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May 09, 2005

Another Minnesota Poll

A Minnesota Poll that happens to support exactly what the DFL and their minions in the Twin Cities media want?

Who'da thunk it?

Shockingly, the Minnesota Poll shows that Minnesotans favor protecting their pet programs by compelling other people to pay for them

Most Minnesotans would balance the state budget through a combination of tax increases, spending cuts and fee increases, and most also support raising money for the state through a new casino at the Canterbury Park racetrack, a new Minnesota Poll has found.

The poll also found that if Minnesota must raise revenue, a boost in the price of cigarettes and a tax increase on the state's wealthiest residents are the favorite choices.

Unreported: A poll of wealthy gambling addicts who smoked more than two packs of cigarettes a day shows nearly universal support for taxing poor teetotalers.
The poll of 832 Minnesota adults from April 30 to May 4 found that a slight majority, 53 percent, would balance the state budget through a combination of tax increases, spending cuts and fee increases. But 39 percent side with Gov. Tim Pawlenty in opposing any statewide tax increases, up from the 30 percent who took that position in January.
According to the Minnesota Poll, Governor Moe replaced Governor Skip Humphrey, and Walter Mondale is our junior senator.

Seriously - this blog (and especially Powerline have made great sport over the years of hammering the ludicrous, almost random level of accuracy in the Minnesota Poll; if the poll says the margin for raising taxes is 53-39, figure it's closer to 47-45. That guess is both completely unsubstantiated and something I'll completely stand behind.

Assuming the state chose to seek new revenue, 29 percent would most prefer to raise the state's cigarette tax, which now ranks 37th in the nation. The most common proposal at the Legislature in recent years has been for a $1-per-pack increase.

Another 28 percent would raise income taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans.

Gambling expansion was a distant third among revenue raisers at 19 percent, followed by 9 percent who favored expanding the sales tax to untaxed goods and services.

Other results: 2.2% were Metro Transit users who favored raising the gas tax to $2/gallon. .64% were Orthodox Jews who supported taxing those worthless reform meshugahs. 0.44% were members of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, who favored "taxing whitey's a** back to the stone age".

In reading about this next guy, I have to wonder - is there a casting agency in the Cities somewhere that finds examples of "Republicans" who are also conveniently pro-tax, pro-choice, anti-gun and pro-big-government to feed to media figures for these sorts of stories?

Dan Monson, who owns a pet shop in Robbinsdale, said the state needs more money and should get it from the rich. "It's the old cop-out, I suppose," Monson said with a chuckle. "Raise the taxes on the people who have the most. ... I just think everybody should pay their fair share." [
  • "Unlike me. I'm paying my share. Have you seen my taxes? Criminy. No, we should sock it to the rich - meaning people who make more than I do. While I, myself, am definitely paying my fair share, people who make more than me certainly are not. I'm sure of this." --Ed]

    Monson, who said he tends to vote Republican [!!!], said his least favorite vehicle for raising additional state funds is any expansion of gambling. "The poor hurt the most because of a casino. They always feel they're going to get rich, and they spend more than they should."

  • "Tax the rich, because the poor are too stupid and that'd make me feel bad"?
    House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said that while polls "have their place," legislators can see consequences that individual citizens sometimes overlook. "I see significant opposition to increasing tax burdens, but not as great as the support for a combination approach. That's something to consider. But I suspect that if people knew the House was prepared to increase spending by about $2 billion, that would change the flavor of the response."
    Well, of course we have no idea what the poll questions were.

    It'd be interesting to ask the same respondents "If you had to raise your own taxes 5% to pay for the new DFL budget, would you?"

    Any guesses on how this poll would have turned out?

    Sviggum said he was not surprised that the top three choices for increasing revenue were the cigarette tax, a tax on the wealthy and gambling. "The choice is always to tax somebody else," he said.

    But Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said he sees more at work than a simple desire to tax someone else. As budget cuts have begun to take a toll on schools, he said, "this is translating for people into, 'My child's getting cheated.' That's where people draw the line."

    Of course, they should draw the line at asking "why are other people in a position to "cheat" my child", but that's another thread.

    Posted by Mitch at May 9, 2005 05:05 AM | TrackBack
    Comments

    Their afternoon update and teaser for tomorrow's paper says that the next bit to be released from the latest Poll is "on gay marriage." Anybody care to guess how it will be tilted to show opposition to the Bachmann "definition of marriage" amendment while still reporting (in the background, natch) the widespread anti-gay-marriage climate in most of MN?

    (FWIW, I'd prefer to take the government out of marriage...)

    Posted by: Steve Gigl at May 9, 2005 04:34 PM

    Whoops, color me surprised: http://startribune.com/stories/784/5394483.html

    Posted by: Steve Gigl at May 10, 2005 07:28 AM

    OH, you're one of THOSE people... I see...

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