MN 16th in Tax Ranking, But Revenue Still Up?
More bad news for the Democrats. (And Sue Jeffers supporters)
Minnesota revenues were 11.5 percent — or $110 million — higher than previously predicted in May, the state Finance Department announced Monday.
“This is wonderful news,” said Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Since the state’s last revenue forecast in February, total collections over the past four months have been $265 million higher than the forecast projected.
“It continues the trend since the February forecast of positive news,” said Finance Commissioner Peggy Ingison.
Boy just think where we’d be if the DFLers Hatch, Johnson, and Entenza had their way and they got their $1.5 billion dollar tax increase.
Yes, this is also to remind people that Republicans did accomplish a lot last session. It was keeping the DFL from destroying the state’s economy. Don’t forget that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…the state economy’s turned around, we’re running a budget surplus because taxes weren’t raised to solve the budget deficit, but that doesn’t outweigh the fact that Pawlenty’s still not a fiscal conservative.
No kidding………
Pawlenty can’t take one iota for that.
TAKE A LOOK AT THIS GOVERNMENT REPORT!!!!!!!! Shows what the media knows. Minnesota’s Economic Growth was 44th. Yes, 44th! Meaning, out of 50, we only beat out 6! And one was because of a HURRICANE! What’s Pawlenty’s excuse this time?
http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrelarchive/2006/gsp0606_fax.pdf
Minnesota ain’t sitting THAT pretty, Andy.
It’s the Laffer curve, again. If you want to increase the amount of taxes you collect, lower the tax rates (to a point, of course).
Oh come on Easter, Sara is just shilling for her chic Jeffers. You see, because if it weren’t for Pawlenty, and if teh DFL was in their instead of these “embarassing” Republicans, our economy would be even better, revenues would be even higher, and ….
Oh and Sara, do you see all that bleeping dust blowing around? That is all new construction. Not lot by lot, but section by section. The economy is booming here is MN.
Wake up and smell the fact that life isn’t as oppressive under Pawlenty as YOUR candidate wants people to believe.
No, don’t you remember? The fact that Pawlenty supported the construction of the Twins stadium far outweighs any good that was created by solving a $4.5 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, such as greater-than-anticipated revenue and increased job growth.
Andy, its people like you and MDE that are hurting the party more than you are helping it.
Yes, one can’t help but notice that things are “booming”…… but that happens to be because the ecomony AS A WHOLE is in a good spot right now, as the recession is over, and people have excess revenue and income to play around with.
Now, you can’t dispute a government-sponsored, Nationwide report that states that the GROWTH is far, far below everyone else nationally.
Sure, the GOP can tout the new Twins stadium…… but do you see Pawlenty proclaiming how great the Hennepin County tax will be?
NO! YOU DON’T!
And using that stadium issue, it is VERY clear that the majority of GOP delegates did NOT approve of the new stadium deal. They even updated the Party Platform to say that everything has to go through a VOTER REFERENDUM! ha, guess ol’ T-Paw got in JUUUUUUUST under the wire.
yeah, he’s sure someone to be proud of. Compare his record even in the HOUSE versus his term as governor. it’s like he’s a whole new person up there.
….And it’s not acceptible. True conservatives in MN will NOT stand for a down-played version of John Kerry right in our own state….. at the head (for the time being) nonetheless!!!!
“Down played version of John Kerry” excuse me.
Can you back that up?
Which Government body actually is raising taxes in Hennepin County for the Twins?
As much as you may want it, we do not have a dictatorship in MN, and the Guv. has to work with the Legislature. And given that 101 of them were people seeking to make MN the #1 taxed state, increase spending across the social services side of the board exponentially, and impose Gov. mandated regulations on anything from health care to environmental/energy policies that would have crippled any and all growth in the state, he did a darn fine job finding the balancing point between the House GOP and the Sen DFL.
The Gov. himself cannot author legislation, no matter how much people wish that he could. HE has to be able to work with all the people in the legislature, and he does represent ALL of the people of MN, not just the Sue Jeffers supporters.
Andy, you missed the point completely.
Tim Pawlenty raised taxes…… because he’s too much of a pussy to veto the bill. He pandered to the Twins, to baseball supporters. He gave in, even though it was SERIOUSLY against party platform. Hell, it’s even on page 1!
So yes, it IS Tim Pawlenty’s fault. And yes, he did have quite a number of legislators that wanted tax hikes, increased spending, social programs and the like………. But the reason that they HAVE a majority now is because state party sat on its hands and gave up on races plain old didn’t give a hoot. Look at Minneapolis. Instead of trying to break up the complete powers of the DFL and Greens, they don’t even touch Minneapolis. THERE ARE STILL REPUBLICANS THERE! FIND THEM!
Party leadership and the leader of this state, together, have lost control of the legislature and have raised taxes.
….Haha, yeah, Pawlenty sure did a good job keeping the state from shutting down last year. PSH. NOT! Quite a leader, he is.
And yes….. about the John Kerry statement. Start backtracking and re-examine Tim Pawlenty, House Majority Leader, and Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota’s voting/bill signing records.
BIG. BIG. Difference. Just because he plays uber-conservative at key times doesn’t mean that he follows the consrevative principles all the time, like we elected him to do.
Or did you even really pay attention to him back then, Andy? They are two different people in my eyes. Because, you see, I respected that guy. Hell, I repected the guy that led this state for the 2002-2003. But now……. now I’m disgusted. He gave in. He’s now just a panderer with a great title.
He’s a flip-flopper on key issues.
–Stadiums. Rep.= Against Gov. = BUILDING TWO!
–Local Gov’t Aid: Rep.= Protect it! Gov. = CUT it, then likes to bitch at local mayors who virtually HAD to raise taxes to make up their losses.
–Schools Rep.= Small Classes Vital Gov.= Cut k-12 spending and class size now 38th/50. TERRIBLE!
……..Or as Education Minnesota would say “We don’t let them speak that way on the campaign trail, so don’t let them GOVERN that way at the Capitol.”
–Fees/Taxes Gov.= signed NO NEW TAXES PLEDGE. Gov.= Created a fee for cigarettes……
****This fee, as Pawlenty calls it, while it may be legal, in the hearts and minds of conservative Minnesotans, it is a tax. If one buys a pack of cigarettes, it is a MANDATORY portion of the sale that GOES TO THE GOVERNMENT****
I could continue if I wished, but frankly, you don’t care. But I thought I’d give you a taste, and explain myself.
TPaw- 2002 14 seat majority in the house.
TPaw- 2005-6 1 seat majority in the house with numerous Reps pro stadium/your other points.
If it were a “real tax and spend” Governor on Summit Ave. you’d not only be upset with what happened last session, but also the fact that MN would not be 16th in ax rating and have 3.7% unemployment rate with another unforecasted budget surplus.
Had Moe won, you’d have a $40 billion dollar budget. A 4th tax bracket, and huge unemployment number, plus all the crap you are trying to pin to him.
Glad to see Sue Jeffers camp thinks RF is the place to win the battle. BTW
Andy…….. you KEEP MISSING THE POINT!
We elected him, because we believed him when he said he would do X, Y, and Z.
For the first two years or so…. yeah, he did good.
Now……. not so much. Not saying I wished for Moe, but i AM wishing that T-Paw hadn’t let me down, and started doing things he shouldn’t, at a rate that is more than condemning.
Now, had he stuck to the plan, stuck to his principles, and stayed on the RIGHT……. then I’d be chipper.
But he didn’t, he hasn’t, and he jumped ship, then tried to climb back on and appease delegates. NOT A GOOD SCENARIO!
You’re missing the point.
The world has not collapsed. The sky has not fallen.
YOU are not happy with him, but 51% of MN is. And again, he is dealing with the people he has to.
Just look at all the times his own GOP house abandoned all things conservative. Remember the gas tax last year? TPaw vetoed that! You’re blaming it ALL on him, but had he stood up and did what you wanted him to do, and just say no to everything, he’d have been run out of town. There’d have been another shit down. And GOPers would hvae had top hide in the woods for a decade again before they ran for state wide offices again.
Hey Sara,
Why don’t you focus the obviously high amount of energy you have on electing a Republican majority in the State Senate and expanding the Republican majority in the State House? I believe you will find harnessing your energy for that purpose rather pillorying Pawlenty for his apostasy to be much more productive.
You can gripe and moan about how T-Paw has let you down, but you’ll have a lot more to gripe and moan about if Speaker Kelliher Anderson, Majority Leader Johnson, and Governor Hatch get to run the show.
Sara:
I don’t get it.
You go after Pawlenty for cutting LGA. But if he hadn’t done so, state revenues would have had to somehow be raised or something would have had to be cut. Where in the state budget do you propose that money should have come from? Furthermore, his position was NOT a flip-flop. Just because he voted to fund LGA at a certain level as a Representative doesn’t mean he had to continue to support that same level of funding as a Governor. That’s ridiculous.
You also say Pawlenty is a flip flopper because you think MN class sizes are too large. But education spending under Pawlenty HAS NOT GONE DOWN! And honestly, what do you think it takes to make class sizes smaller? That’s right … even more money. So if you think that class sizes should be reduced, again, tell me where in the state budget you think that money should come from? And do you honestly think Pawlenty doesn’t support decreased class sizes? Unfortunately, it’s a matter of priorities in education funding. And for Pawlenty, providing increases in per pupil funding so that locally controlled school districts can use the funds as they see fit is more important than creating unfunded mandates (i.e. certain class size numbers).
You say “–Fees/Taxes Gov.= signed NO NEW TAXES PLEDGE. Gov.= Created a fee for cigarettes……” But you fail to note that Pawlenty did not sign a “No New Fees Pledge.” This is NOT a flip flop. I’m not going to even go into the legal differences between a fee and a tax, because it clearly won’t matter to you. We disagree and should just leave it at that. I’m just happy that as a married filing jointly taxpayer, my taxes are going down, thanks to Pawlenty. And that the sales tax wasn’t increased. And neither was the gas tax.
On stadiums, what do you think is worse: signing the stadium bill? Or losing the Twins? What do you think voters are more likely to remember and not appreciate? Do you honestly think that losing the Twins would be the best thing for Minnesota?
Everything is a balancing act and when you’re governing. It’s not as easy as you make it sound. By taking money from one part of the state budget to fund another, other problems arise. And by losing amenities, economies suffer. There is always a domino effect.
There may be things we all disagree with that he’s done (for example, I think the whole gambling thing was ridiculous), but all in all, given the political dynamics of the state we live in, I don’t think we could ask for much more from a Republican governor in this traditionally Democratics state, with a DFL-dominated legislature. If you think otherwise, you’re blind to the political realities that Republicans in elected offices in this state deal with everyday.
Hey Sara, since you seem to be a spokesperson for Jeffers, can you tell us all how she feels about the new Gopher’s stadium? I’m sure her business will be booming from that one. If I am correct, Stub & Herb’s is awfully darn close to that location. (I think?)
Did she oppose that one on “principle” too, and feel that it would be better off not to spend state money on that, even though her business would not get an increase in revenue from all that new business?
Just curious to see if she would have opposed that one, eventhough her business would have prospered.
“TPaw- 2002 14 seat majority in the house.
TPaw- 2005-6 1 seat majority in the house with numerous Reps pro stadium/your other points.”
And no majority in the Senate.
I think those numbers have more to do with an evolution of policy than anything else.
FYI: for all you idiots that don’t read (andy.)
SUE DOESN’T OPPOSE STADIUMS!
She opposes PUBLIC FUNDING WITHOUT A VOTER REFERENDUM….
……..AND SO DOES THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF MINNESOTA.
haha…… except, oops, Pawlenty’s King. So he can just say “Now, I know I’ve let some of you down”……. and call it good.
No good, Tim. NO good.
And for the record. Sue’s establishment wouldn’t be too far from the new Gophers stadium, and she’s always said she “bleeds maroon and old”….. its in a lot of old press releases and articles.
Try doing a little back research before you keep opening your damn mouth (and then proceeding to type what crap comes out).
“Try doing a little back research before you keep opening your damn mouth (and then proceeding to type what crap comes out).”
Such love. I just can’t wait to have to work with these people should Sue Jeffers win the GOP Primary. And this just bolds so well for her make people work together in St. Paul plan.
Andy, I have nothing to do with Sue…… though maybe I’ll get involved in a parade or something. I, myself, just happen to really enjoy following this race, because the drama has been shown in a flaring fashion.
But, on that note, I’m glad I WON’T have to work with someone as pigheaded as yourself.
If you are not with her camp, you should stop using this as your URL
http://www.SUEJEFFERS.org/
You do not need a URL to comment here.
What are you 3 years old? “Pigheaded” That the best you can do?
Well, andy, glad to see you’re quoting me……I’ve made the side-bar. ALRIGHT!!!
But yes, I use the URL for Sue’s website because with some of the comments I make, I am sure people would love to see if I have a blog of my own. Since I do not, my link will lead them straight towards Sue’s site.
And as for pigheaded…… I could have gone as far as asshole, but I think you’re only borderline there…. because asshole implies pure meanness and sarcasm. You, however, are nearly religious to the Republican Party. Hence, when you bash Sue Jeffers, the finest canididate running for governor of this fine state, I define that as merely being pigheaded and stubborn.