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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. Taxpayers League Live! with David Strom.
2. Governor Pawlenty delivers his fifth State of the State address.
3. What ever happened to the kinder, more inclusive state senate?
4. Another loss for Minneapolis.
5. This is what you’re forced to do when the asylum is run by the inmates.
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 Laura McCallum, Craig Westover and Grover Norquist. McCallum, the education reporter at MPR, and Westover, a columnist at the Pioneer Press, will stop by to talk about Minneapolis’ other problem, failing schools and declining enrollment. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, will give us an update from Washington where the U.S. House yesterday voted to raise taxes for the first time in 13 years. Thirteen years.
2. Let’s just hope the Legislature follows his lead.
May and June (and sometimes July’s) inevitable political wrangling aside, one place Minnesota taxpayers have never been given the heave-ho is a Governor Pawlenty State of the State address. Whether it has been his declaration that Minnesota has an undeniable spending problem, his call for a TABOR-like cap on the growth of government, or his continued emphasis on paying for results (not good intentions) when it comes to education funding, Governor Pawlenty has always started the legislative session with a strong defense of Minnesota taxpayers. Here’s to hoping that a majority of legislators share the Governor’s best intentions.
3. Apparently answering tough questions isn’t part of a Majority Leader’s job.
Despite all the feel-good stories written about Minnesota’s new House and Senate leadership and their hope for peace and love in the valley, in practice not much has changed. One day the Senate offers a plethora of spending initiatives and tax increases and the next they give themselves a pay boost. Now maybe Senator Pogemiller’s patronizing tone and condescending attitude works well when he’s trying to explain something like this to his constituents, but you’d hope he’d take a different tack when addressing a colleague. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Take a look at these two pieces of video: one from January 16th and one from January 18th. On the 16th, skip ahead to 5 minutes and 15 seconds, and on the 18th, skip ahead to 3 minutes and 45 seconds. This folks, is what happens when an elected official can’t handle a little accountability.
4. Prepare for chaos on an unimaginable scale.
Citing disappointing sales and acknowledging Minneapolis’ ongoing crime problems, the Borders bookstore in Block E is moving out of downtown. Though copies of the local bestseller, How to Avoid Getting Shot in Downtown Minneapolis had been flying off the shelves in recent weeks, it was only a matter of time before folks on their lunch break were chased away by the packs of crazed Thomas Pynchon-totting bandits and kids hopped up on boutique doughnuts and biscotti.
5. Hopefully he’s got something planned for the universal heath care proposal, too.
In case you missed it (which you probably did, because when’s the last time you heard anything from Utah), here’s a story from last week’s Spokesman Review: “New Idaho Congressman Bill Sali proposed a bill Wednesday to combat obesity by reducing the Earth's gravity, saying that's no more unreasonable than the Democrats' legislation to increase the federal minimum wage. Both defy ‘natural laws,’ he said. ‘The well-intentioned desire to help the poor apparently will not be restrained by the rules and principles of the free market that otherwise do restrain American businesses and workers,’ Sali told the House of Representatives. ‘Apparently, Congress can change the rules that would otherwise affect the affairs of mankind.’”
Speaking of government accountability, anyone out there been struck down by the bird flu recently?
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's E Update is written by Mark Giga
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