The DFL controls both chambers of the legislature, as well as the Governor’s office.
They passed four billion dollars in total tax hikes last session, for a net two billion dollars in increases, without a single Republican vote.
But now the DFL needs GOP support to change tax policy?
That’s what this piece – “GOP senators refuse to be rushed on sweeping tax-relief measure” – would have you believe.
No, really:
Dayton and DFL leaders have rushed to pass the measure to ensure the largest number of Minnesotans can take advantage of more than $50 million in retroactive tax relief by April 15. Senate DFLers used a rare procedure to try to speed passage by a day, but Republicans in the minority used their limited muscle to delay the vote until Friday.
Earlier in the week, Dayton chastised Senate DFLers for not passing the measure swiftly enough. On Thursday, Dayton and Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, joined together to direct their wrath at Republicans.
Look – this bill was never intended as anything but an election-year bandaid for the DFL – allowing them to say “We cut taxes! (to some favored classes of Minnesotans, for a total of a tiny fraction of the tax hike we unilaterally jammed down two years ago)” in an election year when the MNSure flop and the 2013 tax and spend and gun grab orgy looks certain to cost the DFL dearly.
Baird Helgeson is, in short, carrying the DFL’s narrative water:
“There is no good reason for Senate Republicans to block the bill’s passage,” Dayton said. If Republican legislators force any further delays, “they will be solely responsible for denying income tax cuts to thousands of Minnesotans.”
The measure is nearly certain to pass Friday because Republicans are out of options to block it.
Ahem: the DFL doesn’t need one single Republican vote to pass the “tax cuts”. Not One.
Why is Baird Helgeson and the Strib carrying the DFL’s water?
Will Rachel Stassen-Berger, Tom Scheck and Bill Salisbury catch the Strib on this fairly egregious bit of journalistic partisan narrative-fluffing?
the piece was written solely to provide copy for fundraising purposes – the DFL is noticing that the small fry aren’t writing checks as quickly or in the amounts that they would like. Look for this soon in a fundraising email in your inbox.
Huh — I read it exactly the opposite way — the headline “refuse to be rushed” indicates that the DFL was rushing the process. And Helgeson also makes it clear in the article that the DFL is looking for advantage:
Passing a tax relief measure would be a significant political coup for Dayton and House DFLers, who are up for re-election in November. The measure also contains the first significant tax breaks in years, paid for out of the state’s $1.2 billion projected budget surplus.
and
The measure includes the repeal of several new business sales taxes, including one on warehousing services that takes effect in less than two weeks.
It’s unusual when the Strib actually provides the rationale of the DFL in such stark terms. Maybe I’m giving them too much credit, but usually they would just print the DFL’s assertions without explaining the motivations behind them.
Yesterday the Strib reported that Senator Bakk “dismissed the Republican led one-day slowdown. ‘This is just a procedural type thing. (The Republicans) had some leverage and they decided to use it,’ Bakk said. Bakk said he didn’t think a one-day delay would affect many taxpayers.” http://tinyurl.com/ky6snsz
Today, the Strib reports that Bakk joined with Dayton to “direct his wrath at the Republicans” and called the one-day delay “shenanigans”.
What happened in the interim?
I got the same general opinion as did Mr. D.
Instead of chasing and grabbing the money like a pack of Indian (the Eastern country) street beggars, it implies that the GOP is taking a more measured, thoughtful approach to an issue that needs scrutiny regardless of which party is proposing it.
Maybe it was not the author’s original intent, but it’s harder to see the republicans as negligent in this issue, based on what was written …
Senator Hann characterized the bill as a huge tax increase. Yet 23 GOP State Senators voted for it.
“State Senator David Hann (R-Eden Prairie), the Minority Leader in the
Minnesota Senate, has been asked to resign his leadership position by Republican state senators.”
http://politics.mn/2014/03/22/sources-hann-asked-to-resign-as-minority-leader-of-the-minnesota-senate/