Anybody heard from Minnesota’s legislative candidates?

by Phil Krinkie

For months now the air waves have been filled with hype and hyperbole from Minnesota’s gubernatorial candidates explaining how they’re going to come up with billions in revenue the state badly needs.

Their positions range from “tax the rich” to “redesigning government” to “expanding the tax base.” The verbal exchange seems to be endless.

And the three major candidates for governor have certainly made themselves available for numerous debates across the state, from Farm Fest, to Nisswa and back to General Mills-logging more hours in front of a microphone than Jerry Lewis during his annual Labor Day weekend telethon.

But something has been missing from the current public policy debates. Give up? I’m talking about the candidates who actually get to vote on proposed budget solutions-the legislators.

Reason #1: "Read My Lips."

Dim lights

Reason #2: "Your Taxes Won't Increase by a Dime."

Dim lights

Reason #3: "The Democratic caucus is fiscally conservative and does not plan any major tax increases." Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL- Minneapolis, in a 2006 interview with the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.

Following her comments, Kelliher went on to vote in favor of increased income taxes, alcohol taxes and supported a surtax on certain interest income.

She voted to raise taxes by $6.6 billion, including a number of transportation taxes: a gas tax, sales tax, excise tax and car license tax.

Kelliher also supported the constitutional amendment which raised the sales tax in Minnesota.

More to come...

Mark Dayton: The Tax Man should face tax reality

by Phil Krinkie

With all the news channels running fact checks on the validity of campaign ads that have bombarded our TVs, I thought it was time to run a campaign reality check on DFL candidate for governor, Mark Dayton. Not so much to measure the true vs. false, but rather the actual potential for effective execution.

Do I believe that Dayton wants to “tax the rich” and increase personal income taxes by $4 billion? Yes, I believe that’s true.

Legislators - Stay Out of the Kitchen

By: Phil Krinkie

 Too many cooks in the kitchen will spoil the broth, We have all heard the saying that teaches us the importance of respecting roles and responsibilities, but it seems as though lawmakers ignored this principle while working on the recipe for growing Minnesota's economy. Two recent events in Minnesota point to a troublesome trend in the legislative process.  The two events that have filled the blogs and the tabloids are the Twin Cities nurses’ strike and the latest political flap over the tip credit.  The first question you may be asking is what do these two stories have in common?  The response is simple – they have to do with employee compensation, and government regulation of the workplace.  

It seems that all the commonly talked about issues of state spending, health care, education and taxes sometimes overshadow the fact that government plays an ever increasing role in mandating what happens in the workplace.  As an employer for the past 30 years, this is a topic that I have some first hand knowledge of. 

2010 Taxpayer Protection Pledge

In the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire,” Oscar-nominated actor Tom Cruise played the part of Jerry Maguire, a highly successful agent for professional athletes. At the outset of the film Maguire has a revelation that what his firm should do is represent fewer clients with larger contracts.

As the plot develops, he writes a memo to his colleagues in which he coins the phrase “fewer clients, more money.” This appears similar to the philosophy of Tom Dooher, president of Education Minnesota, the state’s teachers union: “Fewer students, more money.”

Today, Minnesota’s measurement of the number of students attending public schools (the average daily membership, or ADM) is almost 20,000 fewer students than just 10 years ago. However, the total spending for K-12 education in Minnesota has increased by $2 billion dollars since 2001. This represents a 2 percent decline in enrollment and a 36 percent increase in cost — “fewer students, more money,” indeed.

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 is one major difference, Minnesota's professional wrestler turned Governor has moved on. But everything from the headlock to the body slam seemed to be 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 Governor Pawlenty from the outset.
This years legislative grudge match actually started at the end of the 2009 session when Governor Pawlenty balanced the state budget by making $2.7 billion in budget cuts without consulting DFL leadership or calling a special legislative session.
Even though the animosity started with the $2.7 billion in budget reduction it quickly expanded to a $380 million veto of funding for the General Assistance Medical Care program.