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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. David’s guests this week are Mitch Berg and Mark Steyn.
2. You won’t have a job, but at least you’ll have a convention center.
3. Here’s your only chance to stop sales tax increases for transit spending.
4. “I will not be supporting a tax increase to get revenue into the system.”
5. Seminar One: You’ve finally got a grandchild – how to start nagging them for #2.
1. The David Strom Show presented by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.
Tune in this Saturday to AM 1280 The Patriot at 9 am when David will talk gun rights and self defense with NARN host Mitch Berg. Also on tap for the first hour will be a discussion of this week’s action on the House and Senate bonding bills.
At 10 am, David’s guest will be “The One-Man Global Content Provider,” Mark Steyn. Steyn, author of America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It, will talk about his book and the demographic decline of the Western world.
Also, be sure to tune in at 9:15 am for the Capitol report with Phil Krinkie. Up this week, bonding bills at the Capitol and endorsing conventions for three of the six Republican House members that helped override Governor Pawlenty’s veto of the Transportation bill.
2. You won’t have a job, but at least you’ll have a convention center.
I think the headline in Tuesday’s Star Tribune (unfortunately) said it best, “Higher education, outdoors, light rail top House bonding plan.” And with that, the House and Senate are ready to begin negotiating* the 2008 bonding bill. Despite five hours of debate on the House floor and a handful of amendments that sought to separate state needs from local wants, the billion dollar bonding billwas left largely intact and sent to the next step in the sausage creation process: the conference committee.
High on this year’s list of desperately needed capital investments was $11 million for gorilla and polar bear exhibits at the Como Zoo, $38 million for a convention center in Duluth and a nifty little shell game maneuver with the U of M that somehow sticks the State with the long term debt while the U gets the money for construction and yearly payments from taxpayers.
With little hope of House and Senate negotiators trimming their pork fantasies, it looks like fiscal responsibility will again rest with Governor Pawlenty’s veto pen. Here’s hoping (kind of in House Minority Leader Marty Seifert’s words) that the Governor launches a little guerilla warfare and cuts out the gorilla welfare in this bonding bill.
* I hope you all remember what happened the last time the House’s bonding bill went to conference committee. The final “negotiated” bill came back larger than either legislative body had originally passed. Think they can make it two in a row?
3. Here’s your only chance to stop sales tax increases for transit spending.
One of the most pernicious features of the recently passed Transportation bill is a county’s option to increase the sales tax by a ¼ cent; the proceeds from which will be used for transit spending. While people in Greater Minnesota will have the ability to vote on whether they want to increase their sales tax, the good folks in the Metro will have their ¼ cent added without the benefit of a referendum. But the situation isn’t completely hopeless. In order for any of the Metro County Commissions to impose the new tax, the board must pass a resolution authorizing the additional theft. A formal authorization means they have to take a vote. And having to take a vote means that your County Commissioners can’t wait to hear what you have to say on the matter (except if you live in Hennepin County and you’re represented by Peter McLaughlin – he’s already counting the money).
For our Metro friends, pick your county and start dialing:
Anoka County
Carver County
Dakota County
Hennepin County
Ramsey County
Scott County
Washington County
4. “I will not be supporting a tax increase to get revenue into the system.”
And that is all taxpayers need to know about the Governor’s plan for dealing with the state’s $935 million budget deficit. Other highlights of the Governor’s proposal include a statewide sales tax cut of 1/8th of a percent and reductions to most state agency budgets of 4%. The rest of the deficit is made up by using $250 million from the budget reserve and $250 million from the surplus in the Health Care Access Fund. But of course best of all it’s “no new taxes.”
5. Seminar One: You’ve finally got a grandchild – how to start nagging them for a second one.
Because government isn’t already involved enough in raising your children, Rep. Maria Rudd [DFL-Eden Prairie] has decided to take one more step down the “it takes a village” road by establishing a “kinship navigator program…for grandparents and relatives raising related children.”
Or, “How to be a grandparent because the kids you raised aren’t able to take care of their own.”
Folks, if you don’t think the next wave of liberal fascism is upon us, you need to start paying attention.
If you’ve got an idea for a stupid (or scary) bill of the week, please “reply” to this email and pass it along. Because the only thing better than doing the work yourself is having someone else do it for you.
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's eUpdate is written by Mark Giga
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