{"id":36396,"date":"2013-05-20T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-20T12:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=36396"},"modified":"2013-05-18T07:06:32","modified_gmt":"2013-05-18T12:06:32","slug":"the-mulligan-session-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=36396","title":{"rendered":"The Mulligan Session, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

The same DFL employees who gave us “E-Pulltabs” as a means of supplying “the state’s share” of an extorted payoff to an out-of-state billionaire for his real-estate upgrade (which fell 95% short of predictions, as predicted by certain right-wing bloggers) are going to try to take a mulligan and get it right on the second try<\/a>, says this piece from the\u00a0MinnPost’s\u00a0<\/em>James Nord:<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s proposal would increase the cigarette tax from $1.23 per pack to $2.52 per pack \u2013 a larger jump than the 94-cent target he\u2019d earlier proposed \u2014 and would require retailers and wholesalers to make a one-time payment on existing inventory that would funnel $24.5 million into the stadium reserve account, solving the shortfall there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where have we seen this before?<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah – cigarette taxes never, ever raise the money they’re supposed to<\/a>. \u00a0They rarely get 2\/3 of the way to their goals. \u00a0Ever.<\/p>\n

And a “one-time tax on existing inventory?” \u00a0Look for a fire sale on smokes the week before the tax goes into effect, and for chain convenience stores to shuffle inventory out of state pronto.<\/p>\n

Then, if electronic pulltabs or linked bingo games fail to produce the revenue necessary to fund the state\u2019s appropriation bonds for the stadium [“if” – heh. \u00a0Ed]<\/em>, the commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget would have the authority to direct revenue from a closed corporate income tax loophole toward the stadium.<\/p>\n

Frans said that closing the \u201ctax avoidance loophole\u201d would prohibit the current legal practice of some Minnesota companies that avoid paying full corporate income taxes on sales they make by shielding themselves through a subsidiary in a different state. He said more than 20 states have similar regulations in effect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dear Mr. Nord: \u00a0Not that I’m going to tell you how to do your job, but did you happen to ask Mr. Frans what states those were? \u00a0And how they’re doing in terms of business climate? \u00a0How well “closing” that particular “loophole” worked?<\/p>\n

Remember – these are the same people who said “E-Pulltabs” would…y’know…work.<\/p>\n

That measure is projected to bring in $26 million in the first year and roughly $20 million annually after that, although those totals could change as the conference committee works out the specifics of their compromise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frans said with the new contingency plan, which would also be backed up by current taxes on suites and memorabilia if for some reason it doesn\u2019t perform, officials are ready to close the book on the shaky stadium funding issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe it\u2019s reliable, it\u2019s consistent,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Messinger<\/del> Dayton\u00a0Administration\u00a0“believed” a lot of things that didn’t turn out to be true.<\/p>\n

If only we had an institution, with printing presses and transmitters and websites, staffed by people who see themselves as part of a truth-seeking monastic order, whose job it was to tell the public about these things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The same DFL employees who gave us “E-Pulltabs” as a means of supplying “the state’s share” of an extorted payoff to an out-of-state billionaire for his real-estate upgrade (which fell 95% short of predictions, as predicted by certain right-wing bloggers) are going to try to take a mulligan and get it right on the second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[117,132,127,77],"tags":[207],"class_list":["post-36396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dayton-dustbowl","category-mn-legislature","category-the-incredible-shrinking-governor","category-the-rare-sports-post","tag-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36396","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=36396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36397,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36396\/revisions\/36397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}