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#1 The 2010 Legislative Session grudge match
#2 The Minneapolis School Board need a math lesson
#3 Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
#4 An either or tax proposal
#5 Legacy for One Billionaire: Death, but no Taxes
#1 The 2010 Legislative Session grudge match
Watching the 2010 session from the cheap seats was more like watching the legislative version of the World Wrestle Entertainment "Smackdown" event. Of course, there's one major difference: Jesse Ventura, Minnesota's professional-wrestler-turned-governor, has moved on.
Or so we thought.
Everything from the headlock to the body-slam was in vogue during the annual gathering under the capitol dome this year. The DFL-controlled legislature seemed intent to smackdown every proposal put forward by GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty from the outset.
Click here to find out who won the 2010 legislative smackdown event
#2 The Minneapolis School Board need a math lesson.
The Minneapolis school board approved a three-year contract with new district Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson that will pay her $190,000 per year -- plus up to an additional $30,000 in bonus pay. The Minneapolis school board is facing a $19 million deficit for the upcoming school year and plans on closing three schools displacing 20 percent of the districts students to help fill the budget gap. You would never know the tough economic climate by looking at the new Superintendent's contract. Johnson will receive a $400 monthly car allowance, severance equal to three months' pay, 12 sick days, 28 vacation days and up to $30,000 in bonus pay.
Find out if your tax dollars are going to the students or the superintendent here
#3 Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
DFL candidates for governor,Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Mark Dayton and Matt Entenza all agree taxes should be raised, but the surprise is just how and where they plan to raise your taxes.
Watch out retieres, Dayton plans to hunt snowbirds that avoid Minnesota taxes if they live in another state for most of the year. "I know where that money is. I know who has it. And I will get it, if I'm your governor," Dayton said.
Kelliher agrees that people earning more than $250,000 are currently not paying their fair share of income taxes, and she wants to make changes in the system and Entenza is proposing to collect state sale taxes from Internet purchases.
Read about more surprises the DFL candidates are planning for the taxpayers here
#4 An either or tax proposal
Fergus Falls city council scores a hat trick with plans of a sales tax increase, property tax increase and vehicle tax. After the city council rejected a petition advocating for a referendum on authorizing the Port Authority to issue bonds for an ice arena they presented a "pick your poison" kind of solution alternative. They are offering the citizens the option to choose to fund the arena with a tax increase of their choice. Voters can choose between a sales tax increase or a property tax increase to raise four million to fund the new ice arena.
The city council plans a power play to levy an automobile tax of $20 per vehicle and hopes to spread the tax burden people who live outside of the city limits who will benefit from the arena.
Get the full play by play here
#5 Legacy for One Billionaire: Death, but no Taxes
The late Dan Duncan, a Texas pipeline tycoon may become the first American billionaire allowed to pass his fortune to his children and grandchildren tax-free due to an oversight by Democrats in Congress.
The one-year lapse in the estate tax was signed into law in 2001, and although Democrats pledged to close that gap and reinstate a tax for 2010 when they took control of Congress, they failed to reach an agreement last December. The Senate Finance Committee is now scrambling to reinstate the death tax, but even if that effort succeeds, it is unclear whether any changes might be retroactive and applied to those who have died so far in 2010.
Could your estate be subject to a federal tax of 55 percent?
Find out here
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