Demogogma - Matt Entenza (DFL
Demogogma - Matt Entenza (DFL - St. Paul via Neptune) says GOP areas are getting lower property tax increases than DFL areas:
"A recent analysis of property-tax changes across the state shows an average statewide increase of 7.6 percent for homeowners, but House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, DFL-St. Paul, said the more telling information lies in the pattern of tax increases -- and decreases -- across Minnesota.
Displaying mockups of two actual property tax notices, Entenza noted at a news conference Thursday that the statement for a Woodbury homeowner showed a property-tax increase of 2.4 percent, while one for a Roseville homeowner registered at 15.4 percent.
Note to Rep. Entenza: displaying a mockup of a property tax
notice is incredibly misleading. It doesn't show the baseline from which the taxes were calculated.
Property taxes in Woodbury and Edina are already quite a bit higher than in Roseville, on average (and notice that the article doesn't mention whether Entenza discussed the actual valuation of the houses, or their current tax burden).
I'm not sure, but I'll bet that the Roseville home's overall taxes as a percentage of value (or, for that matter, income) are still equal to or lower than the ones in Woodbury.
And then we get to this little bon mot:
The data were compiled by the nonpartisan House research staffers.
What's with this "nonpartisan research staff" canard that the Strib pulls out whenever DFL legislators pull flattering numbers out of their assets - numbers that, inevitably, are delivered (or, to be fair, reported) without supporting figures, methodologies or details?
It was the "non-partisan Senate research staff" that generated Wes "Lying Sack of Filth" Skoglund's (DFL-Asylum) "...there will be 90,000 guns on the street" canard during the Concealed Carry debate.
Two questions about our legislative "research staffs":
- Non-partisan research staffs? Either they're civil service or govenrment employees - and we know where their union falls, politically - or they're appointees, which does not imply "non-partisanship".
- When will the press - or the public - start either demanding better from the legislative research staffs, or at least telling the whole story about them?
. Entenza wailed:
'When people find out that they're paying double-digit increases while their neighbor a few miles down the road is maybe getting a cut, they will be angry, and they have a right to be upset about that,' he said.
And if the absolute tax burdens shifted in the same way as the increases to the point of making the absolute tax burdens higher for lower-valued homes, then they'd have a point.
But I don't see any reference to absolute numbers in this story. And that, I suspect, means that Rep. Entenza (D - Demigoguery) presented any such thing.
The Strib snuck this in:
Although Entenza attempted to make the case that Republicans had 'rewarded their friends and punished their enemies,' that pattern does not fit completely. Many outstate Republican districts -- and even some fast-growing GOP suburbs -- fared poorly under last year's budget.
Austin, a city represented by first-term Republican Rep. Jeff Anderson, is at the top of the list, with an average residential property-tax increase of 43 percent. That includes proposed levy increases for school districts, the city and the county, Entenza said. Anderson could not be reached for comment on Thursday."
So could someone ask Entenza about property taxes on the Iron Range, which continue to hover below overall state rates?
Oh, wait - that's DFL turf...
Posted by Mitch at
December 12, 2003 05:18 AM
