DFL targets metro drivers for $300 yearly tax increase

Proposed new taxes would cost the typical metro driver an additional $24.50 a month (almost $300 per year), according to the Star Tribune. The Dayton/DFL transportation plan raises taxes by $11 billion over 10 years.

A new 6.5% gas tax would increase as the price of a gallon of gas increases. One-half of one percent would be added to our metro sales tax for transit. 

Everyone wants well-maintained roads and public walkways. The support for bike trails, while not universal, is vocal and gaining some popularity.  So you would think that these services might be a priority use of current Bloomington tax funds.

However, you’d be wrong.  The Bloomington City Council recently singled out a specific portion of Bloomington street maintenance (street overlays) and all of its trail maintenance for new funding above and beyond the current city budget.  They decided to impose a flat monthly $3.75 per meter /address “city franchise fee” on both Xcel Energy (electricity) and CenterPoint Energy (natural gas) bills, starting in March 2016. These get directly passed along on the billing statements, so this adds up to $90 more per household (more for businesses, churches or nonprofits) per year in taxation hidden as a fee.  

Say, What??  Those new “franchise fees” that will be added to your gas and electric bills have got nothing to do with natural gas or electricity production or delivery of services.  They are a tax increase masquerading as a utility fee.

By Max Rymer

"Trash Hauling in Bloomington" - now there's a phrase I didn't think would come out of my mouth in any serious manner.

But serious is exactly what's happening right now. Bloomington's City Council, in essence, is deciding for its people that garbage hauling should be left in the hands of city and state governments.

Without the voice of the people in the form of referendum, or the possibility of choosing a type of garbage hauling service from the many capable small businesses that could do it, the Bloomington City Council has decided it will make the choice for its people.

This means: your voice is being silenced within your own community, government is attempting to overtake another role of small business (in a less efficient or cost-effective way, undoubtedly), and - potentially - you will be forced to patronize a single multi-region or multi-state hauler chosen by the city council. Not you.

Congratulations, Edina.  Your taxes have been increased, again, by a secretive and anti-democratic administrative mechanism known as Tax Increment Financing (TIF).  Like public financing for all of our local sports stadiums, TIF allows public funds to be paid to the few, mostly large corporations, by the many, in this case the tax-payers of Edina.  Earlier this month, the Edina City Council voted to grant a future developer of the Grandview site a get-out-of-tax-free card for a minimum of 26 years.

A bit of background about TIF is in order.  The concept of TIF has been around since the late 1960’s but was first codified in Minnesota in 1979.  The concept began benignly enough: encourage the development of environmentally or economically “blighted” property through the use of tax incentives for the developer.  The original idea was that an inner city property owner would use tax funds to clean up contaminated property and would then return the formerly blighted property to the tax rolls, resulting in a net increase of taxes. 

Sadly, the idea has been so twisted and abused by city governments like Edina that it bears little resemblance to its original purpose. 

The record-setting turnout at caucuses around the state has people talking about changing Minnesota’s system to hold an all-day Presidential Preference Primary vote.  MN Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey wrote a thoughtful article last week outlining the benefits of having both a primary and the caucuses.

For SD49, our caucuses this year were crucial to connecting with interested voters and volunteers.  More than 1500 voters attended a SD49 caucus for the first time. This included dozens of voters new to our area.  They got to meet neighbors who agree with their GOP Principles.  

Bloomington Council Ignores Petitions, Proceeding Without Vote

In its February 11 edition, the Bloomington Sun Current reported that the “effort to put [organized trash collection] to a vote of the city’s residents appears to have been a lost cause.”

This statement may be a bit premature.  The reporting was certainly incomplete.

The Bloomington City Council adopted its organized trash collection ordinance in mid-December on a simple vote of the city council members.  By the City Charter, residents had 30 days to petition the city to put the question to a vote of citizens.  Less than 1,250 signatures were required; approximately 1,400 were collected prior to the deadline. 

On January 15, a representative of the petition drive met with the City Clerk to discuss the Charter requirements and to review and turn in the petition. The clerk did a cursory review and indicated that the petition forms looked good and the quantity of signatures looked sufficient.

January 15, 2016

Tuesday was a historic day for our country - it was the final State of the Union address by Barack Obama.

We are all aware of the disastrous impact of the President's tenure on America's leadership and our economy - it's real and significant. There is a decline in the belief of the American Idea. Today, only 27 percent of Americans believe that their children or future generations will achieve the American Dream.

By Mitch Pearlstein ** November 8, 2015

I won't say it doesn't exist.  I will say that an excessive focus on it is an obstacle in addressing very real achievement issues.

When people say they believe a particular institution is racist, or are convinced that they their children or others have been treated unfairly for reasons of color --by educators or the police or anyone else -- I'm in no position to disagree with what's in their hearts.  My history is not theirs; their shoes are not mine, and if that is what they sincerely believe, that is what they sincerely believe.

What I can do, however, if I disagree with their views about the presence or power of race in particular situations, is to explain, with full appreciation for centuries of sinful American history, why I believe their arguments are faulty on the facts or excessive in gravity.

Special Report ** November 14, 2015

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”  -Vladimir Lenin

Like Comrade Lenin, Governor Dayton understands that the key to controlling the hearts and minds of Minnesotans to is control education and that the longer the government can control education, the “better”.  In that vein, Governor Dayton, with the committed support of SD49 Senator Melisa Franzen and Representatives Paul Rosenthal and Ron Erhardt, has been working tirelessly to expand the size and scope of Minnesota’s government, insisting that we all provide what he calls “free” education to younger and younger Minnesotans.  Governor Dayton, of course, prefers to claim that he is trying to close the “achievement gap” and that he is doing it “for the children.” In truth, he and his legislative minions are trying to move Minnesota even closer to Lenin’s paternalistic dream of cradle to grave big government.   

In 2014, the legislature, at Governor Dayton’s urging, voted to dramatically expand the role of government in the lives of our children by providing “free” all-day Kindergarten for all Minnesota children.  Previously, Minnesota families had the option to choose either all-day or half-day Kindergarten for their children and only 54% chose to send their children to all-day Kindergarten.  Beginning in 2014, the first year of implementation, our Big Government liberals took away this choice, herding all of Minnesota’s children into all-day Kindergarten.  In 2014 these new mandates drove 99.6 percent of all Minnesota Kindergarteners into all-day Kindergarten.  Governor Dayton is very proud of this, as are his supporters in the education unions.

The numbers show the need for systemic change.

Devin Foley | October 17, 2015

As you can see by the statistic shared on our billboard above, which is located directly across the street from the Minneapolis Public Schools' district headquarters, the plight of Black students in the district is absolutely unacceptable. Minneapolis has given all manner of excuses, promises, and "new" plans for years and years, yet little changes. And that's while spending an average of $21,000 or more per student each year. 

The truth of the matter is that between the years 2001 and 2014, the average reading proficiency of black students was only 33%. Again, absolutely unacceptable.