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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. Taxpayers League Live! with David Strom.
2. “The Senate DFLers are who we thought they were.”
3. And hopefully Pawlenty will be who we want him to be.
4. A campaign finance “reform” two-fer.
5. No, no, no. I’m not going to prison, I’m going to camp.
1. Taxpayers League Live! with David Strom.
Tune in this Saturday to AM 1280 The Patriot from 9 – 11am when David will be joined by Mary Liz Holberg and Mark Brunswick. Holberg, a fifth-term Republican from Lakeville, will talk about Hennepin County’s latest tax grab, the desire for a new half-cent metro-wide sales tax to help pay for Hiawatha LRT and future transit projects. Brunswick, a reporter at the Star Tribune, recently returned from Iraq where he covered the trial of Saddam Hussein, was embedded with a US Army unit doing neighborhood patrols in Baghdad and wrote several articles about ordinary Iraqis dealing with the situation in their country.
2. “THE SENATE DFLers ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!”
For most of us, a restful and happy holiday season with friends and family ended last week. But for the Minnesota Senate and others who worship at the altar of cradle to grave governmental paternalism, Christmas morning is just around the corner. By introducing a slew of new and increased taxes, along with a bevy of low speed, high drag spending initiatives, the Senate majority wasted no time making their plans for the state very clear. Pucker up, Minnesota. Here comes a 3/8ths increase in the state sales tax, a dime bump in the gas tax, new vehicle registration fees, an optional county wheelage tax and another metro sales tax for transportation projects. Do you still hate George W. Bush?
3. The unstoppable force vs. the immovable object?
Last night, Governor Pawlenty spoke at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in St. Paul. While he addressed issues like education, energy and health care reform, of more importance was what he said afterwards: "We'll have a nice debate about what the priorities are but live within our means."
"Minnesota is not an undertaxed state. There is no way they [the DFL] need to raise taxes. The money on the table is enough."
"We can do this without disrupting the economic competitiveness of Minnesota."
Well, there you have it. Story #2 plus story #3 will definitely make for an interesting legislative session. Let’s just hope Governor Pawlenty has got a handful of veto pens at the ready.
4. A win for free speech and a slap at a Wisconsin legislator.
For those of you who don’t have to deal with its onerous regulations or have yet to live in fear of the political-speech “thought police”, the recent opening of a loophole in the practic knavery that is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) probably isn’t much of a reason to celebrate. Here at the Taxpayers League, we couldn’t be happier. “In a 2 to 1 ruling (and stating that the ads were not ‘electioneering communications’), the court found that the government had no compelling justification to regulate television ads such as the ones Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. broadcast in July 2004, which advocated stopping congressional filibusters against President Bush’s judicial nominees.” The ads, which were aired as Senator Russ Feingold (Socialist-WI) was running for re-election, didn’t mention Feingold’s record, but simply that voters should call their senators and complain. Rather than paraphrasing the rest of the story, read it here and then call the Federal Election Commission and tell them to appeal the pending cancellation of “The O.C.” rather than the judges' ruling to the Supreme Court: (800) 424-9530.
5. Sure. And those large men with the body armor and night sticks are your “camp counselors.”
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, handyperson extraordinaire and former Minneapolis City Councilman Dean Zimmerman is off to jail – but not, of course, until he holds a “last supper” for friends and supporters. Hold on to your friends, Dean, because you’ve already lost your grip on reality.
Still have some of that holiday cheer leftover? How about helping the Taxpayers League with a donation? It’s quick and safe and will definitely leave you with a warm feeling in your tummy. Or, think of it this way; you can pay us now, or you can pay the DFL later.
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's E Update is written by Mark Giga
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