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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. The David Strom Show presented by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.
2. If I had more faith in our legislature I would have wished for a larger deficit for Christmas.
3. What does Speaker Kelliher have in common with Thomas Hobbes?
4. This is starting to get weird. My new hero is Whoopi Goldberg.
5. How to properly send a fundraising request to your email list.
1. The David Strom Show presented by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.
Tune in this Saturday to AM 1280 The Patriot from 9 – 11 am when David will be joined by during the second hour by Mitch Pearlstein, president and founder of the Center of the American Experiment. During the first hour, David and Margaret will discuss recent developments in international politics and economics; specifically the recent “elections” in Venezuela (which the Star Tribune went out on a limb and described as “a reason for concern”) and the importance of free market reforms in other countries.
2. If I had more faith in our legislature I would have wished for a larger deficit for Christmas.
Year upon year of financial mismanagement, reckless spending and failure to properly “invest” in our children have resulted in a nearly apocalyptic budget deficit of $373 million (or, less than 1% of the state’s $55 billion biennial budget – and what Minnesota DFLers are describing as the worst fiscal crisis since the “Great Depression” was still known as the “Moderate Economic Downturn”).
Predictably, DFLers immediately called for a special session that they said would have been focused on passage of a bonding bill to stimulate the economy and create jobs. But as we all know they were just looking for another excuse to get in the door and raise taxes (Minnesota has a surplus, the DFL says raise taxes. Minnesota has a deficit, the DFL says raise taxes).
Anyway, back to the November revenue forecast. Sure, Minnesota’s economy is slowing and will probably see a few more quarters of economic growth falling somewhere below the Mendoza line. But does that mean we should raise taxes on businesses to try and make up the shortfall – particularly when less-than-predicted corporate tax receipts are the primary reason why the Finance Department is forecasting a deficit in the first place?
At least the Governor has correctly analyzed the situation: “The answer is not more spending and more taxes. The DFL believes you stimulate the economy by spending more on government programs and buildings. I believe you stimulate the economy by putting more money into the pockets of Minnesota families.” Dare I say that our Governor is sounding downright Churchillian?: “A nation trying to tax itself into prosperity is like a man trying to lift himself out of a bucket by its handle.”
Of course, Phil predicted this would happen (the DFLs reaction to the November forecast, not the Governor’s response).
3. What does Speaker Kelliher have in common with Thomas Hobbes?
As mentioned above, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller (DFL- Fantasy Land) and Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson-Kelliher (DFL-Murderapolis), both bemoaned the Governor’s refusal to call a special session to pass a bonding bill (and raise taxes). This week, the Pioneer Press gave us a preview of what that bonding bill may look like. Among the items that make up the nearly $4 billion in requests are renovations to the James J. Hill House (which I’m pretty sure is visited only by 6th graders on field trips), $450,000 for the Lower Afton Trail extension (isn’t this why our roads are in the shape they’re in?), $5 million to turn the former Hamm’s Brewery into an Asian Pacific Cultural Center (they can have the money if promise to start making beer again) and an early entry for “Boondoggle of the Year” $1.5 million for a permanent snowmaking system in Battle Creek Park that would help make Minnesota “America’s No. 1 Nordic ski destination” (I can’t wait until the legislative session starts in February so I see which one of these geniuses authored this appropriation. You have got to be kidding me. A million and a half for a snowmaking machine? Look outside your window. My lousy back is killing me from having to shovel three times in the last six days and some legislator wants a snowmaking machine? At this point in my life, I generally assume most elected officials can be located on the political honesty continuum somewhere between Huey Long and Caligula, so this shouldn’t surprise. But for some reason this particular piece of pork makes me absolutely irate. Stay tuned. I’m not done with BCPs snowmaking machine.)
So what does Speaker Kelliher have in common with Thomas Hobbes (who died this week in 1679)? Hopefully, like life in the state of nature, her speakership will be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
4. This is starting to get weird. My new hero is Whoopi Goldberg.
When I think of the TV show The View, I’m generally inclined to think that Saturday Night Live’s parody of Barbara Walters’ description pretty much hits the nail on the head: “I always wanted to do a show with women of different genewations, backgwounds and views: a working mom, a sassy black woman like I've seen on TV and a total idiot.”
And so, everything I though I knew about daytime television appears to be wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present you Whoopi Goldberg: “death” tax opponent and espouser of common sense.
5. How to properly send a fundraising request to your email list.
This holiday season, as you’re eye-gouging Mrs. Petermann for that last pair of leather gloves or clandestinely adding another bottle of Rum to the egg nog in the hope that Grandma will forget to tell the family about her most recent trip to Branson, please remember that the Taxpayers League needs your help (and not your moral support, we’ve got enough of that already). Consider sending the Taxpayers League a contribution. Or think of it this way: you can pay the Taxpayers League now, or the liberals later. Because paying for this kind of advertising gets expensive.
[And we promise not to share your information with the Secretary of State.]
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's eUpdate is written by Mark Giga
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