Addicted To Money
By Mitch Berg
A couple of Saint Paul legislators, operating under the cover of both darkness and mayoral complicity, tried to ram a stealth tax increase through the Legislature:
Without any public notice or testimony, a Minnesota House-Senate conference committee voted around 3 a.m. Monday to authorize the St. Paul City Council to levy a 3-percent sales tax on food and alcoholic beverages sold in the city’s bars and restaurants, starting Jan. 1. The full Senate then voted early Monday evening to kill out the food and beverage tax amendment, which had been slipped into the big end-of-session tax bill.When word of the tax increase proposal circulated Monday, response from opponents was swift.“We’re already maxed out on our drink prices compared to the surrounding communities,” said Dan O’Gara, owner of O’Gara’s Bar and Grill. “This tax increase could kill the (hospitality) industry in this city.”
The legislation would have increased the tax on beer, wine and liquor sold by the drink in St. Paul to 12.5 percent from the current 9.5 percent. The sales tax on food sold in city restaurants would jump from 7 percent to 10 per cent…The tax was never proposed in a bill, so St. Paul bar and restaurant owners never got a chance to tell legislators how it would affect them, [Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association executive director Jim] Farrell said. “It’s the sleaziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Mayor Coleman? Sure, he’s all for it:
While the tax was her idea, Moua said Mayor Chris Coleman and some City Council members vetted it privately. “Nobody likes to impose a tax, but they didn’t object,” she said.
Coleman was tight-lipped about the proposal, but said for the second year in a row the city of St. Paul is looking at a gigantic hole in its budget.
“We’re continuing to work hard for local government aid to deal with our $16 million deficit,” Coleman said, referring further questions about the sales tax measure to Moua.
Coleman sorta summed up the culture shock involved here; he and the Gang of Four extreme liberals who dominate the Council ‘s primary goal is to work for government, as opposed to working for the governed. The mission, to these people, is to ensure government is sustained by any means necessary.
Even sleazy ones.
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:49 pm
“Nobody likes to impose a tax, but they didn’t object,”
ROTFLMAO
Mea’s got a future in stand-up.
May 22nd, 2007 at 1:44 pm
see, I don’t go to bars much, I am of the Thorogood school of drinkin’* but this makes it less likely that I will go out in St. Paul much. This smacks of chopping up the furniture to feed the fireplace.
*When I drink, I drink alone
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:15 pm
“cause I prefer to be by myself”
May 22nd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Mitch,
This was the last night of the session, they couldn’t “come back tomorrow.” doesn’t make it right, but it does give it a little context, context you conveniently left out. But since you’re an expert, perhaps you can compare and contrast this with the numerous pork bills rammed through the Republican Congress between 2001 and 2007 by voice votes in the middle of the night when most folks didn’t even have the chance to read them? They sure weren’t addicted to money, nosireebob.
What are you complaining about again? I couldn’t quite hear it above the noise of unbridled hypocrisy.
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
I think it is already pretty expensive to eat lunch in St. Paul (compared to the same or similar places around the cities). I wonder if they understand I am not going to just pay more to eat here, and that instead I will just buy lunch here less often. My lunch budget is just not elastic.
Maybe the city government wanted a chance to siphon away some of that extra ‘per diem’ money from the state legislators. *shrug*
May 22nd, 2007 at 3:22 pm
PB/Molly,
This was the last night of the session, they couldn’t “come back tomorrow.” doesn’t make it right, but it does give it a little context, context you conveniently left out.
So they couldn’t bring it up nine hours earlier?
Puh-leeze.
But since you’re an expert, perhaps you can compare and contrast this with the numerous pork bills rammed through the Republican Congress between 2001 and 2007 by voice votes in the middle of the night when most folks didn’t even have the chance to read them?
OK, I will.
I opposed them all.
Done.
They sure weren’t addicted to money, nosireebob.
Yesirreebob, they certainly became addicted to it.
Sorry to pop your preconceptions! Maybe this can be a teaching moment, PB!
What are you complaining about again? I couldn’t quite hear it above the noise of unbridled hypocrisy.
No, that’d be your galloping assumptions.
Which are, as usual, wrong.
But thanks for playing!
Love the new moniker!
May 22nd, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Peebs got a sex change? Mayhap simply gotten “in touch” with the old feminine side?
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:18 am
Thoughts on the end of the legislative session…
I tuned in and out of yesterday’s final day of the 2007 regular Legislative Session. There were a couple of interesting things that happened yesterday (besides the Cheesecake break) that I thought were interesting. Of course, I have decided to……
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:58 am
St. Paul, slowly falling back into the hole known as the “Jim Schiebel” years. So much for moderate, somewhat sensible Democrats like Kelley and Coleman. It’s falling off the left edge again. How far does it go?
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:32 am
Totally missed it where Mitch came out FOR taxes as long as they were introduced by Republicans. I got to start paying attention.