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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. Taxpayers League Live! with David Strom.
2. And so it begins.
3. One man’s “increased compliance” is another man’s pain in the a**.
4. I was hoping to take at least a week off from this, but…
5. “Achievement Gaps: What Will It Take to Close Them?”
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 Rick Morgan and Mark Buesgens. Morgan, Managing Partner at the law firm of Bowman and Brooke, will join David and Margaret to talk about the just completed Scooter Libby trial. For the second hour, Buesgens, a fifth term state legislator from Jordan, will give us his thoughts on Representative Mindy Greiling’s$252 million tax increase, and why throwing more money at schools won’t get you any better results.
Also, be sure not to miss Phil Krinkie’s weekly legislative roundup at 10:05 am.
2. Are you ready to pay for a better Minnesota?
Less than one week after the state’s updated revenue forecast came back with the same $2.1 billion budget surplus that we had a few months ago, Rep. Greiling has thrown down the gauntlet and proposed the session’s first confiscatory income tax increase. The tax hike, which would hit up 170,000 tax filers and inhale $252 million by increasing the top tax bracket from the current 7.85% to 8.5% (which would give us the 7th highest income tax bracket in America – including Washington, D.C.), would kick in at $70,000 for single filers and $124,000 for a married couple. Said Greiling during her press conference this week, “Schools should be our top priority, and our parents are willing to pay for them.” Which is kind of strange, because when thousands of parents all over the state had the opportunity to raise their own taxes in November to pay for our top priority, the overwhelming choice was to say “no.” But elections and democracy be damned, coercion is here to save the day.
3. I wonder how many small-business owners are on the Taxes Committee?
It can’t be many. Because when legislators start throwing around words like “increased tax compliance,” small-business owners have to know that a Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse-type plague is about to descend on their front door. That’s why Monday’s hearing in the House Taxes committee was so scary. A bill, sponsored by Committee Chair Ann Lenczewski, would seek to bring in an additional $200 million to the state by increasing the Department of Revenue’s number of auditors and collectors (more than 300 full-time employees according to Revenue Commissioner Ward Einess). Of course those sponsoring the legislation make it sound like they just want to go after tax cheats, but when you start with a predetermined number of dollars you’re trying to reach, you can’t tell me those auditors aren’t going to start going above and beyond the call of duty to make sure they hit their quota.
4. “Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in.”
Though our friends at the Legislature have seen fit to provide us with a plethora of stupid bills on a regular basis, I’ve only got the strength for two this week.
First up, HF 318 – commission on Minnesota Ethnic Heritage established, and money appropriated. Right off the bat, I see a couple of problems with this. First, isn’t this what groups like the Sons of Norway, Nephews of the Kaiser and Daughters of the Potato King are for? And second, the last thing we want to see is Minnesota’s different ethnicities declaring open warfare in the streets because some bureaucrat with a blatant anti-Finnish bias decides that St. Urho’s Day isn’t worthy of “official” recognition. That’s not what we want to see at all.
Lastly, HF 1385 - state flag design task force established. Apparently there is a strong undercurrent of legislative support for ditching our current flag (here) and motto ("L'etoile du Nord," which in the original French means, “I’m tired of walking so I’m stopping here”), and coming up with something new. Which is fine, I guess. This would be my suggestion.
5. A luncheon forum sponsored by the Center of the American Experiment.
Please join the Center of the American Experiment for a luncheon forum where Paul Peterson will talk about the profound importance of reducing achievement gaps in communities like the Twin Cities -- where they're larger than virtually anyplace in the nation. What's been tried and what needs trying next? Professor Peterson has edited and written two invaluable books in the last few years. In Generational Change: Closing the Test Score Gap, he said this about No Child Left Behind: "The law does not hold students accountable for their own performance. NCLB instead reinforces the image that students are objects to be manipulated, not people who need to acquire a sense of discipline, responsibility, and self-respect." And in The Education Gap: Vouchers and Urban Schools (co-authored with William G. Powell), he concluded: "Voucher interventions that serve African American students seem particularly promising."
A native of Montevideo, Minnesota, Dr. Peterson is Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and Director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard.
Click here to register online.
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's E Update is written by Mark Giga
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