Dayton Dustbowl: Too Stupid
By Mitch Berg
Mark Dayton’s budget: three billion in new taxes.
Minnesotans who make toward $200K – dentists, middle managers, car salespeople, a few really good, hard-working waitstaff, fairly capable software developers, and above all, successful enterepreneurs – will be paying 10.95%. Over $500K ? An additional 3% “surcharge”, meaning top-flight lawyers, successful doctors, quite a few upper managers, and above all Minnesota’s most successful entrepreneurs and job creators – will be paying just shy of 14%.
All for the privilege of living in Minnesota.
Even California and New York are smarter than this.
You can not tax your way out of a recession. Government can not spend its way out of a recession; if it could, California and Illinois would be sitting pretty, and North Dakota would look like Michigan.
This budget should not be voted down in the Legislature. It should be killed with fire. Then voted down.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
A governor elected by 44% of voters cannot get this past a GOP legislature.
When it fails, Dayton will switch to the usual backup and push for increased license fees, sin taxes and sales taxes, i.e. taxes for being poor.
They just. Want. The money.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
I’m happy to pay for a better Minnesota. With your money.
February 15th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
Thank you, GOP voters who voted for the “independent,” for this idiot.
It’s worth noting that, as top earners already pay something like 39% in federal taxes, 15% in FICA (no that’s not a “contribution” by your employer!), and 9% (?) in state taxes, the “5%” tax hike Dayton proposes actually represents about 11% less disposable income available to the prosperous. It’s a fairly big incentive to leave the state.
And if you think that a few neurosurgeons leaving the state might affect some people at the other end of the income scale, go to the head of the class, as Professor Williams would say.
February 15th, 2011 at 2:36 pm
As Jake Gittes said to Lt Escobar in Chinatown: “Lou, you’re dumber than you think I think you are.”
February 15th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
Let’s see how many of the dumb ass lawyers that supported this goon react. Better yet, they’ll be looking for all of the loopholes they can find in the tax code to avoid paying “their share.”
February 15th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Now that we have something to poop on, can we assemble a Winter MOB party…before Spring?
February 15th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Meanwhile, the teachers in Madison Wisconsin let their students out of school so they could protest against Governor Walker. When asked what they were protesting, well, see for yourself.
http://badgerblogger.com/
February 15th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
can we assemble a Winter MOB party
Announcement, hopefully, tomorrow.
February 15th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
The last shut-down, TV crews scrambled to find families whose Fourth of July camping trip to the state park was canceled when the park closed because DNR was shut down.
On the Fourth of July! It’s unpatriotic! Republicans are traitors!
I’m yawning. Hey, I can’t afford to go to fancy-schmancy state parks, I have to go to the KOA campground, why should your campsite get a fat government subsidy? Bite me, mosquito boy.
Can’t say it won’t be entertaining.
.
February 15th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
When the state government gets shut down, will Gov. JimBeam have to shag his own caviar?
February 15th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
This is why Gov. JimBeam wanted the position; the US didn’t offer enough opportunities for him to asshat dance in the spotlight. I bet he puts Charlie Sheen to shame tonight…
February 15th, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Mad Mark’s budget doesn’t mean a thing, it probably fulfills his constitutional requirements, but it should have zero chance of going anywhere in this congress given the results of last Nov election.
Dayton is like a small ball of string, it ain’t going to take long for him to unravel.
February 15th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I thought that in MN the only people who earned over $500k/yr in wages worked for MPR.
If true, then MN will balance its book by being like the mythical Scottish village where everyone became wealthy by taking in each others’ washing.
February 15th, 2011 at 7:28 pm
It should be killed with fire. Then voted down.
No, it should be chucked into the Mississippi page by page, then collected down stream and made into a paper mache statue that looks like this outside the governors mansion…
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://flipthatbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/art-sculpture-hand.jpg&imgrefurl=http://flipthatbird.com/random/art-sculpture-gives-the-finger/&usg=__EeNuXz7OPbe-x2ryoInLtGypWws=&h=450&w=300&sz=19&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=b2SiehTQIIH4TM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=79&ei=9SdbTb3VNIycgQeVpvHwDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Da%2Bhand%2Bgiving%2Bthe%2Bfinger%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26biw%3D1020%26bih%3D485%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=290&vpy=27&dur=30&hovh=275&hovw=183&tx=92&ty=163&oei=9SdbTb3VNIycgQeVpvHwDQ&page=1&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
February 15th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Why do I have to always have to do the web savvy stuff?
http://tinyurl.com/49tbdqs
February 15th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
sorry Terry, i is komputer elletirate.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
sorry Terry, i is komputer elletirate.
February 15th, 2011 at 8:58 pm
You wingnuts act as though you think business people will be smart enough to move their activities to lower cost/lower tax states. It’s not as though people set up trust funds in South Dakota to avoid Minnesota taxes!
/moonbat off
February 15th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Why is it that in all of his pictures Dayton’s pupils are dilated?
They’re like freakin’ olive pits fer God’s sake.
February 15th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
May I suggest we have that winter MOB party in St. Cloud, guest of honor King Banaian?
February 16th, 2011 at 6:22 am
And while he claims to add funding to K-12 education, he tosses out a slam against charter schools by reducing their lease aid! Let’s hope the legislature laughs long and hard at THAT proposal.
February 16th, 2011 at 6:26 am
bubbasan, are not the “top earners” over the maximum income cap for FICA?
February 16th, 2011 at 8:57 am
Leslie, the only part of FICA that ends with income is the employee tax for Social Security. Medicare is on all income, as is, if I remember correctly, the employer “contribution” to Socialist Insecurity.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:58 am
I am not bubbasan, but “top earners” according to the Governor JimBeam definition are a married couple each earning $80,000 and they are definitely not over the maximum cap for FICA. And remember that there is no cap on the medicare portion of the deduction.
February 16th, 2011 at 10:36 am
Terry Says: “Why is it that in all of his pictures Dayton’s pupils are dilated?
They’re like freakin’ olive pits fer God’s sake.”
“I’m not sure Terry, could be A) Hangover, B) Meds, C) Madman, D) all of the above. Be very careful as you observe, it’s dangerous staring into the abyss.
February 16th, 2011 at 11:13 am
The SS cap this year is $106.8k.
Back in the 80’s I worked on the test floor of a computer manufacturer. Some of the more senior technicians, guys in their 30’s or early 40’s — working class guys with associates degrees or military training in electronics — would hit the limit if they made some extra bucks on over time.
I have a much better job than those guys did. Better pay compared to others in the field, better benefits, and more educational requirement, yet I have never hit the FICA limit and it is extremely doubtful that I ever will.
Sign o’ the times.