Archive for the ‘Paul Thissen’ 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 It’s been quickly repealed because it does lots of damage in a short period of time.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 article is fantastic news for Minnesotans:
DFL legislative leaders say plans to raise the gas tax for road projects and a metrowide sales tax for transit projects are dead for the year. “I would say they’re probably both dead,” said DFL Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk.
Senate leaders have been pushing to increase the gas tax to pay for additional road and bridge projects. But historically high gas prices and opposition from Governor Dayton has proved too big of an obstacle.
There’s still next year but that’ll be a tricky subject. Will the DFL want to raise more taxes heading into an election year? Speaker Thissen’s statement is interesting:
DFL House Speaker Paul Thissen suggested there was discomfort in raising gas and sales taxes at a time when they’re also raising other taxes to balance the budget and spend more on schools.
That’s an interesting statement considering the fact that the DFL insists that they’re only taxing the rich. If the DFL Tax Bill is only taxing the rich, a gas tax increase wouldn’t be an additional tax on the middle class. Likewise, the metro-wide sales tax wouldn’t be a major addiotional tax.
The bad news is that Gov. Dayton, Speaker Thissen and Senate Majority Leader Bakk have agreed to a new Tax Bill:
Although a new fourth-tier income tax rate on the state’s highest earners has been part of the mix since the start of budget negotiations, it has been unclear until tonight what that rate would be, 9.85 percent. That is higher than the House’s original position of 8.84 percent and lower than the Senate’s proposal of 10.7 percent. The 2 percent surcharge on those taxpayers to pay off the money the state owes the schools has been dropped. Gov. Mark Dayton said that money will be allocated this biennium toward a payment, and he expects to have the debt paid off during the next biennium.
While new taxes on alcohol have been dropped from the bill, cigarette smokers are likely to pay about $1.60 a pack more, a House position. Additionally, smokers could be subject to new taxes announced today to fill any funding shortfall to pay the state’s share of the stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.
Right now, 19% of cigarettes sold to smokers come from the black market, the internet, other states or gaming casinos. When this cigarette tax increase goes into effect, 30% of cigarettes will be sold through the black market, the internet, other states or gaming casinos. Meanwhile, convenience stores will lose customers, which will result in smaller profits and fewer jobs.
Simply put, this cigarette tax will shrink cigarette tax revenue to the state because people will change their buying habits.
Further, the income tax increases will be stifling. In addition to the higher tax rate, small businesses will get hit with fewer deductions and a sales tax increase will be levied on warehouses, electronic repairs and telecommunications.
Finally and most importantly, the DFL’s tax increase and their budget won’t strengthen Minnesota’s economy because it only focuses on the middle class. This budget hurts businesses. You can’t be create jobs if you hate the employers. It’s that simple.
Tags: Tax Increases, Cigarette Tax, Sales Tax, Gas Tax, Mark Dayton, Tom Bakk, Paul Thissen, Convenience Stores, Unemployment, Vikings Stadium, DFL
This article is the article everyone’s expected since Election Night. Unfortunately, it isn’t the article we’d been hoping for.
Thissen, Gov. Mark Dayton and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk of Cook said they agreed on spending targets and will give conference committees a few other guidelines, such as:
- The sales tax would not rise on consumer goods, including clothing, but businesses could pay sales tax on goods sold to other businesses.
- Income taxes would go up on people in the top 2 percent of Minnesota earners, couples with $250,000 or more taxable income.
- An income tax surcharge would be added for Minnesota’s richest of the rich, with proceeds going to help repay money the state has borrowed from school districts.
- Cigarette taxes would rise.
- Some business tax breaks would disappear.
- All-day kindergarten would be funded.
- The state would spend $400 million in property tax relief, such as by increasing aid sent to local governments.
Thanks to this agreement, companies will leave Minnesota. Businesses staying will get with multiple tax increases. Businesses will get charged sales taxes on services. Additionally, they’ll get hit with higher income tax rates. That’s bad enough but that isn’t all. Current deductions will get eliminated, too.
Why would a business stay in Minnesota and absorb all those tax increases in a single year? The simple answer is many won’t.
The supposed property tax relief is a mirage. When liberal mayors get their increased LGA checks, it won’t go towards property tax relief. It’ll go towards increased spending. That isn’t a prediction. It’s noting what’s happened in the past without fail. Anyone that thinks Chris Coleman won’t increase spending on things that aren’t necessities isn’t paying attention. He’s done it in the past. He’s a creature of habit. He’ll do it again.
The three Democrats said middle-income Minnesotans would not pay more taxes other than for cigarettes. But when reporters pushed him on the subject, Dayton said that some of the business taxes could trickle down to consumers in higher prices.
Whether it’s in the form of a direct tax increase or it’s in the form of higher prices charged by businesses who’ve gotten hit with a tax increase, the net effect is that the middle class will get hit with higher prices, leaving people with less money to spend on the things of their choosing.
Most importantly, this budget won’t strengthen Minnesota’s economy. The best outcome we should expect from this budget and these policies is that it won’t hurt the economy too much. Fewer jobs will be created as a result of the tax bill. Company profits will be significantly smaller. People will have less disposable income thanks to the energy bill that’s about to get signed.
Gov. Dayton has sent out emails touting a “better budget for Minnesota.” That’s what we deserve. Unfortunately, the DFL has seen to it to give us this budget, which doesn’t strengthen Minnesota’s economy.
When people read Baird Helgeson’s article, it’ll be easy for them to picture a DFL nightmare in 2014:
With 19 years at the Legislature, the last 10 in the Senate, Bakk is betting his political currency on a proposal that would reach far beyond the governor’s tax-the-rich approach. Bakk not only would extend the sales tax to clothing and some consumer services, his income tax hike would reach down into what many would consider the middle class. In addition, he’s seeking a politically unpopular pay raise for lawmakers, the governor and agency heads.
That’s a disaster in the making. Raising taxes on business services wasn’t popular before. That’s why Gov. Dayton dropped them. Raising income taxes on the middle class is a political nightmare. Imposing a sales tax on auto mechanics and tax preparers won’t be popular.
At this point, DFL senators must be losing confidence in Bakk’s leadership abilities. This is why:
Bakk’s soaring political currency took a body blow this week when the DFL-controlled Senate got caught by some shrewd, last-minute GOP vote-flipping and failed by a slim margin to pass its own tax bill.
A grim-faced Bakk called DFLers into a closed-door meeting. When they emerged, they had cobbled together the needed votes. But the momentary defeat served as a flustering chastisement for Bakk and one that may weaken him as he enters final negotiations with Dayton and Thissen.
Simply put, Bakk, Rest, Eaton and Koenen couldn’t even count to 34, the number needed to pass the Senate Tax Bill, aka the biggest bill they’ll pass all year.
Question to taxpayers: Do you want someone writing budgets when they can’t count to 34?
Senate Democrats say they have never seen Bakk resort to arm-twisting. Even the governor’s staff say he is known for sitting in important meetings, absorbing what is being said by all sides and not saying a word.
That being said, Capitol insiders have told me that Sen. Clausen and Sen. Hoffman were told that they’d be changing their votes so the bill would pass. That isn’t arm-twisting. It’s just giving them orders.
Sen. Bakk’s insistence that a middle class tax hike be part of the final Tax Bill is outright stupidity from a political standpoint. The GOP will beat the DFL over the head with that during the next campaign. Gov. Dayton will have to defend it if he signs it. House candidates will have to defend it if they vote for it.
Bakk’s senators won’t have as much to worry about because they aren’t up for re-election until 2016. Still, campaign committees have long memories. When they’re up for re-election, campaigns will remind voters that they should thank the DFL for insisting on a middle class tax increase.
That’s how political nightmares start.
Spring brings new hope to just about everyone. Everyone but gun control advocates, it seems. Based on this article, it sounds like gun control advocates are having a miserable spring:
Rural Democrats’ opposition to changing Minnesota’s gun laws casts doubt on what legislation, if any, will pass this year to tackle gun violence.
A group of at least eight Democrats from outstate Minnesota are standing firm against virtually any expansion of the state’s background check system. Together with Republicans, who need just six votes from across the aisle to block a bill, those Democrats hold the keys to shape, or sink, any gun legislation.
Bills to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines in Minnesota were quickly dropped, and an effort to impose universal background checks for gun sales was whittled down in the House to a bill that would close the so-called gun show loophole.
Advocates and lawmakers backing gun control measures acknowledge the possibility that even that bill won’t pass. Senate legislation for universal background checks is in limbo as top Democrats there wait to see what happens in the House.
The St. Paul Democrat who led an unsuccessful push to impose universal background checks on gun sales hopes a bill will hit the House floor for debate in the next two weeks. House Speaker Paul Thissen wouldn’t guarantee they’ll take up a gun bill this session, but said he wants to have the debate.
When the Newtown tragedy happened, gun control advocates stepped forward, saying that this was the best chance they’d ever get to pass sweeping gun control legislation. That’s true. If they couldn’t pass sweeping gun control legislation after that, they’d never pass sweeping gun control legislation.
Now that this coalition of rural DFL legislators and GOP legislators has formed, the gun control advocates are staring at another humiliating defeat. This is a major defeat for Speaker Thissen, Rep. Hausman and Rep. Paymar, especially Speaker Thissen. His inability to keep his caucus together on this issue indicates his agenda isn’t Minnesota’s agenda. Rather, it says that the metro DFL’s agenda is significantly different than the rest of the state.
Tags: Gun Control, Assault Weapons Ban, Michael Paymar, Alice Houseman, Paul Thissen, High Capacity Clips, Gun Control Advocates, DFL
It anything comes through in this statement, it’s the DFL’s stated intention to spend the taxpayers’ money recklessly. Here’s an example:
Aiming for a course correction after a decade of disinvestment, the House and Senate are likely to take up historic education bills next week at the State Capitol. Some the features of those bills include:
- Investing in what works – early learning: New investments to fund early education and all-day kindergarten, helping Minnesota students get on the right track early.
- Strategic funding for K-12 schools: Increasing per pupil funding for Minnesota schools throughout the state.
- Reducing college tuition and debt: Making the first investment in higher education in a decade to ease the burden of skyrocketing tuition and student debt.
Primary Findings
The consensus I found is that: 1) socioeconomic conditions are the single largest determinant of success in school and life, 2) benefits of intervention accrue primarily to children in dire socioeconomic circumstances, and 3) benefits to the general population are minimal, fading by third grade, presumably because they are getting what they need in their home environments.
Dr. Kern later noted:
I reviewed Dr. Rolnick’s calculations and indeed, the benefits for 123 pre-school children studied in Ypsilanti Michigan, were giant—50% reduced incarceration rates. However, in their policy discussions, Rolnick and Grunewald downplay the nominal 50% incarceration rate in this community. Yes, the return on investment supporting now famous claims of 17-dollar ROI…are based almost entirely on money saved by reducing incarceration rates from 50% to 25%.
In spite of the highly unusual nature of the circumstances surrounding these children’s lives, proponents of these programs regularly extrapolate a 17 to 1 ROI to every dollar spent on virtually any early childhood program. It is extremely cynical or delusional that Rolnick and Grunewald fail to emphasize the critical caveats to these estimates based on just 123 subjects from one pre-school in desperate need of help.
In other words, all-day Pre-K is just spin to spend tons of money on the Education Minnesota wish list. It doesn’t help kids. It helps the unions while raiding taxpayers’ wallets.
It’s insulting to hear Thissen talk about “reducing college tuition and debt” without hearing Thissen talk about reducing the cost of higher ed. Furthermore, why isn’t Thissen talking about how MnSCU is helping SCSU administrators cover up the deleting of hundreds of grades from students’ transcripts?
“The other piece of it is that it’s difficult to do some things like helping with student success, some things like doing accurate assessment if people disappear from our records and we don’t have that information in our records anymore or if we learn for example that, and this is kind of an odd example I suppose, you don’t know that a student has taken a course three times because there is no record of it and the student is in there for the fourth time and you’re trying to figure out a way to help that student be successful and yet you’re blindsided by this lack of information.
Having a student’s transcript omit the fact that he/she has taken and failed a class 3 times isn’t a minor clerical mistake. It’s the Potter administration’s deletion of transcript information. Might some of these deleted grades be in classes that the student got federal or state grants?
Is that the type of disgusting behavior taxpayers should be subsidizing? I think not.
Why aren’t Speaker Thissen, Sen. Bakk, Sen. Bonoff and Rep. Pelowski talking about the U of M spending money on an event aimed at helping undergraduate women achieve more and better orgasms? Here’s what the event description includes:
The university’s official online description of the event entitled, ‘The Female Orgasm,’ describes it as open to both male and female students. ‘Orgasm aficionados and beginners of all genders are welcome to come learn about everything from multiple orgasms to that mysterious G-spot,’ reads the description posted on the school’s official events calendar. ‘Whether you want to learn how to have your first orgasm, how to have better ones, or how to help you girlfriend, Kate and Marshall cover it all…’ it adds. ‘Are you coming?’ it asks.
I don’t know how this event is paid for. If it’s being paid for with the taxpayers’ money or through student fees, then it’s wrong. If people want to pay for something like this with their money, that’s their business. If they want to pay for it with the taxpayers’ money, that isn’t acceptable.
Speaker Thissen talks about historic investments in education. What he didn’t talk about is the tons of money that’s recklessly misspent. It’s noteworthy that Speaker Thissen won’t talk about the SCSU transcript scandal, either. Apparently, it’s ok with Thissen if administrators are changing student transcripts without the professors’ signing off on the changes.
Tags: Paul Thissen, Education, Higher Education, University of Minnesota, MnSCU, Student Transcripts, Earl Potter, SCSU, Corruption, Early Childhood Education, Spending Increases, Gene Pelowski, Tom Bakk, Terry Bonoff, DFL
Rep. Pat Garofalo ripped the DFL as out of control during this speech during the DFL tax increase debate:
There were 2 highlights during the speech. Both related to the silica sand tax included in the House DFL tax increase bill.
Here’s what Rep. Garofalo said about that tax:
You’re gonna actually tax an industry out of existence with a tax on silica mining. I actually had a liberal activist say to me they thought that by raising taxes on silica mining, they would somehow impact the fracking in North Dakota. (Laughter in background) Spoiler alert. They’re gonna get the sand from other states. Doesn’t matter. It’s gonna have no impact whatsoever on other states’ ability to do fracking of natural gas and oil but it will kill jobs here. And it’s not business groups saying that. It’s not small businesses saying it.
We’ve heard from the local 49ers. We’ve heard from the local unions. In fact, members, this is how totally delusional this tax increase is: Mark Dayton actually labeled the House DFL silica sand tax “ridiculous.” So when a tax increase is so high that Gov. Dayton labels it ridiculous, you know you’re checked out for lunch.
That’s stunning. A DFL activist thinks that killing jobs in Minnesota will shut down the Bakken. That isn’t stupid. That’s beyond frightening. And that isn’t the most frightening part of this.
The truly frightening part of this is that Gov. Dayton, the man whose every thought is to raise taxes, thinks the silica sand tax is “ridiculous.” When a taxaholic like Gov. Dayton thinks that a tax increase goes too far, red flags should go off immediately.
I wrote here about the differing DFL tax bills, characterizing them as disastrous and counterproductive. Little did I know just how disastrous and counterproductive the DFL tax bills were. This is downright frightening.
Tags: Tax Increases, Silica Sand Tax, Paul Thissen, Unemployment, Cigarette Tax, Environmentalists, Mark Dayton, Tom Bakk, Sales Tax, DFL, Unions, 49ers, Fracking, Bakken Oil Field, Natural Gas, Pat Garofalo, MNGOP, Election 2014
True to their waste-aholic history, the DFL legislature voted against government accountability:
A commission designed to judge whether state agencies, councils or boards have outlived their usefulness may itself cease to exist.
The Democratic-controlled House and Senate have voted to abolish the Sunset Advisory Commission, a 12-member commission championed by Republicans as offering greater accountability and efficiency in state government.
“I think they’re (Democrats) scared,” Rep. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, said of taking tough votes on the commission.
A product of 2011 legislation, the Sunset Advisory Commission is patterned after a 30-year-old commission in Texas, one billed as having saved the Lone Star State almost $1 billion at a cost of about $33 million.
Minnesota’s Sunset Commission reviews state agencies and recommends whether a given agency should continue to exist.
Rep. Peppin is right. DFL legislators don’t want to vote on wasteful spending. DFL legislators don’t want to admit that their pet agencies, councils and panels are actually patronage positions.
The DFL is spinning their vote:
The idea of duplication was voiced by another commission member, Rep. Michael Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park. “One of the tasks of the sunset commission is to get rid of duplicative government functions,” he said. There’s already the Office of the Legislative Auditor.
Why have both? Nelson asks.
Rep. Nelson, we need both because it’s apparent that there’s a ton of bloat in state government, things that the OLA hasn’t discussed.
As for Rep. Nelson’s assertion of duplication, I’d love hearing his explanation on what it’s duplicating. I’d love hearing him cite the times when the OLA has recommended the sunsetting of a commission, panel or council.
Sen. Bonoff’s statement needs ridiculing:
Bonoff, like other Democrats, argues the commission is itself duplicative. “If committee chairs are doing their jobs, they should be doing this kind of detailed oversight,” she said.
There’s a simple explanation for Sen. Bonoff: the chairs have never gotten into this type of detailed oversight. The Sunset Advisory Commission would’ve been a great tool that forced the legislature to deal with commissions, councils and panels that outlived their usefulness.
Furthermore, does any thinking person think that the DFL would investigate the importance or relevance of these hideouts for their political cronies? Let’s get serious. When Keith Downey proposed reducing the state workforce by 15% by not replacing retiring workers, Eliot Seide accused him of waging war “against working families.” What DFL legislator will vote for sunsetting these commissions, councils or panels knowing that they’ll get primaried by an AFSCME-endorsed candidate?
That’s why the Commission is essential.
Finally, this DFL legislature has repeatedly proven that they oppose accountability. The GOP legislature passed a bill that required teachers to pass a basic skills test, which Gov. Dayton signed. The DFL wants to repeal that law. The GOP legislature passed the Sunset Advisory Commission, which Gov. Dayton signed. The DFL legislature just voted to repeal that essential accountability legislation. Will Gov. Dayton reverse himself & say no to government accountability? If he does, he should prepare for getting labeled as a) a hypocrite, b) a cheap politician who does what’s popular, not what’s right and c) the unions’ puppet, not the public’s servant leader.
This week, the DFL legislature voted for higher pay for themselves, higher taxes on the middle class and less accountability within government. I don’t think that’s the bumper sticker they’ll want to deal with in 2014.
Tags: Terry Bonoff, Mike Nelson, Tom Bakk, Paul Thissen, Mark Dayton, Eliot Seide, AFSCME Council 5, Public Employee Unions, Cronyism, DFL, Sunset Advisory Commission, Accountability, Government Oversight, Reforms, MNGOP
At the start of this session, I said that the DFL would sail through because Alida Messinger would give them their marching orders. When Gov. Dayton introduced his bill, businesses far and wide criticized it for imposing a sales tax on transactions between businesses and lawyers, accountants and other service providers. When the House DFL introduced their tax bill, it was criticized for imposing a gigantic, disastrous income tax increase, raising the top income tax rate from 7.85% to 12.49%. It’s difficult to imagine how the Senate DFL’s tax bill could be worse.
Difficult but no longer impossible:
Democrats in the state Senate released a plan today that increases income taxes on wealthiest 6 percent of Minnesotans, raises the sales tax on clothing and services, and increases the cigarette tax.
Republicans don’t like it and even some Democrats in competitive districts are uneasy about the taxes and spending. But DFL leaders say the $1.8 billion dollar tax increase is needed to erase the state’s budget deficit and increase spending for schools and property tax relief.
It’s incredible that the Senate DFL took the worst part of Gov. Dayton’s tax proposal, the sales tax increase on services, watered down the worst part of the House DFL’s tax increase, then added their own terrible wrinkle by raising income taxes on the middle class.
While Senate DFL leaders praise the bill as good tax policy, some of their rank-and-file members remain apprehensive about it.
“This is going to be a hard one for me to support,” said first-term DFL Sen. Melisa Franzen. Franzen, who represents the swing district of Edina, Minnetonka and Bloomington, worries the bill could harm the state’s business climate.
“If the cost of doing business in Minnesota is going to rise and small business is going to be impacted, that is something that I have to take into account,” Franzen said.
Sen. Greg Clausen, DFL-Apple Valley, worries about the income tax portion of the bill, but said he thinks many of his constituents could live with it since the bulk of the extra spending is dedicated to education.
“There certainly are people out there that say ‘no new taxes.’ Whenever they see a tax they don’t support that,” Clausen said. “But I think there is also a group of people who recognize that there are needs in our state.”
First, Sen. Rest is wrong that the Senate bill is “good tax policy.” It isn’t good tax policy raising the cigarette tax because it’ll significantly hurt convenience stores while cutting cigarette tax revenues without reducing smoking.
Hurting retailers and Minnesota’s general fund while doing nothing to tamp down smoking is a nasty negative trifecta of tax policy.
Second, there’s no way the cost of doing business in Minnesota doesn’t increase. Businesses will get hit with higher income taxes & higher business costs thanks to the sales taxes on services. That’s before talking about how the cigarette tax increase will hurt convenience store sales.
If the DFL doesn’t pull its act together quickly, they’ll find lots of complaints on the campaign trail next year.
Tags: Tax Increases, Sales Tax, Cigarette Tax, Income Tax, Business Services, Mark Dayton, Tom Bakk, Paul Thissen, DFL, Small Businesses, Middle Class, Prosperity
There’s a price I pay for watching @Issue and Almanac each week. That price is worth it, though, when I watch and people like Matt Entenza regurgitate the DFL’s chanting points on raising taxes. Tom Hauser asked him if it was a PR blunderfor the House to introduce their $2,500,000,000 tax increase on April 15, the day Minnesotans were paying their taxes.
After quickly dodging that question, Entenza cited a study that showed spending had decreased by $500 per person the last 10 years. Then he said something I’ll crucify him for saying. Here’s what he said:
Part of what Democrats are responding to is an election where people said ‘We’re tired of higher class sizes. We’re tired of roads that are falling apart and a Human Services Department that doesn’t work as well as it should.
I can’t wait for Mr. Entenza to explain how raising taxes on liquor, income tax and cigarettes will fix a single pothole. How will raising these taxes reduce class sizes, especially considering the fact that the Thissen House won’t pay off the school shift that they call a budget gimmick?
Mr. Entenza, how will raising taxes on cigarettes raise revenues this time? The last 2 times they’ve been raised, revenues from that tax have dropped.
Citing the fact that per person spending has decreased by $500 a person means nothing. Businesses wouldn’t survive if they didn’t figure out new ways to deliver goods and services more efficiently. Why shouldn’t government be required to do the same? Why shouldn’t I think that money isn’t being spent efficiently when I hear that $30,000 of a professor’s $73,000 a year salary is paid for managing a community garden?
The premise behind the DFL budget is that a) every penny of the last budget was spent efficiently, b) every penny of the last budget was spent on needs, not on their special interest allies’ wish lists and c) every penny that was spent last time needs to be spent again this time.
There isn’t proof that that’s the case. The DFL’s mantra that we need to ‘invest more’ on education and transportation without giving taxpayers specific justifications is getting tiresome. The devil is in the details. How much of the increased spending on K-12 education is being pissed away on excessive amounts of administrators and all-day kindergarten? How much are taxes getting raised to fund transit? Those tax increases don’t fix a single pothole.
Shouldn’t the case be made to defund transit while boosting funding for road, bridge and pothole repair? Shouldn’t the case be made that spending K-12 money on administrators is stealing money that would be used to reduce class sizes? Will the DFL tell us how much of the K-12 funding has gone towards reducing class sizes vs. how much was spent on increasing the size of the school districts’ administration?
The DFL’s scam is about to get exposed. Money isn’t being spent efficiently. It isn’t getting spent only on Minnesota’s highest priorities. The DFL’s tax increases won’t fix a single pothole.
In short, Minnesota’s taxpayers are getting stiffed.
Tags: Matt Entenza, Tax Increases, Cigarette Tax, Income Tax, Liquor Tax, Potholes, K-12 Education, Administration, Transit, Pork, Paul Thissen, Cronyism, DFL