This post is for conservative Minnesota voters.  People in other states, and Minnesotans in the “Fantasy-based community”, can skip down a notch.

Question for all of you:  Representative King Banaian – not to mention the other three Republicans who voted “no” on the GOP budget bill in the House last week – is not talking to me at this exact moment, so I didn’t just ask him or anything – but do any of you actually believe that, had the votes not been there to pass the House GOP’s budget-slashing proposal without it, that Rep. Banaian wouldn’t have voted for it?

If so, why?

And before answering that, make sure you read HF2, which he introduced, a bill intended to bring genuine conservative fiscal common sense to government.  And make sure you understand it.

Then bag on King’s conservative cred.

But you gotta go through me first.

Remember last session’s’ spending debate?

When the DFL – which had a crushing majority in the Minnesota State House, pushed through a massive $435 million dollar tax hike.

They squeedged the increase through on a couple of very close votes; the final vote in the House was 71-63.  Bear in mind that the DFL controlled 87 seats up until this month.  Tha’ts 87/47 in favor of the DFL; almost, but not quite, veto-proof.

And in the Minnesota Senate?  Much worse; the DFL  had a 47-21 veto-proof majority in the Senate.

So when it came time for up-and-down votes on the Dems’ pet tax proposal, you’d think – given not only the DFL’s fabled unity, but the power of the mandate with which they’d been sent to Saint Paul to refudiate the Pawlenty government the previous fall, that the votes in favor of the bill might have been 87/47 in the House (or maybe 93/44, given the power of the “moderate Republicans”), and 47/21 in the Senate.

To have performed any worse would certainly have been a sign that the DFL was splintering under the pressure of working with their mandate.

Right?

Well, of course it didn’t work out that way.  The DFL carried the bill through the House by 71.  Sixteen DFLers crossed over to vote against the bill.

And before that?  In an epic bit of political theater, the Senate had to do all but send the Mounties out to find Tarryl Clark to drag her into the Senate chamber to get the bill passed by one vote.  A total of twelve DFL senators crossed over to vote against the bill.

And this, at the height of the post-Obama afterglow.  When people seemed Happy To Pay For A Better Minnesota.  Less than a month after the first appearance of the Tea Party, when it still seemed (because the media was trying to paint it)  like a fringe-y little brushfire.

Quiz Question:  Did this loss of 16 votes in the House, and 12 in the Senate, mean that…:

a) The DFL was fragmenting?: The DFL legislators saw the Tea Party rallies, three weeks early, anticipated the upcoming summer of anger at the Obamacare Town Halls, and were consumed with a wave of originalist fervor, which Larry Pogemiller and Margaret Anderson Kelliher managed to hold together by only the barest of margins, in an epic feat of legislative engineering?

b) That was the plan?: Some DFLers from outstate and outer-tier suburban districts felt nervous about piling taxes on their already-disgruntling districts; they made their reservations known to their caucus’  House and Senate leadership, which did the math – not only for the bill, but for the next round of elections.  They figured out how many votes were safe, not only for the bill, but for future elections; they realized that some DFLers  – especially some of the ones that had just won squeaker elections in the previous two cycles  in usually-GOP-districts – were going to need to be able to deny association with the bill to their voters.  The did the math, and made sure they had the votes to both pass the bills and give their more potentially-vulnerable members the out they knew they were going to need?

Answer? B, mostly; of course there were DFLers who had objections – but for the most part,notwithstanding the media’s push to impart drama on the proceedings,  the votes came as no surprise to anyone in legislative leadership.

Of course, drama sells newspapers.

Last week, the House voted on the GOP’s billion dollar budget cut bill.  And the regional DFL and media (pardon the redundancy) hopped around like a toddler who’d just made a good pants – because four Republicans broke with the GOP.

Doug Grow wrote about it at the Minnpost:

Republican legislative leaders quickly are learning that it’s easier to hold the caucus together when they’re in the minority rather than the majority.

On the first big economic vote of the still-new session, four Republicans joined a united DFL minority in opposing a $1 billion budget-cutting bill that Republican leadership claimed was the “easy part” of cutting into the state’s $6.2 billion deficit.

Well, actually, there were 3.5 Republicans joining the DFL in opposing the bill. Freshman Rep. Rich Murray voted for the budget cuts but then, after voting had closed, switched to vote against the measure, which passed 68-63.

The biggest Republican defector was freshman Rep. King Banaian a St. Cloud State University economics professor and a conservative blogger.

Just a couple of weeks ago, beaming House Republican leaders described Banaian as the caucus’s “Wayne Gretzky” on economic issues.

For non-hockey followers, that means that Banaian was being described as the majority’s economics superstar, its guru, its leader.

Now, right out of the box he said “no” to the first Republican plan.

What happened?

What would Doug Grow suppose happened?

Is it that…:

a) The GOP majority is falling apart, with members – including my radio colleague Banaian, who had heretofore authored and sponsored HF2, a step toward instituting Zero-Based Budgeting, one of the most transformatively fiscally-conservative ideas – already souring on fiscal conservatism, to the immense surprise and shock of the MNGOP’s leadership?  Or is it…:

b) Those devilish details that caused the DFL’s leadership to let 16 Reps and 12 Senators seek a little cover, after making sure that they had the votes to pass their tax bill two years earlier?   Details that had been discussed between members and leadership for weeks – even since before the session began?   Details that made the GOP’s leadership do the math, and figure that they could afford to let three potentially-vulnerable Representatives flake off and still leave plenty of votes to pass the vital bill?

What do you think?

I don’t talk with a lot of legislators, so it’s not like I know any details.  But do you suppose that Banaian – who represents an area that includes Saint Cloud State University, which already went through some serious budget cuts, and which would take more with the proposed bill, and who won his seat by 13 votes, the closest margin of victory in the entire United States last November – just might have had a talk or two with Kurt Zellers, who might have gone over the votes one way or the other, and rationed out a few “no” votes to GOPers that might need ’em?

What do you think?

When the DFL needs heavy buckets hauled from the well to the corral, Doug Grow is always there:

Reality crossed paths with rhetoric…

…If Republican leadership can’t hold its caucus together on this first budget vote, imagine how difficult it will be to find conformity as it attempts to cut the remaining $5.2 billion with a cuts-only approach.

Grow taking part in the DFL’s strategy in the legislature; trying to paint the GOP majority as divided in the run-up to Mark Dayton – the weakest governor in recent memory – releasing a budget that is sure to be a big tax-clogged monstrosity.  They are trying to find a wedge to pound in between the new majority and the newly-minted activists who put them into office.

To some extent, it’s drawn some blood; a few conservative activists are making disgruntled noises.

We’ll talk about that later on here.

The point being this:  relax, everyone.  The procedure of getting votes lined up, and handing out some exemptions from party  mandates for purposes of planning for future elections, is the very definition of  “politics as usual”, and not even in a necessarily bad way.

The larger point is that the agenda is moving ahead – and needs to, in advance of Dayton dropping his fiscal duke in two weeks.

More on the big picture later today or tomorrow.

Talking with Kevin Dujan from Hillbuzz.org.

It is, of course, the 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion .

I was in the control room at KSTP-AM, getting ready for the Michael Jackson show to come down the satellite.  An alert came down the AP wire – John MacDougall called in to control from the newsroom that “the shuttle has blown up”, and that I should monitor the ABC News feed for special coverage.  It was there; switched over to the live coverage, for a few moments, until we realized there just wasn’t much to cover.  We went back to Jackson, in progress, who was covering the explosion non-stop, of course.

I sat, buzzing with adrenaline, as the program continued.  When Jackson ran out of information – it didn’t take long; he went to the phones.

The first call was a smug, unctuous, counterculture-sounding jagoff; “Yes, Michael, I think we had this coming; it’s revenge for this nation’s excessive macho”.

I got as angry as I have ever been in my life; I bit my tongue so hard, trying to concentrate, that I think I drew blood. I don’t remember.

That night, Reagan gave one of his great speeches.

And we needed it.

I needed it.

The Saint Paul City GOP is having its annual caucus tomorrow morning:

Saint Paul Republican City Committee

Saint Paul Republican Caucus Call

By Greg Copeland, Chairperson, St. Paul City Committee

Saturday, January 29, 2011

8:00 a.m. Registration, bagels and coffee

Registration fee: $5

9:00 a.m. Meeting

262 West University Ave.

Saint Paul, MN 55103

(former Saxon building)

Keynote Speakers: Tony Sutton, Chair and Michael Brodkorb, Deputy Chair, MNGOP

Work for real change in Saint Paul!

Help us elect a Republican City Council and School Board

that will keep spending in line, reduce regulation and create jobs.

Sponsors

American Majority

Minnesotans for Limited Government

Photo ID

Internet Tax Freedom Act

Capitol Republican Women

Citizens Council of Health Freedom

Check the city party out on Facebook.

Walter Russell Meade on why charter schools matter.

The big reason?  They are a market solution – the intellectual market, rather than the financial one:

This isn’t because they are a magic bullet solution to our education problems. The research surrounding the effectiveness of charter schools is controversial and politicized. Some schools work better than others — and that is likely to be the case going forward. However we organize our educational system there will be good schools and bad schools, good principals and bad ones, good teachers and bad. And no type of school can consistently overcome the consequences of parental negligence and demoralization. A majority of New Orleans students may be attending charter schools these days, but that is not going to turn the Crescent City into the Athens of the Delta overnight.

So I don’t say charter schools are on the cutting edge because they are going to turn our inner city kids into Singapore-style math whizzes anytime soon. But they are doing at least as well as the schools we have — and they are pointing the way to the kind of political and social transformation that can take us past the stagnant and dysfunctional world of Big Blue Bureaucracy into something more sustainable and more hopeful.

And this being a conservative blog, I can be forgiven for seeing a silver lining for conservatism:

The first thing they’ve done is to open the first serious debate among Blacks about the deficiencies in the blue social model. The weakness at the heart of blue politics today is not the divide between people who love government services and those who want the government to shrink. That reaction is a problem for the blues, but it doesn’t split the blue coalition. The widening gap, however, between the interests of the consumers of government services and the producers of those services has the potential to split Blue America down the middle.

And when he says “Blue America”, he means in part the bluest Americans – black Americans:

The charter school movement has exposed the fallacy in this argument to increasing numbers of Black parents by showing that the dysfunction in urban schools is not simply a problem of money. It is also a problem of incompetent teachers who can never be fired, of dysfunctional work rules that give senior teachers a viselike grip on choice assignments, it is a whole system that all too frequently puts children last.

Black parents who have seen charter schools at work like school choice more than Democrats. In New Jersey, Blacks like charter schools more than Republicans!

Here in Minnesota, they are certainly more committed to them than the GOP is.

The whole thing is worth a read.

Dave Thompson – longtime KSTP-AM talk show host, and now the State Senator for the Lakeville area – wanted to do what a good legislator does; he wanted to reach out to his constituents, even the ones that didn’t likely agree with him.

And so he tried to contact the Education Minnesota (teachers’ union) members in the Lakeville area.  Unfortunately, he tried to do it via the local teachers’ union.

It didn’t work well:

I sent the questions for pre-approval to your union representative, Mr. Don Sinner, in an attempt to work cooperatively. I had also hoped to use his “blast” e-mail list in order to save work for my Legislative Assistant. He refused to allow me to use the list, but gave me no indication he intended to sabotage the survey. We did the work necessary to send the survey to each of your e-mail addresses individually.

And so the emails went out to the teachers – to help their elected representative better represent them.

Right?

What do you think?  Thompson’s a Republican, and this is the Teachers Union:

It has come to my attention that Mr. Sinner sent you scripted responses, so that I will be unable to gain the information I seek. You do not need to send Mr. Sinner’s remarks, but I would very much like to hear from you.

As you may know, I am on the Senate Education Committee, and recently presented a significant piece of legislation to the Committee. I sent the survey to you because I have a sincere desire to understand the viewpoints of educators in my district. I value your judgment, and am frankly shocked that Mr. Sinner does not believe you should have the right to communicate directly with the people who represent you at the Capitol. He obviously does not have the confidence in your judgment and professionalism that I do.

Dave might look a bit naive with that statement – but I’m pretty sure he’s just being civil.  He knows as well as we do that the union has nothing to do with “professionalism”.  It’s about compliance, about turning teaching into a repeatable, factory-like process, and about wresting political power for teachers.

Here’s the email Sinner sent to his subjects (I’ll add emphasis):

The EML Executive Council on Monday Evening respectfully declined to forward this survey from Sen. Thompson to our members. They did however direct me to provide Sen. Thompson with the appropriate information which addresses each of his questions.

If Senator Thompson now chooses to send this survey directly to you, we would ask that you use this information to reply.

Stay Positive, Stay Professional, Stay United.

Because freedom is about unity!

I digress:

Sincerely,

Don Sinner

EM-Lakeville President

1) Do school teachers and administrators currently have the authority to effectively manage classroom behavior and expectations? Yes, there are no statutory issues here. The real problem is adequate, equitable, sustainable, and predictable funding which can provide the conditions necessary for teachers to effectively provide a quality education for all students.

2) Do you believe the current incentive system focusing only on “step and lanes” is the best option for school districts and teachers? Research shows, and most teachers agree, that as a teacher develops over time with effective professional development, they are more effective in the classroom and deserving of a commensurate pay increase. Research also shows that completion of relevant graduate degrees and/or National Board Certification also leads to higher student achievement.

This needs looking into.  I seem to recall that this is fragrant BS.  But I”ll have to check.

3) Do you think that entry-level teachers in different subject areas should all earn the same salary? Yes. there is best- practice research that shows the value of fine arts areas in improving not only the talents of the whole child, but also increasing achievement in the “core” subjects as well. This indicates that all teachers in all fields should be compensated on an equitable basis.

I’m seeing that “there is research” line a lot.  I need to fire off a letter to Mr. Sinner; I suspect that “research” came from reading EdMinn’s policy statement.

Because it’s certainly contradictory.  I nothing against arts and humanities teachers – it was music and German that really got me interested in learning and school, in junior high.  But if a district isn’t getting enough science and math teachers, the market would seem to tell one that the financial value of a math or science teacher is higher, and you need to pay more  for them.  The union, of course, wants the same rate for everyone, which is fiscally absurd.

4) Do you believe that the current two-variable approach (education and years teaching) to teacher salaries is a fair measure of the teacher’s value? The two-variable approach to compensating teachers is just one piece of a multifaceted approach to fairly compensating teachers. There should also be recognition for those who take on increased responsibilities in leadership roles, mentoring, and National Board Certification to name a few.

But the two variables are the big measuares, and Sinner is obfuscating.

5) Have students in your school benefited from the implementation of the “No Child Left Behind” law with its statewide standards, testing, and reporting?Yes and NO. Yes in that we are now focused on individual student data in making instructional decisions to meet their educational needs. No, because it has caused an unnecessary narrowing of curriculum which ignores the needs of the whole child. It has also caused a higher focus to be placed on facts rather than critical thinking skills and creative thinking. It has also caused an unnecessary diversion of limited resources into simply administering the mountain of testing that is required.

Dave and I may or may not agree on NCLB – I think it’s been a disaster, and for some of the same reasons Sinner cites.   The remedies, of course, are where we differ.

6) Is the current “needs based” funding formula equitable?Yes, there is a proper place for “needs based” funding. We must recognize the fact that not all students arrive at school ready to learn. We must provide the added resources to level the playing field for those students who come form a disadvantaged background such as poverty, no access to early childhood education, or english language learners.

This makes sense, if  you don’t read too far into it.

The problem is that the teachers union substitutes “resources” for “results”.  We’ve been pouring “resources” into all of those areas for decades; the unions’ results have fallen as fast as resources have risen.

7) Is there too much, too little, or the correct amount of federal government involvement in Minnesota’s education system? Too little in the fact that there is not full-funding of IDEA mandates. Too much in the area of NCLB and its’ punitive actions towards schools attempting to improve or in its’ model of measuring student growth.

“Give us the money, and don’t hold us accounable for spending or results”.

8) Do you support an increase in the compulsory school attendance age from 16 to 18? Yes, as long as there are options for students who progress quickly through the system to access PSEO, early graduation and options in a post-secondary institution.

This is just idiotic; it forces districts to fund educations for kids who are just taking up space, as well as forcing counties to waste money trying to chase them back into a classroom that, in some cases, they’re just not ready for, and in some cases never will be.  It’s a sad but true fact; there are kids that just aren’t temperamentally, mentally or socially tuned to classroom education.  There are many, many more that are cured of any interest in it by the hamfistedness of the “sit your ass in a chair and learn what we tell you” model of education.  Some of them will get an interest in it later in life.  Some will educate themselves.  Some won’t.  And keeping them jammed into seats in the classroom benefits nobody – not the kids who want out, not the kids who will be stuck in classrooms with a bunch of kids who are there because if they aren’t they’ll run afoul of their probation officer, and not the county taxpayers who have to pay for more county workers to chase the most difficult cases into the classroom (or into what passes for juvenile detention these days).

9) Should Early Childhood programs be given more attention, less attention, or be eliminated? Early Childhood needs to be funded equitably across the entire state to ensure all students enter school ready to learn. A plethora of research shows that the groundwork of early childhood and primary education (K-2) is necessary if children are to achieve at high levels throughout their academic careers. This research also shows that most students are unlikely to overcome a poor start.

There’s that “research” again.  There’s plenty of research that disagrees!

10) Should Early Childhood programs be given more attention, even if it means K-12 education funding grows at a decreased rate? The question is not whether ECFE funding should have a higher priority than K-12, it should be how can the state adequately fund both of these areas as well as Higher Ed. in order to support a vibrant economy and allow Minn. to compete in a 21st century global economy.

“Give us ALL the money we ask for, or the kids get it!”

11) Is teaching in Minnesota public schools a better or worse career than it was five years ago? Working with children is as rewarding as it always has been. However, due to the financial conditions and the “blame game”, teachers are no longer provided the necessary resources to effectively accomplish their goals, nor are they rewarded for positive outcomes. Can schools do better, yes, are they a categorical failure, no. Without adequate support of public education, we will lose our best and brightest teachers to other fields and ultimately our students will suffer.

“Pay us what we ask, and quit criticizing us!”

12) In an average Minnesota public school classroom, what should be an appropriate number of students?

Best-practice research shows:

15 in primary grades (K-2)

18 in intermediate grades (3-5)

20-25 at the secondary level (6-12) with no more than 28 before student achievement begins to decline.

Good luck, Dave.

Gary Miller – late of the great, lamented Truth Vs. The Machine, from which this blog’s “First Ringer” is a refugee, has switched hos oeuvre to Facebook, a medium whose Ambrose Bierce he very clearly is.

And Gary notes something that had flashed across my mind as I listened to the State of The Union:

…the President’s continued references to Sputnik as a way to inspire young people would be much more effective, if: 1. They still taught kids in publik skouls about Sputnik. 2. The country which launched Sputnik, the Soviet Union, still existed and hadn’t collapsed under the burden of a socialist command economy similar to one which the President hopes to implement here. Other than that, heck of a story.

Heh.

Dave Mindeman at mnpACT has his eyes on the GOP’s priorities:

Remember the good old days when the House and Senate GOP were going to make the budget and JOBS issue number one?

Actually you should remember….it was three weeks ago. But that was then, this is now….priorities seem to have changed:

Well, no.  And of course, HF1, the very first bill introduced in the session, which would reform the permitting process in Minnesota (and which Mindeman curiously ignores) does directly address those priorities.

And perhaps, being a DFLer, Mindeman thinks that the GOP should push a bill, perhaps one requiring companies to create jobs.  But debate over most of the real job-killers – regulation and taxes, especially corporate taxes – happens when we get into the budget process.  The GOP has a proposal out there.  Governor Dayton is waiting until February 15 – presumably because, as we discovered during the campaign, he hasn’t the foggiest idea what to do, other than “Tax the Rich”.

Still, leaving aside Mindeman’s selective choice of bills, the fact is the word “priorities” implies that there is more than one thing to be accomplished.  The MNGOP was sent to Saint Paul to do a whole bunch of things; jobs are the top priority; if it were the only objective, then there’d be no need to prioritize at all.

Mindeman cherry-picks some initiatives:

SRepublicans push photo I.D. bill

Republican legislators are using their new-found majorities in both chambers to push a bill to require photo identification at the polls.

Estimated Job generation: 0

Imagine how many jobs we’d create if we legalized fraud!

Union options could wind up on 2012 ballot

The proposed legislation would ask residents to vote on a constitutional amendment on whether workers should have the “freedom to decide to join or not join a labor union; to remain with or leave a labor union; and to pay or not pay dues” to a union, without the choice affecting their employment status.

Estimated Job generation: 0 (but you might get to work for less)

Well, maybe and maybe not.  One of unions’ key purposes is to restrict the supply of labor available in a given trade and area, to help keep prices high.

One of the DFL’s other memes on this issue is “now you can work for less”.  Well, that depends on how effective your union is, now, doesn’t it?

Partial smoking ban repeal introduced in House

A bill that would partially repeal Minnesota’s smoking ban has been introduced in the House. The legislation would allow smoking in bars provided they meet certain requirements.

Estimated Job generation: Possibly a few minimum wage jobs but probably offset by more health care costs

I’m going to guess that Mindeman has never worked as a server, and doesn’t know anyone who does.   Waiting can be minimum wage; it can pay six figures; most of all, it is a job with no entry requirements that, with effort and application, can pay just fine – just like any other trade.

But Mindeman seems not to care for the jobs that the smoking ban destroyed; the waitstaff laid off, the bars and restaurants closed.  Those jobs may or may not come back – but I’ll take my chances.  Real estimate of jobs created: hundreds and hundreds.

Hackbarth backing amendment protecting right to bear arms

Rep. Tom Hackbarth is proposing an amendment to the state’s constitution that would explicitly guarantee the right to bear arms. The proposal would essentially mimic the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in ensuring gun rights.

Estimated Job generation: 0

Civil rights are every bit as important as jobs.

Abortion emerging as major issue, lawsuit at Minnesota Capitol

Today, a bill restricting funding for abortion was submitted to the Minnesota Senate, co-sponsored by Koch. The bill, Senate File 103, is the first anti-abortion bill of the session.

Estimated Job generation: 0

Except that some of the babies saved will be the entrepreneurs that start the companies that’ll create the jobs that’ll generate the wealth that’ll be sapped by government to pay for Mindeman’s retirement.

Jobs generated: Countless.

After the election Senator Koch and Speaker Zellers were telling us how “focused” they would be. It wasn’t that long ago that these words were uttered…..

“If it doesn’t have anything to do with business and jobs, it shouldn’t be our first priority.” Rep. Kurt Zellers, the speaker of the Minnesota House

“There’s a lot of important issues and we will get to them. But the priority now is the budget, jobs, and the economy,” Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch

That was then….this is now… (and the way they were going to do it all along).

Dave Mindeman: Cross “clairvoyant” off of your future career options list.

And hang on.  February is going to rock.

SCENE:  The House Minority Caucus is meeting around a table at the Road Apple Saloon, at the Kelly Inn near the Capitol.  Paul THISSEN, Minority Leader, sits at a table with Debra HILSTROM, whips Larry HOSCH, Phyllis KAHN, Melissa HORTMAN, Alice HAUSMAN, John LESCH and Terry MORROW. They are joined by the rest of the DFL caucus around the table.

THISSEN:  OK, the caucus will come to order.

LESCH: He said come to order, you pigs…

THISSEN: John, that’ll do.  The first order of business is, we have to figure out how we’ll take the battle to the enemy.

Jim DAVNIE: Er, “Enemy?”

THISSEN:  The GOP.

DAVNIE: I knew that.

THISSEN:  We are outnumbered, of course – and the governor is, well…you know…

(The table murmers assent)

Rep. Ryan WINKLER: Ooooh!   Oooh!  I know.

THISSEN: Yes, representative…er,…

HOSCH: Binkley.

WINKLER:  That’s “Winkler”.  (HOSCH rolls his eyes)   I’ll go and tell everyone that “the real voter fraud is believing that the GOP cares about election integrity”.

THISSEN (absentmindedly): Sure, whatever.  Now, Alice – there’s some work that needs to be done on transportation…

WINKLER:  Oooh, oooh!  I got another one!

THISSEN (a little impatient): Er, yes, Representative Winkie?

WINKLER: Winkler, sir. I’ll tell the media that the GOP wants to kill poor womyn!

THISSEN (wearily):  Sure, whatever.  Alice, what can we…

WINKLER:  Oooh!  Ooooooooh!  I got it!

THISSEN:  For the love of Goddess, what, Representative Twinkle?

WINKLER: It’s “Winkler”, sir.  I’ll tell them that Amy Koch eats dog poop!

THISSEN:  Er, sure.  Get right on that.

(Winkler rises from table, exits the restaurant).

HAUSMAN: OK, I’ll get to work on that…

HORTMAN: Oh, my Goddess.  Paul, look…

(THISSEN turns up the volume on the TV, which shows WINKLER talking with a fake news crew)

THISSEN: My god.  The little twerp did it.

MORROW:  Good Wellstone, what a tool.

LESCH: Should I have him eliminated?

THISSEN:  No.  Not yet.  He may serve a purpose yet.  What was he going to say about Senator Koch?

(And Scene).

———-

OK, OK.  It’s a dig at Rep. Ryan Winkler (44B), who took a pretty unconscionable dig at all Republicans yesterday, claiming that the only voter fraud in Minnesota is the notion that we Republicans care about election integrity.

Winkler has become the Eddie Haskell of the Legislature.

And the claim itself really doesn’t deserve a dignified response; it’s just stupid.  Minnesota’s statistics look good, because the system is designed to make the statistics look good.  And it’s Republicans, not Democrats, who are the most-documented victims of our state system’s weaknesses; military absentee ballots (which vote overwhelmingly GOP) have been systematically dispensed with since Mark Ritchie took office.

Republicans who seek election integrity have been a prime target for the DFL’s smear machine.  But you know what Gandhi said; first they ignore you.  Then Ryan Winkler mocks you.  Then they attack you.  Then you win.

More on the voter ID bill tomorrow.

Another example of the absurdity of our idiot school system; a black woman, tired of her neighborhood’s wretched school system, tried to get her children a better education.

She was one of about 100 families investigated – but Kelley Williams-Bolar committed the greatest crime there is, in the eyes of soulless administrations; she fought back.

And now she’s in jail:

“It’s overwhelming. I’m exhausted,” she said. “I did this for them, so there it is. I did this for them.”

Williams-Bolar decided four years ago to send her daughters to a highly ranked school in neighboring Copley-Fairlawn School District.

But it wasn’t her Akron district of residence, so her children were ineligible to attend school there, even though her father lived within the district’s boundaries.

Ohio has an open enrollment policy – but it grants a lot of latitude to schools as to whether or not they (and their tax bases) will participate.

The school district accused Williams-Bolar of lying about her address, falsifying records and, when confronted, having her father file false court papers to get around the system.

Williams-Bolar said she did it to keep her children safe and that she lived part-time with her dad.

“When my home got broken into, I felt it was my duty to do something else,” Williams-Bolar said.

There’s a reason that black families are the most enthusiastic supporters of charter schools in Minneapolis and Saint Paul; schools in inner city neighborhoods are that bad.

And here’s a statement you can just hear coming out of the mouth of some DFL hamster, can’t you?

While her children are no longer attending schools in the Copley-Fairlawn District, school officials said she was cheating because her daughters received a quality education without paying taxes to fund it.

“Those dollars need to stay home with our students,” school district officials said.

Yep.  I hear it.

The GOP majority in the Legislature has been gratifyingly quick about using their mandate to make a difference.

Tony Cornish, rep from Good Thunder, has been working faster than most.

Yesterday, he introduced a bill that would eliminate the state’s background check for handgun purchases – noting, quite rightly, that the state’s process is redundant.  Minnesota is currently one of only 12 states that require handgun registration.

A surprise proposal by Republicans to repeal the state’s system of gun background checks and permits has set off an eruption of protest by DFLers and top law enforcement officials.

We’ll come back to the DFLers.  Let’s talk about the “top law enforcement officials” – the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association.  They have protested every bill supporting the human right of self-defense; they opposed the carry bill, Cornish’s castle law – you name it, the MPPO and the MCOP have protested it.  Remember when they backed up Wes “Lying Sack of Garbage” Skogland in saying that carry permits would be going to gang-bangers?  Their ostensible reason this time around  is that it removes their discretion and their “ability to do background checks”.

They were wrong before, and they’re wrong now.

The bill, which easily cleared a GOP-controlled panel Wednesday, could sweep through a Minnesota House led by a new Republican majority.

Now, when guns are the subject, you can expect Heather Martens, of new astroturf group “Protect Minnesota”, to pop up:

“Whose side are you on?” said Heather Martens, executive director [and one of likely 2-3 members] of Protect Minnesota. “Are you on the side of the criminals who want to get easy access to guns? Or are you on the side of the public that expects to be protected by its law enforcement?”

Blah, blah, blah.  Heather Martens is up there with Larry Jacobs as the most over-quoted person in the Twin Cities media.  Unlike Jacobs, she doesn’t actually work at a real academic institution, although the Humphrey Institute poll and Martens have about the same record for accuracy.

The biggest complaint?  “The state check is more thorough than the Feds'”.

The answer?  There are 38 states that have no such checks at all – they use the feds’ system – and they have no more, and usually fewer, problems than the states that do their own registrations, like Minnesota and 11 other (usually high-crime) states.

The story does talk with some people with some common sense…:

At Capra’s Outdoors in Blaine, gun department manager Todd Lundstrom said the federal background check makes the state permit seem redundant.

“Personally, I don’t see any benefit in it,” Lundstrom said. “If we didn’t do a background check with the FBI over the phone, yeah, then I’d say it’s a good idea to have that.” He said the change was unlikely to affect gun sales.

Rick Thompson of Blaine, a customer at Capra’s, said that existing state and federal gun laws are adequate.

“I wouldn’t want them any more restrictive or any less,” Thompson said. On state and federal background checks, he said, “I don’t know why you’d need both.”

The state system doesn’t need to exist.  Time to get rid of it.

Remember all that crap at the State of the Union about “fiscal discipline?”

Apparently they mean “after they bankrupt the entire nation“:

The latest figures from the Congressional Budget Office are up from previous estimates because Congress and President Barack Obama teamed up in December on bipartisan legislation to extend Bush-era tax cuts that were due to expire. The new estimates will only add fuel to a raging debate over cutting spending and looming legislation that’s required to allow the government to borrow more money.

I don’t know how much more Hope and Change I can handle.

Bright and early this morning on MPR, I heard Cathy Wurzer talking with former MNCD8 Representative Jim Oberstar.

It goes without saying the guy became a slippery wonk over his five decades in DC.

But it was his closing line that stuck with me; it should go up there with Cy Thao’s classic “When you guys win,  you get to keep your money.  When we win, we take your money“, or Larry Pogemiller’s “It’s silly to think people can spend their money better than government can“.

Asked about the criticisms he’d taken as for being seen as a porkmonger, he replied (I’m paraphrasing as closely as I can; I’ll try to get the audio after work today):

To all of them, I say – don’t drive on Highway 17.  Don’t drive on Highway 8. Don’t drive on Highway 61.  Don’t drive on [this bridge], or [that bridge], or [some other bridge].  Don’t drive on any of the things you criticized.  Follow your principles.

“Representative” Oberstar, by your imperial leave; I paid for them.  So did taxpayers in Manhattan and Mississippi, in Oregon and Ohio.  We paid for those roads, for your bike paths, the Great Lakes Marine Research Institute, the North Star Commuter Rail line, and all the millions upon millions of dollars of other spending you inveigled for your district.

You didn’t pay for it.

We did.

And I will drive on any f*****g highway I want, whether I agree with its rationale or not.  I will ride on the bike paths I criticized you for.  I will go to the ice cream social or whatever they do at the GLMRI, and drive over those bridges – maybe back and forth a few times, like a kid playing on an escalator.  Come to think of it, if I can find any escalators built with your pork-barrelling, I’ll ride ’em until security tells me to stop.

Because I paid for them.  Against my will, in some cases; more than I’d have paid, in others; with my muted assent in still others. And since I paid for them – and since you were my employee (or would have been, had I lived in the 8th CD), I will not only not ask your permission, I may even take pictures of myself doing it, and send them to you, just to gall you.

So go curl up at the Humphrey Institute, and go away.

By your imperial leave.

President Obama is in Wisconsin.

Joe Doakes of Como Park is on the case.  He writes:

It just occurred to me that with the President’s trip to Manitowoc, and considering he’s already visited Madison and Milwaukee (and still has time to hit Menomonie), we could be looking at the makings of a historic event in 2012: the first-ever clean sweep of every town in Wisconsin starting with M by a Black President who went on to fail of re-election.

Wouldn’t that be GREAT?

Joe Doakes, St. Paul

Makes perfect sense to me.

Ted Mondale is going to the Capitol today to start pimping for a new Vikings stadium.

Mere prose falls short in fighting causes like this (and if your prose is overheated enough, Janet Napolitano will arrest you.

So I’m going to fight this battle via the gift of poetry.

I present: “Green Stadium And Ham”.

I am Ted.

Ted I am

That Ted-I-am!

That Ted-I-am!

I want no Stadium, Ted-I-am!

Do you want a Vikings Stadium?

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

I do not want a Vikings Stadium!

Would you want one downtown or Blaine?

I would not want one in downtown or Blaine.

Go away. Don’t be a pain.

I do not want a Vikings stadium.

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

Would you want a retractable roof?

Or skyboxes, for the aloof?

I do not want a retractable roof

or boxes for the irony-proof.

Or one in either downtown or Blaine.

Ted, you’ve got an issue in the brain.

I do not want a Vikings stadium.

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

Would you buy one paid with bonds?

Would you buy one lined with fronds?

Not paid with bonds.

Not lined with fronds.

Not with a roof, or hoi-polloi proof.

Not in downtown, not out in Blaine.

I don’t even want one over in Spain.

I will not buy a Vikings stadium.

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

Would you? Could you, in a recession?

Buy one! I’ll cure your depression!

No, not while the market is recessed,

And go get tied. I’m not depressed.

You may want one. You may mellow.

You may want one purple and yellow!

I would not want one purple and yellow.

Not in A recession! You obnoxious fellow.

I do not want one paid with bonds.

I do not want one lined with fronds.

I do not want one in downtown or Blaine.

It’d be a monstrous fiscal stain!

I do not want one here or there.

I do not want one anywhere.

I won’t pay for a Vikings stadium.

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

A train! A train!

A train! A train!

If you could go to games by train?

Not with a train! Not purple and yellow!

Not in hard times, Ted, you obnoxious fellow!

I would not, could not, paid with bonds.

I could not, would not, lined with fronds.

I will not buy one out in Blaine.

Or to relieve “the children’s pain”.

I will not buy one here or there.

I will not buy one anywhere.

I won’t buy a Vikings stadium.

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

Say! with Zygi’s cash?

A bit of Zygi’s cash!

Would you, could you, with a bit of his stash?

I would not, could not, with Zygi’s cash.

Would you, could you, with a bit more taxes?

I will not, shall not pay more taxes.

You have no idea what the facts is.

I would not, could not with Zygi’s stash,

Or even a surcharge on trash.

Not in A recession. Not purple and yellow.

I do not want one, Ted, little fellow.

Not out in Blaine. Not paid with bonds.

Not even lined with palmy fronds!

You do not like a Vikings stadium?

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

Could buy one with a goat?

You should be held behind a moat!

Not with Zygi’s cash! Not purple and yellow!

Not in A recession! You go to hell! Oh,

I do not want one paid with bonds.

I do not want one lined with fronds.

I will not buy one out in Blaine.

Losing the ‘queens won’t be such a pain.

I do not want one here or there.

I do not want one ANYWHERE!

I do not like a Vikings stadium!

I do not want one, Ted-I-am.

You do not want one. So you say.

Think “no more Vikings”! And you may!

Think of “our” Vikings in LA!

Ted! If you will let me be,

I’ll think about it. You will see.

Say! I like TCF stadium!

Let’s play there! Play there, Ted-I-am!

We don’t need to drive to Blaine!

No traffic backups in the rain!

No Zygi’s cash. And new-built train.

Not in A recession. No purple and yellow.

It’s an ingenious plan, you curious fellow!

So I will not buy a single bond,

and I’ll go to Hawaii for my fronds.

We’ll stick with soccer out in Blaine.

And ditch the endless parking pain.

Don’t need a stadium here OR there.

Don’t need to buy one anywhere!

I do so like TCF stadium!

Thank you! Thank you, Ted-I-am!

Some of my friends who are teachers, and also Republicans, have described a life a little like being a dissident in the Soviet Union, with samizdat greetings and everything short of secret handshakes.  I remember going to one teacher conference and having a teacher furtively tell me he or she was a fan of the NARN – “but please don’t tell anyone.  You understand, right?”

I did.

Of course, that was in the cha-cha days when the DFL controlled, or nearly controlled, the Legislature.

But now, appropriations come through the MNGOP’s majority – and Tom “Look For The Union Label” Dooher is trying to make nice:

From: President Dooher [mailto :[Redacted]@edmn.org]

Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 5:03 PM

To: ‘[Redacted]@educationminnesota.org’

Cc: Governing Board [MN]

Subject: Republican members meeting Feb. 5

January 21, 2011

Dear local presidents,

Over the last two years, Education Minnesota has made efforts to involve Education Minnesota Republican members in legislative and political activities on behalf of public education.

Any GOP teachers in the audience: can we get a sniff-test on that statement?

It’s more important than ever for our Republican members to start building relationships with their legislators.

Is anyone but me thnking “I’ll just bet it is”.  Tom Dooher wasn’t banking on the DFL losing both chambers, was he?

Education Minnesota will hold a meeting of interested Republican members on Saturday, Feb. 5, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Education Minnesota headquarters in St. Paul. Education Minnesota will provide lunch and pay mileage for all members.

The agenda will cover:

1. The importance of Republican members’ involvement in education policy

2. Building relationships with legislators

3. Current education issues

4. Recruiting other Education Minnesota Republican members

And I loved this one:

5. Getting involved in the Republican party process

EdMinn has spent at least thirty years fighting the GOP at every turn.  They contributed heavily to Alliance For A Better Minnesota, which just spent an entire election cycle slandering Republicans.

The “involvement” they want, no doubt, is to do what they can to turn the GOP back into a party that Arne Carlson would recognize.

Education Minnesota political organizers and lobbyists will facilitate the meeting. Please take the time to contact politically active Republican members of your local and encourage them to attend. Interested members should RSVP to Jim Meyer, Education Minnesota political organizer, at [Redacted]@edmn.org or [phone number redacted] by Wednesday, Feb. 2. We need at least 15 participants to hold the meeting.

I wish it weren’t at the same time as the show.  I’d love to see if anyone shows up.  Even more, I’d love to see if any of the local presidents actually know any Republicans.

In solidarity,

Tom Dooher

President

In mockery,

Mitch Berg

Admiral.

I’ll be live-tweeting over at my twitter account.

The ongoing squabble over access to the floor for media – partsian alternative media as well as the traditional kind – has been an ongoing battle at the State Capitol for a few years now.

The rhubarb flared up again as the session started earlier month, as left-leaning group-blog “The Uptake” was denied “floor credentials”.

Now, “floor credentials” aren’t the beginning and end of capitol journalism.  David Brauer notes:

While credentials aren’t needed for Capitol press conferences, floor passes are about access. Conversations are only permitted before or after a day’s session, but the immediacy of interviews before lawmakers scatter is as valuable, as is the candor that occasionally results before marching orders are received.

It’s not the be-all of reportage: Senate Sgt-at-Arms Sven Lindquist says press seats on the cramped floor are frequently unoccupied, except during big votes. Still, it’s a tool for the journalistic toolbox.

And it’s a tool that pretty much everyone wants – just in case.  Including The Uptake.

Now, the power to grant credentials, as Brauer notes, used to be a non-partisan activity:

Sgt-at-arms Lindquist says the power to review and grant credentials used to be handled by himself and Senate Secretary Patrick Flahaven. But in recent years, Lindquist says the power moved “elsewhere” — to the majority leader’s office, which is, by definition, partisan.

It’s obviously an issue needing some resolution.  Which is where this piece starts.

Earlier this month, a source close to the GOP’s caucus leadership told me that, while (as Brauer notes) the rules don’t bar “partisan” media, the decision was made to deny credentials to all partisan media, pending the development of a policy.

A few weeks ago, Michael Brodkorb – who handles communications for the majority GOP caucus in the Minnesota Senate, in addition to being the deputy chair of the Minnesota GOP – called me to ask if I’d be interested in working with a group of DFL and GOP staffers, as well as MinnPost writer David Brauer, on coming up with a more or less comprehensive policy on granting floor credentials.

Every state has a different solution to the issue – ranging from free access to the floor to credentialed media in Rhode Island and Montana (and credentials are pretty much given for the asking) to Illinois, which requires a vote of the applicable chamber to allow the  media to take pictures, much less get on the floor.

The goal – near as I can tell so far – is to come up with a transparent policy that’ll give fair access to the Senate floor to media organizations, while coming up with some sort of balance between the establishment media’s vocational need for access and the alt-media’s right to a place at the proverbial table.

I’m honored to have been asked.  My goal is to try to help this group come up with a policy that fairly and transparently gives all media a fair, clear means to cover our Senate, for the good of the entire electorate.

I’ll keep you all posted.  Because even if I didn’t, Brauer certainly would.

This is, purportedly, a nation of laws.  Not men.  Or womyn.

It’s this fact – the idea that we are governed by laws arrived at at least indirectly by the consent of the majority of The People – that makes civilization possible.

So those of us who oppose legalized infanticide – whether we’re single-issue activists or just quiet, personal pro-lifers – have to work within the law to change the system.  And bit by bit, it’s been working; slowly.  The number of abortions is dropping, as the ubiquity of ultrasound starts to show people that that “lump of tissue” in actually a human being.  Maybe not a competely functional human being, yet – but as a parent of two teenagers, I’m here to tell you they’re not “viable” until they can get a job – but a human being nonetheless.

Still, the medical fact is that once a “fetus” gets past 22-23 weeks, science can save ’em, and after 30 weeks they have a better-than-fighting chance – as long as they can get out of the damn womb.

Or so we hope.  Because it seems to some on the left, “birth” is no guarantee of being called “human”.

You could say that it was a breakdown in the laws that govern our society that led to the Kermit Gosnell charnel house in Philadelphia.  The fact that Gosnell’s abortion mill avoided inspections for nearly two decades indicates an administrative breakdown.

But administration in a regulation-heavy place like Philadelphia doesn’t break down by accident.  The pro-infanticide lobby is powerful, and doesn’t brook interference with their civic sacrament.  And so if an administrative body has to break down somewhere, it’s not a huge leap to figure that the regulation of abortion mills is the path of least resistance.

Beyond that, though – it’s just a little bit nauseating how little respect for “the law” some of the pro-infanticide camp actually have.

PZ Myers is, by traffic, Minnesota’s top leftyblogger.  And criticizing him takes commitment; he draws a huge audience of the kind of readers who make Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos’ comment sections such pressure-cookers of dissociation, and some of them have waaaaay too much time on their hands, and love spending it bombing heretics’ comment sections.

But I love a challenge.  And being hated has always nourished me.

Myers’ lede: “abortions don’t kill people, people do“:

I have been receiving lots of triumphant mail from anti-choice people claiming vindication, that abortion is wrong, and demanding to know how I can possibly support abortion rights after hearing about the case of Dr Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell ran an abortion mill in Philadelphia, and was a hack who maimed and killed women while doing abortions on demand, for a substantial fee. He was unqualified, uncertified in obstetrics and gynecology, and his facility was unmonitored and relatively uninspected. He gave untrained, inexperienced staff critical jobs in the surgery — he allowed a 15 year old high school student to handle anesthesia. He killed a patient by overdosing her on drugs, and is also charged with killing 7 babies in late-term abortions.

Gosnell is precisely the kind of butcher the pro-choice movement opposes.

All true, and well and good.  Of course, the reasons the clinic got left unregulated, in a city where you can’t run a hot dog cart or a braiding shop without swarms of inspectors inspecting your droppings, will need to be sorted through; they’re likely inextricable from the politics of abortion.

…what [Gosnell] represents is the kind of back-alley deadly hackery that the anti-choice movement would have as the only possible recourse, if they had their way. If anything, the Gosnell case is an argument for legal abortion.

A hack being allowed to practice his bloody incompetent craft in a city that is both among the most pro-abortion and high-regulation (usually) cities in the country is “an argument for legal abortion” in the same sense that Jared Loughner’s legal purchase of a Glock supports legalized suicide; both are non-sequiturs.

Still, it’s a defense of the existing law, whether you agree with that law or not (and from Roe V. Wade on down, I don’t).

Still, on all of this, people can agree to disagree – however angrily and emotionally.

But when people try to put abortion above the law?

He has also been charged with the murders of seven babies, and there I have to disagree. There has to be a difference in degree, or the mothers of those infants would also have to be charged as collaborators (they were all willing volunteers for this medical procedure, and they knew the result would be termination of their pregnancy).

Now, let’s make sure we’re clear on the terms here:  Gosnell is accused of “terminating” seven “pregnancies” after the “fetuses” had completely exited the mother, and – even under the most radically proscriptive definition of “when does life begin”, which with some pro-death types seems to be “when all ten of the baby’s toes exit the birth canal” – become “human”.

What Myers seems to be saying here is that the “law” governing when life begins, such as it is, shouldn’t count; that human life shouldn’t begin until everyone who wants a crack at “terminating” it has taken a shot at it, long after it’s actually born.  How long do you wait before you consider life, life?  Until the little nipper is a year old?  (Oops – someone beat me to that one).

The strawman that the left has thrown up as the smokescreen – “so you want to put poor black women in jail” – needs to be slapped down, by the way.  If they agreed to a late term abortion – which, barbaric as it is, is legal, sickening as it is to admit – then it’s not an issue.  If the doctor killed the “fetus” after it was born, without the mother’s consent, or while the mother’s capacity was diminished from pain, drugs and fatigue, then it’s not an issue. If the mother saw a fully delivered fetus and, with full mental faculties, said “go ahead and kill it off”, and the laws does in fact say a delivered “fetus” is protected by the law, then what do you call it?

Or “the law is the law” only count when it protects infanticide?

Yesterday, after asking the House to hold off on holding hearings on HF1 (Rep. Dan Fabian’s bill to reform state permitting), Governor Dayton released an executive order that will do the same thing.

Well, that’s what the DFL and media (pardon the redundancy) will want you to think.

Dayton’s order will do a bunch of the streamlining that HF1 would do…

…with one absolutely key exception. Via Gary Gross at LFR, House Majority Leader Matt Dean said in a statement:

“Today’s executive order is concerning. Just a week ago, Governor Dayton was asking us to slow down and allow more time for public hearings and input.

In other words, the MNGOP reached across the aisle.  They gave a little procedural ground, and worked with the Governor.

And that’s always a mistake.

The Minnesota House has held two public hearings on HF1 and are planning a third hearing on this important legislation. We are concerned that Governor Dayton selected components of HF1 for his Executive Order, watered down some provisions and ignored key areas of reform.

We find his actions today to be counterproductive to the legislative process and his stated commitment to work together on these common ground issues. House Republicans will continue with our previously-announced public process for HF1 and other initiatives designed to make Minnesota’s business climate competitive. We hope Governor Dayton will join us in that endeavor.”

So compare HF1 and the statement.  What’s missing?

Any reference to reforming litigation.

It’s the litigation that not only kills projects, but blows up the price of  private-sector and state projects.

Now – given that Governor Dayton has stacked his administrative appointments with people whose entire public resume involves litigating development to death, what do you suppose his “executive order” is going to be worth?

Oh, yeah – and “executive orders” exist, and are enforced, at the pleasure of the governor.  What the governor orders with a swipe of his pen, he can un-order the same way.

The GOP needs to continue and pass HF1, and tell the Governor “thanks, but no thanks; we’ll stick with the brand name”.

The League of Minnesota Cities is starting to get the message; Local Government Aid is going to get reformed:

Sen. Claire Robling (R-Jordan), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a bill on Jan. 18 that begins to address the state’s $6.2 billion deficit. The bill, SF 60, extends many of the unallotments that were ratified in 2010 as well as the supplemental budget cuts that were enacted in 2010. In total, the bill would apparently reduce the state’s general fund deficit by roughly $1 billion, including $200 million in unspecified reductions for the remaining five months of the state’s 2010-2011 biennium.

The bill appears to target several of the general fund appropriations that were fully or partially restored in the 2010 final budget reduction compromise.

As we pointed out last year, Local Government Aid – which started out as an attempt to help small, poor rural towns build critical infrastructure like roads and water treatment plants  – has become a money-laundering scheme for large, DFL-controlled cities, enabling to shift their spending from their own property tax payers to the rest of the state – especially the parts of the state that pay full taxes, but receive no LGA (most of the state’s top-forty cities, mostly third-hier, GOP-leaning suburbs).

For cities, SF 60 includes cuts to both local government aid (LGA) and market value homestead credit (MVHC) reimbursements. The bill would permanently extend the calendar year 2010 supplemental cuts to MVHC reimbursements beginning with the scheduled MVHC reimbursements for 2011. The 2010 supplemental MVHC reimbursement cuts were originally enacted in Session Laws 2010, Chapter 215 and totaled $52.5 million, of which roughly $43 million was allocated to city MVHC reimbursements. Due to the fact that the 2010 supplemental budget cuts were first applied to each city’s MVHC reimbursement, these cuts impacted nearly every city.

Note that the 2010 supplemental budget bill already permanently extended about $25 million in MVHC credit reimbursement reductions to roughly 120 cities beginning in 2011. With the additional permanent reductions included in SF 60, virtually all of the MVHC reimbursement to cities would be permanently eliminated. No changes to the way the credits are administered were included in the bill meaning that homeowners would continue to receive the full value of the credit.

Of course, MVHC is a vehicle to reimburse cities with lots of low-value properties – Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Duluth – for having lots of low-value properties, notwithstanding the fact that most of the blight is caused by those same cities’ policies.  MVHC rewards cities for policies that drive down home values!

The proposal would also permanently reduce LGA to cities by roughly $100 million beginning in 2011. The LGA cut for each city from the amount certified last July would be equal to roughly 91.5 percent of the total 2010 LGA cut under the 2010 ratified unallotment reductions and the 2010 supplemental budget reductions. For future years, the plan will permanently freeze the LGA appropriation at the $426 million level.

And that’s just the beginning:

In addition to the cuts specified above, the bill will impose yet-to-be-determined cuts on the budgets for the Legislature, the governor, the state auditor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state. The renters’ refund program will be reduced, and the political campaign refund will be eliminated. The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system (MNSCU) and the University of Minnesota would lose $48 million and $45 million per year, respectively. Human service programs would lose roughly $32 million per year under the proposal.

As noted last week – and, indeed, constantly since about this past Labor Day, when Tom Emmer released his own budget – most of the “decreases” are in fact reductions to the forecast increase.

For the remainder of the current 2010-2011 biennium, the proposal requires the commissioner of Management and Budget to identify $200 million in general fund spending reductions to executive branch agencies.

And King Banaian’s HF2 will go farther, forcing agencies to justify their spending, and in some cases their existence.

It wouldn’t be the League of Cities if it didn’t pay homage to the DFL:

The proposal addresses only about 17 percent of the state’s $6.2 billion deficit. Legislative leaders will have to identify other much deeper cuts to balance the remaining state deficit. Even if the repayment of the $1.3 billion school payment shift is delayed, as many expect, the remaining deficit would be roughly $3.9 billion.

That is, of course, buncombe; the $3.9 billion figure is the amount of the forecast that will not be granted.  But one can expect the LoC to repeat DFL talking points…

The mid-year cuts to city MVHC and LGA are particularly problematic. In December, cities set their 2011 budgets and property tax levies and they will not be able to adjust revenues to offset even a portion of these cuts until December 2011. Even then, any revenue adjustments would not be available until mid-2012.

The DFL’s party line is “this forces cities to raise their property taxes”.  It’s rubbish, of course; it forces cities to find their own revenues for, or cut spending on, the parts of their budgets that LGA had been floating.

Of course city residents will prefer to have other people pay for their city budgets!  Who wouldn’t?

But it’s time for local taxpayers to do one of three things:

1. Be Happy To Pay For A Better Town, and quit your whining.
2. Let your city council know that you’ve had enough, and you’re going to vote someone else into office if they don’t clean up the city’s fiscal house, using something other than cops, firemen and other essential services as cut-fodder.  And then follow through on it.  Just like the rest of the US and Minnesota did this past election.

Then you’ll see some changes.

I was in Chicago last week and the papers there were headlining the huge lead Rahm Emanuel has had in Chicago’s mayoral race. The Democratic machine was running at redline to keep their scum at the top of the cesspool that is Chicago politics.

…and then it blew a gasket.

An appeals court said Rahm Emanuel is not allowed to stay on Chicago’s mayoral ballot, a blow to the former White House chief of staff who has already raised more than $10 million in his bid for mayor.

…I think Hillary still has campaign debt. Maybe Rahm could exhibit some chivalry and help a lady out.

The three-judge Illinois Appellate Court, which heard oral arguments last week in the case, issued a split decision Monday afternoon saying that Mr. Emanuel is not eligible to run for mayor. Two of the three judges reversed a lower-court decision that had given him permission to remain on the ballot. One judge dissented.

Lawyers for Mr. Emanuel said last week they will appeal the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court. The state’s high court can decide whether or not to hear the case.

But there may not be time for that…the election is in a month.

Bummer [Cheshire Grin].

The real story of this past weekend in sports?

Under four weeks until pitchers and catchers report for spring training.

Til then?  No more sports on TV for me.