In the debate at Hamline University, there was an interesting exchange between Republican Candidate Jeff Johnson and Governor Mark Dayton.

You can download a copy of the 2014 Scorecard here. 

This year’s scorecard is the Taxpayer’s League’s 18^th annual edition.  The scorecard features more high scoring legislators, which is good, although it’s a pattern we’ve seen in election years.  In all, 21 legislators are featured on our cover with a breakdown as follows: 

• 5 legislators were named “Best Friend of the Taxpayer.” (4 House members and 1 Senator)
• 16 legislators were named “Friend of the Taxpayer.” (10 House members and 6 Senators)

A “Best Friend of the Taxpayer” award is given to legislators who scored 100% on the scorecard of that year AND signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. A “Friend of the Taxpayer” awardee  scored 100% on the Scorecard.

These are the lifetime scores as of the 2013 scorecard.  The 2014 Scorecard will be out soon.  See the chart below.

The news about medical device giant Medtronic participating in a merger of sorts rocked the Twin Cities over the weekend.  All protestations by the company and the Dayton administration to the contrary, their corporate move to Dublin, Ireland, which will doubtless have an impact on their giant footprint in the twin cities and will also mean the loss of corporate tax revenue.  The statements about Medtronic “making investments” in technology over the next 10 years should be taken for what they are, attempts to paper over what is going to be a period of transition while Medtronic consolidates a new, more international identity.   Suddenly the tax policies of one state don’t matter except to the politicians who were counting on the revenues.

The current North Suburban Communications Commission (NSCC) proposal has focused on securing even more money for operations.  A Commission proposal to raise fees in the 10 member cities from $4.15 to $7.57 per customer/per month for the next 10 years is being discussed by your city councils in the next few weeks.  These fees are in addition to the 5% of subscriber’s bills that is federally mandated. Yes, these fees go to “cable access” for broadcasting local government meetings and community events.  We applaud that these proceedings are openly available to citizens without their having to attend, but in the age of YouTube and UStream and with Satellite (which does not have to pay franchise fees) why are fees growing 82% for this service? 

Yes, today is Tax Freedom day in Minnesota, the day that you can stop working for the state and federal government and start working for yourself.  Minnesota’s Tax Freedom day is the 5^th latest state tax freedom day in the country. 

 The Tax Freedom Days of neighboring states are:

• South Dakota, April 4th (ranked 3rd earliest nationally).
• Iowa, April 13th (ranked 19th earliest nationally);
• North Dakota, April 25th (ranked 9th latest nationally); and
• Wisconsin, April 22nd (ranked 13th latest nationally);

We get it all the time. “How are you going to score this vote?” This time it was the bill which included “tax conformity” making state tax policy square with federal tax policy so that Minnesotans paying taxes next month don’t find themselves with higher tax burdens due to credits and other provisions yanked out in last year’s Taxapalooza Bill HF 677.  This is the infamous bill that not only removed credits important to families like the adoption tax credit but also gave us the warehouse tax, other business to business taxes and also the strikingly lavish $90M Senate Office building.

HF 1777 repealed some of those onerous taxes and will lift some of the pain on individuals, businesses and families. Is it enough? No. But it is a start.

It’s time once again for the annual Tax Cut Rally, Minnesota’s largest gathering of conservative activists!

The Tax Cut Rally has been a Minnesota tradition for over 15 years. In recent years, we’ve expanded the Tax Cut Rally into an issues fair and the undisputed largest annual gathering of conservative activists in Minnesota. We hope to keep building on that success, but there are new challenges this year. Half of the Capitol’s Upper Mall is now a parking lot while numerous construction projects are underway. We’re proceeding, regardless! It should be the most newsworthy rally, ever, in fact, because of the new challenges. Be there for this historic event.

This bill was debated and passed in the Minnesota House this week. We will be scoring it negatively (A YES is bad, a A NO is good) in our 2014 scorecard. We’re doing this for the simple reason that we thought last year’s spending was too much and now here comes MORE spending that is being spent simply because State government has it. And it has it because it over taxed Minnesotans.

Campaign season is upon us.  Candidates are being endorsed by political parties and local conventions are being held.
 
You'll hear speeches and read letters from candidates for state offices.  When you are asking candidates about their stands on the issues don't forget to ask them the simple question that reveals how they feel about growing government versus growing the economy, growing government programs vs. growing private sector prosperity, enlarging the social welfare bureaucracy vs. helping families.
 
Ask them if they will pledge to vote to oppose any tax increase. With over a billion dollar surplus generated by the Dayton Administration Tax increases, this should be an easy promise to make.
 
Some candidates may promise to cut taxes, or to cut spending and taxes. We applaud any candidate who pledges to do more than oppose tax increases.
 
We've included a downloadable copy of the taxpayers protection pledge (below) and if your candidate will sign it, you or they can email us a picture to [email protected] or tweet it to @taxpayersleague. We will verify all pledges we receive with the candidate.
 
If the candidate tells you "they don't sign pledges" just ask them the question, "will you promise not to raise taxes?" Record their answer and send it to us, and we will collect the responses from candidates for office from around the state. If you send us video or audio, we'll post it. If you quote them, we'll verify it.
 
If you, yourself are a candidate, you may sign the pledge and send it directly or use any of the means just listed to transmit it to us.
 

PDF copy of the pledge for Minnesota (Non-Federal) candidates.