{"id":2119,"date":"2008-02-14T06:42:20","date_gmt":"2008-02-14T11:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2119"},"modified":"2008-02-14T06:42:20","modified_gmt":"2008-02-14T11:42:20","slug":"finger-in-their-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2119","title":{"rendered":"Finger In Their Eye"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve said it before &#8211; Tim Pawlenty is pretty much the best stump speaker in Minnesota politics.<\/p>\n<p>And I wish I could have been there for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.startribune.com\/politics\/state\/15588472.html\">this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a State of the State address rich in tributes to Minnesota&#8217;s pioneering spirit, Pawlenty urged cooperation across party lines to improve the state&#8217;s transportation system. But he drew perhaps his strongest response when he brandished his pen and declared his determination to &#8220;restrain taxes and spending,&#8221; a message that has been at the center of his tenure as governor.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I call it the taxpayer protection pen, otherwise known as the veto pen,&#8221; Pawlenty said, pulling the pen from his left breast pocket. &#8220;As you know I will not hesitate to use it. &#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The threat was a shot across the bow to DFL majorities in both houses of the Legislature, whose leaders have in recent days declared their own intentions to quickly pass several measures to increase taxes, particularly for transportation funding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>For those of you not from Minnesota, the story is simple.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When times are good, the DFL tries to raise taxes.\u00a0 See:\u00a0 The nineties.\u00a0 There were surpluses (in other words, the people of Minnesota were <em>over-taxed <\/em>every year; taxes took in more than the budget called for.\u00a0 In every case, up through the end of the Ventura administration (which was a DFL administration with a big, shaven-headed &#8220;Independence&#8221; party figurehead), the DFL <em>spent every last nickel <\/em>of every surplus.<\/li>\n<li>When times\u00a0 are\u00a0 tougher,\u00a0 the DFL on the other hand tries to <em>raise <\/em>taxes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nothing new here:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>DFL leaders faulted the Republican governor for providing few specifics on how to respond to weakening economic conditions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was disappointing that the governor did not address more straight on how we can produce more jobs in this state and do our part together to reverse the 23,000 lost jobs in this state in the last six months. That was a real disappointment today,&#8221; said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But then, either did Kelliher &#8211; also known as &#8220;the best Speaker of the House the GOP could have asked for&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>House and Senate Republican leaders heralded one of the few new initiatives proposed in the speech &#8212; the idea of a tax reform commission to consider changes in tax law to spur job growth.&#8221;If we can&#8217;t grow Minnesota business we can&#8217;t sustain all the services that government wants to do and perhaps needs to do,&#8221; said Senate Minority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What?\u00a0 Taxes?<\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;d think a good DFLer would&#8230;er&#8230;um&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But the proposal of a tax commission fell flat for Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis.<\/p>\n<p>Pogemiller said the state&#8217;s tax system has grown increasingly less fair by forcing property tax increases on homeowners, renters and businesses and by failing to close corporate loopholes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think continually admiring the problem is probably not the most productive thing to do. Anybody can cut things. It takes creativity and leadership to bring revenue to the table,&#8221; Pogemiller said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Look at the bright side, Minnesota.\u00a0 With people like Kelliher and Pogemiller in charge on the DFL side of the aisle, we&#8217;re probably safe from the spectre of a whole lot of DFL achievements.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve said it before &#8211; Tim Pawlenty is pretty much the best stump speaker in Minnesota politics. And I wish I could have been there for this: In a State of the State address rich in tributes to Minnesota&#8217;s pioneering spirit, Pawlenty urged cooperation across party lines to improve the state&#8217;s transportation system. But he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}