The End of Pax Colemania

For 11 years - since former Democrat Norm Coleman was first elected mayor - the St. Paul city government has held off on tax increases. Coleman, and his conservative Democrat successor Randy Kelly, have managed to veto or fight off every successive DFL attempt to hike taxes.

But now that Kelly has broken ranks with the DFL - the big rank, by endorsing George W. Bush for president - the Kathleen Soliah wing of the St. Paul DFL has got to react.

And they are.

The PiPress notes:

St. Paul should raise an additional $1 million from property owners next year, the City Council said Wednesday, as it threatened to end an 11-year streak of flat taxes.

"It's an extremely modest proposal," said 4th Ward City Council Member Jay Benanav. "It really only addresses public safety, kids and seniors. I think this 2 percent increase is extremely modest. … Anything less doesn't provide our citizens with the public safety or recreational services they need."

Read between the lines.

Randy Kelly is an East Side DFLer - read "Union Guy".

Jay Benanav - my "representative" at the City Council in the same sense that Betty McCollum, Ellen Anderson and Mark Dayton are, a man so far to the left he'd embarass Paul Wellstone - represents the preening, Volvo-driving, Kathleen-Soliah-supporting, "No Blood for Oil", male-ponytail-wearing, Highland Park wing of the DFL.

This proposed tax hike is a payoff to the St. Paul public employees unions to break ranks with Mayor Kelly.

He was joined by Council Members Dave Thune, Lee Helgen and Kathy Lantry in a narrow 4-3 vote to set a maximum $53,389,883 levy for the city. It is the first — but not final — step toward a historic tax increase.

But the main hurdle will remain high: Mayor Randy Kelly vowed again Wednesday to veto the hike, and the council clearly does not have enough votes to override Kelly next week, the legal deadline for setting local taxes.

And Benanav, Helgen, Thune and Lantry know it, and knew it all along.

Expect to see "Fire trucks, kids and the elderly" used a a cudgel over Kelly's head all autumn, as the DFL tries to exact its pound of flesh for Kelly's apostasy.

And look for Kelly to hang tight, and work to bring out the people he must be banking on - St. Paul's influx of non-union, younger, non-government-employed residents, and the Asian immigrant community, which is traditionally DFL but certainly a candidate for conversion.

Will it be enough to keep Kelly in the mayor's office?

Well, if I have anything to say about it it will.

"A property tax increase is absolutely unnecessary," Kelly said at a briefing after the council vote. "We increase revenue in the '05 budget, which is enough to meet the public priorities without raising property taxes."

Posted by Mitch at September 9, 2004 07:01 AM | TrackBack