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Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. David’s guests this week are Chris DeLaForest and Robert Murphy.
2. “YES, I'm still a Conservative, dammit!”
3. Comrades Lenczewski, Marquardt and Marx propose property tax reform.
4. One MOA try to build a parking ramp.
5. This little piggy went to market, this little piggy went to the Legislature.
1. The David Strom Show presented by the Minnesota Free Market Institute.
Tune in this Saturday to AM 1280 The Patriot at 9 am when David will be joined by Chris DeLaForest. DeLaForest, a third term representative from Andover, will comment on the DFLs recently released property tax reform proposal and give us the details about his plan: a Constitutional ban on property taxes.
At 10 am, David’s guest will be Robert Murphy, economist and author of The Politically Incorrect to Capitalism.
Also, be sure to tune in at 9:15 am for the Capitol report with Phil Krinkie.
And, you can catch Phil on KSTPs At Issue program this Sunday morning.
2. “YES, I'm still a Conservative, dammit!”
Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow present an evening with P.J. O’Rourke. Tuesday, April 29th – 7 pm, Northrop Auditorium, University of Minnesota.
With more than 1 MILLION words of trenchant journalism under his byline and more citations in the “Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations” than any other living writer, P.J. O'Rourke has established himself as America's premier political satirist. He is the best-selling author or 12 books, including Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, Eat the Rich and Peace Kills. Both Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal have labeled O'Rourke as “the funniest writer in America.” He is also the H.L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute.
3. Comrades Lenczewski, Marquardt and Marx propose property tax reform.
A lot of times when our legislature attempts to solve a problem we have to keep in mind the relative size of the problem compared to other states. The DFLs property tax proposal, released this week, is another example of a solution in search of problem. So when the Minnesota Taxpayers Association comes out with their annual 50-State Property Tax Comparison Study that shows that “Minnesota’s residential property taxes remain the lowest of the five surrounding states at most home values and are still below the U.S. average;” and, that “property taxes on a median-value home in Minneapolis climbed 1.9% but are still 6.8% below the national average for median value homes in the largest city in each state,” we hear instead that senior citizens are getting kicked out of their homes and left on the street.
Of course, the DFL interprets this to mean that a tax increase is needed for families whose incomes hit $150,000 a year. And any family earning more than $200,000 a year will lose any chance of a rebate – even the current income tax deduction for property taxes.
So there it is. Instead of forcing cities and counties to cut back on spending – which would then lead to lower levies – some in the legislature would rather buy-off small groups of taxpayers and leave the bill to others.
4. One MOA try to build a parking ramp.
Once again the Mall of America is asking state legislators for a subsidy to pay for a parking ramp for their expansion plans. Last year’s proposal was Old Yeller’d when Governor vetoed the Tax bill: this year’s proposal will hopefully meet a similar fate. But don’t take our word for it. Read what State Senator John Marty [DFL-Roseville] has to say about taxpayers picking up the tab for the benefit of a few developers:
“There are many urgent needs that deserve public funding, but a parking ramp for a shopping mall is not one of them. Yet the Senate tax bill contains provisions allowing for the use of local and metro-wide tax revenue to finance a $186 million parking ramp as part of a new ‘Phase II’ expansion of the Mall of America in Bloomington.
“Proponents of the parking ramp subsidy argue that this project will create construction jobs at a time when many construction workers are out of work. But we could create just as many construction jobs building schools, or libraries, or roads. In fact, we could create just as many jobs repairing or replacing bridges.” [ed. or cutting capital gains taxes.]
If that isn’t reason enough, when you factor in how Mall developers came to own the land in the first place, you’d think one instance of larceny was plenty. Marty continues:
“This is not the first time that taxpayers have subsidized the developers here. Several years ago, lobbyists for the MOA succeeded in pressuring politicians to essentially give them the valuable property north of the current Mall. The MOA traded it for a piece of real estate that they had previously purchased for one dollar. Taxpayers essentially gave this property to the developers for free, and now taxpayers are asked to pay $186 million to put a parking ramp on it.”
Not a bad history lesson.
5. This little piggy went to market, this little piggy went to the Legislature.
Just because Minnesota isn’t home to crooks like Jack Abramhoff doesn’t mean we don’t have our own problems with lobbyists and their filthy lucre sloshing through the halls of the State Capitol. While lobbyists here may hide behind a veneer of “Minnesota Nice,” when it comes to playing the game and greasing the legislative skids, Minnesota money can buy just as much as Washington, D.C. money. And looking at the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board’s 2007 expenditures reporting list, Minnesota money bought a lot in 2007 (or tried to buy a lot anyway). What do I mean by “tried to buy a lot?” Last year two administrative education interests in the top ten of lobbying expenditures (Education Minnesota and the Minnesota School Boards Association), spent over $2 million trying to influence legislative action. What did they get from their new liberal majority in the state house? Not much. And while 2008s lobbying expenditure bought (er, brought) a different result for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, in 2007 their $1.6 million probably didn’t get them much more than a few angry donors.
One more thing, go back and click on the link to the expenditures list and see how long it takes you to locate the first group that isn’t asking for a dime from state legislators. Then think about sending us a few dimes of your own to make up the difference.
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota's eUpdate is written by Mark Giga |
