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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. The David Strom Show presented by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.
2. Minnesota’s special session comes and goes, but Washington’s pork keeps on rolling.
3. The September Shenanigan Watch: The City of Monticello.
4. Big Greed, Big Waste of Time, it’s the Big Ten Network.
5. Educational Entrepreneurship: A dinner forum from the Center of the American Experiment.
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 George Soule, an attorney at Bowman and Brooke and Minneapolis resident, who is part of “50 More Cops,” a bi-partisan campaign in the city of Minneapolis to hold Mayor R.T. Rybak accountable for promises he made to increase staffing levels in the Minneapolis Police Department.
2. Minnesota’s special session comes and goes, but Washington’s pork keeps on rolling.
If you didn’t notice, the Minnesota Legislature held a one day special session this week to provide relief to victims of the state’s most recent flood, drought, fire and flood. Details of the state’s relief package can found here while details of the private sector’s relief efforts can be found at Minnesotans Coming Together. While the session’s accomplishments weren’t particularly fiscally noteworthy, the work left “undone” was. Preceding, and right up to the start of the special session, many legislators were calling for what would have amounted to a second, regular legislative session. A new tax bill, another crack at a transportation bill, more money for schools, etc., etc., etc. I’ll admit that I was more than a little surprised at the lack of public chicanery, but that doesn’t mean liberals will scrap their plans entirely. In five short months the Legislature returns and then it’s back to work for all of us.
And, from the “Sometimes the Truth is Beyond Parody” department, Kevin Diaz in today’s StarTribune reports on the latest transportation funding package to come out of Washington:
“Bridges are aging and rusting all over the country, but if Congress has its way, Las Vegas will get a history museum out of the Senate-approved transportation and housing bill soon headed to President Bush.
“North Dakota will get $450,000 for its Peace Garden on the Canadian border, while Montana will see funding for a minor-league baseball stadium in Billings. So too will Minnesota get $250,000 in the House version -- for bike trails. [bolding adding for emphasis in case you only skim the E Update]
“The U.S. Senate bill does contain an extra $1 billion for bridge repair. But the amount set aside for pet transportation and community projects would be more than double that: In all, 843 new congressional "earmarks" totaling $2.5 billion.”
3. The September Shenanigan Watch: The City of Monticello.
For a long time – even before we found out that “compassionate conservatism” was just another phrase for “I have no principles and I’m just going to grow government at an enormous rate” – the Taxpayers League has spoken out against the rising crush of municipalities offering technology services to their residents. “Municipal broadband” schemes are quickly spreading throughout the country. The latest being Monticello’s plan that could cost taxpayers up $20 million to create a telephone exchange with the hope of then providing a newer, cheaper fiber optic cable system for Monticellists(?). The Taxpayers League is all for vox populi, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the track record of these kinds of projects isn’t good and taxpayers need to understand this. The technology changes too fast, there are too many opportunities for sweetheart deals with fly-by-night service providers and, the mother of all reasons: what is government doing trying to provide a service the private sector is already taking care of? In Monticello the vote is on Tuesday. Good luck taxpayers.
4. Big Greed, Big Waste of Time, it’s the Big Ten Network.
The most recent object of my personal scorn is the just-launched Big Ten Network (BTN). Devised as an opportunity for Big Ten schools to showcase all the glory and pageantry of college athletics, what it has actually become is a black hole of greed and lousy programming. All of which is made worse by the fact that the Big Ten is trying to force Comcast to add BTN to its basic cable packages and pass the additional cost on to consumers. The thing is, the only football games BTN gets (and will ever get) are clash of the titan slugfests like Minnesota vs. Sister Mary’s School for the Blind. All the good schools already have contracts to appear on national TV; ABC, FSN and ESPN – and that’s not going to change. So, state-funded institutions like the U of M are trying to sell back to us a product that we as taxpayers already own. I sincerely wish Tim Brewster and his lads my very best. But there’s no way I’m paying a dime to watch a football team that’s almost as bad as Michigan.
And if they mess with Gopher Hockey, so help me…
5. Educational Entrepreneurship: A dinner forum from the Center of the American Experiment.
Please join the Center of the American Experiment for a dinner forum with Dr. Frederick Hess – a past guest on David’s radio show and director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Hess will talk about how school choice advocates have "long operated in the hope that it would spur districts to dramatically improve." Or failing that, they've assumed choice would "summon forth a wealth of impressive new providers." Yet despite a "variety of promising sparks," he contends, "neither expectation has been met." Why? According to Dr. Hess, debate over choice has failed to recognize that "consumer freedom is only half the market equation." Or more to the point, "demand unanswered by a supply-side response will not deliver hoped-for school improvements."
He will argue for a "supply-side strategy," one in which "entrepreneurial problem-solvers" are better positioned to take good ideas to scale.
The dinner forum is on Tuesday, September 18 at the Double Tree Park Place Hotel in St. Louis Park with a cocktail hour beginning at 6pm. To register online, click here or contact Peter Zeller at peter [dot] zeller [at] americanexperiment [dot] org.
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's E Update is written by Mark Giga
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