, then let that university be the university that teaches that program online. Think of it as the online version of Wisconsin’s Centers of Excellence concept.
The current economic difficulties are forcing us to accelerate innovations to keep pace with 21st Century demands. SCSU and the Aviation Department are but a microcosm of the challenges, AND OPPORTUNITIES, sitting before us. It’s our choice to drag our feet or embrace the opportunities.
Visionaries see the possibilities. Now it’s up to the universities, the legislature and Gov. Dayton to work together to rebuild higher ed AND rebuild it at a much more reasonable cost to taxpayers.
I have no illusions that this will happen with the snap of our fingers. Still, setting the right priorities in terms of which programs should be offered at physical university campuses and which should be offered by online centers of excellence campuses can usher in a new era of educational excellence at fiscally conservative prices to taxpayers.
That’s the type of higher ed reform Minnesotans can get excited about.
Technorati: Higher Ed, Reforms, SCSU, MnSCU, Online Universities, Centers of Excellence, Wisconsin, Dave Kleis, King Banaian, Economic Development, Aviation, Education
Jeremy Hahn spoke at last night’s session during the open forum time. Here’s a transcript of Mr. Hahn’s statement:
Hahn: I am a student at St. Cloud State. I’m the vice president of the St. Cloud State Aero Club and I’m an aviation student. I would like to speak on behalf of the Aviation Department and try and clarify some things that have been overlooked for the closure of the department.
First, I’d like to speak on the department. The aviation department is one of two 4-year bachelor programs in the state and is the only one accredited by the ABBI and with Congress trying to institute a 1,500 hour rule for pilot training, you need 1,500 hours to qualify for commercial airlines employment. The ABBI accreditation allows for students graduating from the program to be exempt from that. Closing the program would hurt central Minnesota’s and Minnesota’s ability to answer the demand for airline pilots in the industry.
As for enrollment at the Aviation Department, the Aviation industry parallels the economy. With the downfall of the economy, in fact the Congress raised the retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65. That was in December, 2007. There will be a demand increase in 2012 for pilots and without the St. Cloud State program, we will not be able to provide pilots for the industry.
As I spoke, I am a member of the Aero Club and it has been presented that the Aviation Department cannot afford to upgrade and operate a fleet of aircraft. The Aero Club is a nonprofit, incorporated association that owns its own aircraft and we receive no funding from the University and we have a contract with Wright Arrow, which is the flight training facility at the Airport. They also own their own aircraft and students from St. Cloud University do their training in these aircraft, which are not owned by the Aviation Department.
Therefore, no liability for upgrading the fleet is assumed by the department. It is for the Aero Club and Right Arrow to provide. ABBI does not require aircraft to have new avionics packages. However, the department did acquire this past year new equipment that will provide updated training for graduates.
After Hahn spoke, a Japanese aviation student spoke. I won’t attempt to spell his name because I’m certain I’m butcher it. The first point he made after saying he’s lived in St. Cloud the past 4 years is because St. Cloud State’s Aviation program is very affordable. He expressed concern “not only about the program and the economy but also the effect it will have on diversity.” He said that “hopefully, in the future, this city will be more global.”
I found these students’ arguments to be compelling. The fact that the Arrow Club and Wright Arrow maintain their own fleet of aircraft is compelling by itself. The federal government’s implementation of regulations that hamper pilot training right just prior to a foreseeable pilot shortage is bad policy. Keeping St. Cloud State’s Aviation Department open would supply pilots quickly at a time when there’s a shortage.
The fact that St. Cloud State’s Aviation Department’s prices are more affordable than others tells me that this is a department that’s being run right.
After these students’ presentations, Mayor Kleis spoke of the Aviation Department’s importance, saying that it’s an issue of economic development and important to St. Cloud’s economic viability.
Councilman Jeff Johnson, a faculty member of the Aviation Department, spoke briefly about Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s and Congressman Chip Cravaack’s interest in this issue, both from a homeland security issue and from the standpoint of training young people to meet the expected pilot shortage.
Later, upon Mayor Dave Kleis’s recommendation, the city council voted on a resolution that a formal letter be sent to the St. Cloud State administration stating their support for keeping the Aviation Department open as well as expressing the economic importance of the St. Cloud Airport to St. Cloud’s economy.
The motion was made by Councilman Gerger and seconded by Councilman Hontos. Councilman Johnson recused himself from the vote, stating conflict-of-interest issues. The resolution passed with unanimous support save for Councilman Johnson’s abstention.
Technorati: SCSU, Aviation, Pilots, Shortages, Dave Kleis, George Hontos, Jeff Johnson, Chip Cravaack, Michele Bachmann, Economy, Economic Development, Homeland Security
Last night, Mike Hatch used Almanac’s Roundtable to repeat his claim that “it isn’t a matter of whether we’ll raise taxes. It’s a matter of which taxes we’ll raise.”
Just for the sake of argument, let’s say that his claim is right. If he’s right, is that a bad thing? I’d argue it isn’t. Bear with me as I explain.
Let’s suppose the GOP will pass a budget that balances without raising income taxes. According to DFL ideology, that means property taxes automatically jump. But do they?
Dave Kleis would argue that statement isn’t accurate. He’s got 3 years of proof to verify his argument. R.T. Rybak has 3 years of proof saying Hatch is right.
The difference is that Kleis prioritized spending while actually saying no to things. Rybak didn’t prioritize spending, which meant that he didn’t say no to his special interest allies often enough.
Therefore, it’s accurate to say that Minneapolis’s property taxes jumped as a direct result of local decisionmaking.
Assuming Hatch is right, that means Minneapolis got punished because they voted for a mayor and city council that made foolish spending decisions. Doesn’t that mean that the rest of the state is spared paying additional taxes to cover for the sins of irresponsible mayors?
R.T. Rybak will complain that they’re getting their LGA cut and that that isn’t fair. I’d flip that and ask R.T. Rybak what’s so fair about Minnesota’s job creators getting taxed at the highest rate in the nation so mayors can continue making foolish spending decisions. What’s fair about that?
More important, isn’t raising taxes counterproductive to Minnesota’s economy?
Now that that’s been argued out, let’s return to Realityville, a city that Mr. Hatch obviously isn’t acquainted with. Thankfully, Jen DeJournett was there to acquaint Mr. Hatch with Realityville.
She said that local spending decisions drive property tax increases, not state tax policy. She argued forcefully that tax increases aren’t inevitable because local units of government, just like state government, has the ability to make spending decisions based on a clearly defined set of priorities.
By living within the state’s means, they’re exposing the reckless spending habits of R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman. If those cities choose to keep electing mayors and city councils that won’t set better priorities, that’s their business. It’s just that outstate Minnesota is tired of subsidizing St. Paul’s and Minneapolis’s stupidity.
“Their decisions, their consequences” should become Outstate Minnesota’s battle cry.
Think of it as a local version of saying no to a California bailout. It’s time these politicians got the message that we won’t bail them out for their stupidity. PERIOD.
Technorati: Property Taxes, Mike Hatch, R.T. Rybak, Chris Coleman, LGA, Spending, California, Bailouts, DFL, Dave Kleis, Jen DeJournett, MNGOP
Rep. Thissen started his whining diatribe by saying that there were “no more excuses for Republicans” to produce “their property tax-raising, all cuts budget.”
HINT TO REP. THISSEN: Repeating bullshit that is is verifiably false won’t make it truth.
I wrote here that the GOP plan is balanced: part growing the economy, part reforming government to work for the people and part making the difficult cuts.The Dayton/Thissen/Bakk plan isn’t balanced. It’s all about raising taxes on Minnesota’s job creators while letting cities like St. Paul and Minneapolis make much-needed cuts. The Dayton/Thissen/Bakk budget is about letting irresponsible cities off easy.
This isn’t to say that all cities have been irresponsible. St. Cloud has kept property taxes stable while absorbing LGA cuts. That’s because Dave Kleis has set intelligent priorities. It’s because he’s actually said no to people.
Rep. Thissen is right that property taxes will go up if R.T. Rybak and Chris Coleman keep spending like money grows on trees. They need to expand their vocabulary to include words like NO and PRIORITIES. Thus far, there isn’t proof that those words are included in their vocabulary, especially with regards to their special interest allies.
Rep. Thissen’s message comes across as whiny to outstate people. He hasn’t stated why the Dayton/Thissen/Bakk plan should be adopted. He’s only whined about how the GOP hasn’t proposed a budget, then whined that the GOP budget is an all-cuts budget that raises property taxes.
If he hasn’t seen their budget, how could he possibly know that their budget will raise property taxes or that it’s “an all-cuts budget”? When did Rep. Thissen add the gift of clairvoyance to his annoying habit of being whiney?
Personally, I don’t know how Sen. Bakk puts up with Rep. Thissen’s whining tone of voice. It’s THAT annoying.
There’s no direct correlation between cutting LGA and property tax increases. It doesn’t exist. St. Cloud has gotten their LGA cut 3 straight years. Our property taxes have stayed the same.
What Rep. Thissen is really saying is that property taxes have spiked in the Twin Cities because those mayors and city councils haven’t said no to spending hikes.
Outstate Minnesota is getting tired of subsidizing suburban mayors’ unwillingness to say no. Rep. Thissen needs to get out of his suburban bubble and realize that there’s a vastly different viewpoint beyond the burbs.
Until that happens, he’ll continue being an unpersuasive pitchman for the DFL’s budget. Then again, it’d take the world’s best salesman to sell the DFL’s budget.
Technorati: Paul Thissen, Property Taxes, LGA, Tom Bakk, Mark Dayton, R.T. Rybak, All-Cuts Budget, DFL, Dave Kleis, Spending Cuts, Fiscal Restraint, MNGOP