Mark Dayton isn’t the sharpest knife in the DFL’s drawer but he’s sunk to a new low with his latest campaign slogan:

While almost all the DFLers argue that the wealthy should pay their “fair share,” Dayton is the most explicit and aggressive about it.

“Read my lips: Tax the rich,” is one of his favorite campaign slogans. During a candidate forum Monday at Macalester College in St. Paul, he said that it’s not only fair but also that the wealthy can afford to pay more.

He called for taxing the top 10 percent at the same rate as other Minnesotans, 12.1 percent of their incomes, and said that change would raise $3.8 billion over two years.

The Revenue Department’s Wilson told Minnesota Public Radio that Dayton’s proposal would require a 40 percent income tax increase on those top earners, raising their rate from 7.85 percent to around 13 percent. That would be by far the highest income tax rate in the nation.

Mr. Dayton isn’t proposing a tax on “the rich.” He’s proposing a full frontal assualt on small businesses. He won’t get small businesses to “pay their fair share.” He’ll get them to leave Minnesota for better business climates like Utah, Colorado, North and South Dakota.

Here’s what Rep. Steve Gottwalt thinks about the DFL’s recently establishing a “Small Business Caucus”:

Dear Neighbor:

It’s interesting how priorities change for some people with shifts in the winds of politics. As conservatives fought for small businesses, and opposed higher taxes and more regulation over the last few years, the liberals running the state legislature pursued a decidedly anti-business agenda full of tax increases and more regulatory burdens.

Then, late this summer, as anger over massive deficit spending and expansion of government swept our nation, several of the more vulnerable liberals in our state legislature decided to form a “Small Business Caucus,” claiming to be friends of small businesses. Now, these “born again” liberals are offering an online survey seeking small business input just several weeks ahead of the 2010 legislative session.

How absurd! Were they not listening over the last few years? Where were these lawmakers as businesses large and small told them loud and clear: “Stop taxing and regulating us to death”? Where was their concern for small businesses as they voted time and again for massive tax increases, and incredible regulatory burdens?

The DFL is trying the same techniques as President Obama: Talk like a moderate, then stab people in the back when they aren’t looking. The DFL-dominated legislature has repeatedly voted for raising small business’s taxes while attempting to increase spending irresponsibly. Let’s remember that Speaker Kelliher said that the DFL House caucus was a “fiscally moderate caucus“:

Sitting amid the unpacked boxes in Majority Leader Tony Sertich’s office, Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Sertich said the top priorities are “affordable and accessible health care,” a stronger education system and property tax relief.

“Those are the big three,” said Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis.

Add to those three a fourth element that may surprise some: fiscal responsibility.

“We’re a fiscally moderate caucus,” Kelliher said of the sprawling 85-member majority that now includes significant numbers of moderates from the suburbs, exurbs and rural areas.

We’re still waiting for affordable health care, the stronger education system and for the DFL show even a modicum of fiscal responsibility. Fortunately, Gov. Pawlenty intervened in 2008 to force property tax relief down the DFL’s throats.

After 3 years of playing games, the DFL is finally willing to just say stright out that it lives to increase taxes, especially on small businesses. That’s because putting in place conditions that help a business thrive isn’t a priority, especially with Mr. Dayton.

The DFL has controlled the Senate for well in excess of 15 years. They’ve refused to budge from their 1970s ways. They’re still stuck thinking that what worked in the 70s still works in a different millenium. If the DFL won’t change directions, then they need to be rejected at the ballot box.

The GOP has a plan to help Minnesota return to being the state of prosperity. That’s because they actually believe in small businesses. They’ve been defending small businesses as long as I’ve been watching them.

The moral of the story is simple: No GOP, no prosperity. Know a GOP majority and you’ll know prosperity.

Technorati: Taxes, Tax The Rich, Mark Dayton, Speaker Kelliher, Tony Sertich, DFL, Tim Pawlenty, Property Tax Relief, MNGOP, Election 2010