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Madd Max 
Group: Members
Posts: 1345
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Apr. 04 2007,12:18 pm |
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Before the rich can be soaked, they have to pay their fair share
By Nick Coleman, Star Tribune
Last update: April 03, 2007 – 10:25 PM
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Nick Coleman
Nick Coleman: Before the rich can be soaked, they have to pay their fair share
Nick Coleman: If Heffelfinger hadn't quit, would he have been purged?
Nick Coleman: Limit the number of charter schools? It's about time
Nick Coleman: With a best friend like Minneapolis, St. Paul better worry
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With the advent of global warming, Minnesota can no longer count on brutally cold weather to keep out the riffraff.
We need high taxes for that.
I'm only joking, but you'd think the Legislature's proposal to raise income taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Minnesota taxpayers amounts to putting signs up at the Iowa and Wisconsin lines saying, "Keep Out, Rich People."
It's an intriguing idea, I admit. No more rich people? No more Xanadus on Minnetonka, no ever-increasing demands for corporate tax breaks and endless public subsidies. But the headlines in the newspaper practically have been apocalyptic -- "State's top tax rate may lead nation!"
To me, the headlines have a nostalgic quality. Ah, it feels so good to lead the nation again.
In something.
But the truth is that while the quality of life in Minnesota has been deteriorating in almost every way that matters to common people, Minnesota's wealthiest have been getting a tax break that they don't need and don't deserve. And the result is that the cost of government has shifted unfairly to the middle class while the things that matter to the middle class -- public schools, roads, public safety -- have declined.
If raising taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Minnesotans to the level they were at before conservative Candy Men went on a welfare-for-the-rich binge is what it takes to turn things around, well, I think Minnesotans would make the sacrifice. We aren't stupid.
According to the state's Department of Revenue, Minnesota households earning between $45,000 to $105,000 (the state's median income is about $47,000) pay 12.3 percent in state and local taxes, while households earning above $105,000 pay 10.9 percent. The very wealthiest Minnesotans, earning more than $355,000, pay about 9 percent.
So the rate for the middle class is about one-third higher than for the rich.
You want apocalyptic headlines? Try this: "Minnesota soaks middle class while the rich skate!"The "progressive" state of Minnesota has adopted a regressive tax system that is becoming more regressive. And it's time to call a halt to that.
For five years, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been playing a shell game and pretending taxes haven't gone up. All the while, licenses and fees have shot up by $1 billion, and property taxes have been going through the roof -- averaging an 11 percent increase per year. Since Pawlenty came into office, residential property taxes have increased $1.4 billion, or $866 per household, according to Wayne Cox of Minnesota Citizens for Tax Justice.
"We spend less money per capita, when you adjust for inflation, than we did five years ago," says Cox. "That's why schools are in financial disarray and the roads have gone to hell and cities have been laying off firefighters and police officers. The Legislature is trying to get the state back to the level of services we had before."
The Senate tax plan would shift some of the increased tax burden on the wealthiest to property tax relief, a reasonable effort to relieve pressure on middle-class homeowners. To hear Pawlenty tell it, the DFL is just up to its dirty old tax-and-spend tricks. But the real trickster here is Pawlenty, who has started running radio ads, paid for by his campaign committee, trying to confuse voters.
"Call your legislators and tell them you're taxed enough," Pawlenty says in the ad.
OK, Minnesotans believe we are taxed enough. But Minnesotans also believe everyone should pay their fair share.
The richest among us don't.
So don't be fooled by No New Taxes Pawlenty's ads: What they really are saying is, "Please don't ask the wealthiest 1 percent to pay as much as you do."
If Minnesota falls for more of that, we will continue to pay more and more for state government while getting less and less. Meanwhile, a chosen few would continue to be excused from paying their fair share.
Nick Coleman • ncoleman@startribune.com
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Heck, if crazy were a pre-existing condition, the GOP wouldn't be able to get insurance. James Carville
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TameThaTane
Group: Members
Posts: 6300
Joined: May 2005
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Posted on: Apr. 04 2007,12:26 pm |
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Wha? You don't want to pay more taxes? We'll destroy em! ----Gabe.
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My choice is what I choose to do,
And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you.
Your choice is who you choose to be,
And if you're causin' no harm, then you're alright with me.
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ICU812
Group: Super Administrators
Posts: 3244
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Apr. 04 2007,1:40 pm |
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Always a story about raising taxes - never a story on cutting the size and jobs of government. FEED THE BEAST
My plan would be you pay 9%, I pay 9%, he pays 9%, eveyone pays 9 %, if that isn't enough, tough cut some spending.
| Quote | | That's why schools are in financial disarray and the roads have gone to hell and cities have been laying off firefighters and police officers. The Legislature is trying to get the state back to the level of services we had before." |
Never heard of a PO os FF getting layed off round here.
12.5+ billion a year isn't enough for education.  will 20 billion get rid of the disarray? Doubt it.
Why is education so expensive, read yesterdays paper, there is a position at the school that pays who knows for a guy to tell others to turn the lights off. Come on a job in a school district called a District Energy Manager. (As Garage Logic would say "Don't tell me we don't have any money"). And they cut teachers jobs but still have a District Energy Manager in "tough times". As Stossel says Give Me a Break!!
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| Post Number: 4
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TameThaTane
Group: Members
Posts: 6300
Joined: May 2005
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Posted on: Apr. 04 2007,2:27 pm |
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OK, let me break it down for you. It's like this. 1/3 of all people work for government. That means that it's always those 1/3 crying to get more tax money from everyone so it can grow and expand.
Rome fell because to many people were in government and to few to pay in. We are on the same course. It's governments nature to grow, to expand. Just look around you. The sad parrt is we have a media actively helping them, by reporting biased crap like how we NEED to spend $40 million for a new jail and the like. How we NEED to fight the drug war. How schools NEED more $$$...the list goes on and on.
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My choice is what I choose to do,
And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you.
Your choice is who you choose to be,
And if you're causin' no harm, then you're alright with me.
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Eddie Cochran's Ghost
Group: Members
Posts: 437
Joined: Feb. 2007
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Posted on: Apr. 05 2007,2:50 am |
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Nick Coleman is a farce.
Socialism, ain't it great?
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| Post Number: 6
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bianca
Group: Members
Posts: 1882
Joined: Dec. 2006
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Posted on: Apr. 05 2007,6:47 am |
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I'm still curious to know how he got re-elected But then again never understood how Bush did either (oh, that's right he rigged the votes in his favor) 
there is a position at the school that pays who knows for a guy to tell others to turn the lights off.
I think they called that position a janitor in my day, but then again we didn't pay for a woman to drive around the parking lot all day at the highschool either.
Come on a job in a school district called a District Energy Manager.
Would that be on the same payscale as our "homeland security position" that they want to turn into a full-time position?
I like some of the stuff Harig has done, but this homeland security business is IMO, a huge waste of money.
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I believe in the patriotism and energy and initiative of the average man. Woodrow Wilson
Early in life, I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. — Frank Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)
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| Post Number: 7
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diehard
Group: Members
Posts: 78
Joined: Mar. 2007
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Posted on: Apr. 05 2007,7:02 pm |
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I heard an interesting story on MPR about fee increases. The dems ripped T-Paw about them in the last election. But now they are trying to increase them. The one example they used in the story was for boats under 19 feet. 2 years ago T paw increased them by 50% and now the Senate dems want to increase them by another 50%!
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| Post Number: 8
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scorenix
Group: Members
Posts: 1147
Joined: Dec. 2004
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Posted on: Apr. 05 2007,7:55 pm |
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| Quote (diehard @ April 05 2007,7:02pm) | | I heard an interesting story on MPR about fee increases. The dems ripped T-Paw about them in the last election. But now they are trying to increase them. |
Now you're acting confused again. Pawlenty said no to increased taxes. Then he went and raised fees, but didn't call them taxes, and said they fell outside his promise not to increase taxes. Is a fee different from a tax? It used to be a cigarette tax. Pawlenty called the increase a fee. So Pawlenty is right to be called a hypocrite.
You really do see things through Dem/Rep glasses, don't you?
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"Here is something for those who think I have not done much on my own to think about. I must then be one of the luckiest people around, and I think I am, I should then be able to keep that same luck going for the benefit of our area." - New ALEDA Executive Director Dan Dorman.
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| Post Number: 9
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diehard
Group: Members
Posts: 78
Joined: Mar. 2007
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Posted on: Apr. 05 2007,8:57 pm |
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| Quote (scorenix @ April 05 2007,7:55pm) | | Quote (diehard @ April 05 2007,7:02pm) | | I heard an interesting story on MPR about fee increases. The dems ripped T-Paw about them in the last election. But now they are trying to increase them. |
Now you're acting confused again. Pawlenty said no to increased taxes. Then he went and raised fees, but didn't call them taxes, and said they fell outside his promise not to increase taxes. Is a fee different from a tax? It used to be a cigarette tax. Pawlenty called the increase a fee. So Pawlenty is right to be called a hypocrite.
You really do see things through Dem/Rep glasses, don't you? |
LOL
I think they are both full of BS. Pawlenty raised taxes and fees. Lost my vote in the last election because of it, not because he did it, but because he could not own up to it.
The Dems on the other hand, when out of power complained about the "fee increase" and are now doing the same thing.
Nice try on the "can't get um on the facts so lets attack the person".
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| Post Number: 10
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scorenix
Group: Members
Posts: 1147
Joined: Dec. 2004
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Posted on: Apr. 05 2007,9:30 pm |
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| Quote (diehard @ April 05 2007,8:57pm) | | Quote (scorenix @ April 05 2007,7:55pm) | | Quote (diehard @ April 05 2007,7:02pm) | | I heard an interesting story on MPR about fee increases. The dems ripped T-Paw about them in the last election. But now they are trying to increase them. |
Now you're acting confused again. Pawlenty said no to increased taxes. Then he went and raised fees, but didn't call them taxes, and said they fell outside his promise not to increase taxes. Is a fee different from a tax? It used to be a cigarette tax. Pawlenty called the increase a fee. So Pawlenty is right to be called a hypocrite.
You really do see things through Dem/Rep glasses, don't you? |
LOL
I think they are both full of BS. Pawlenty raised taxes and fees. Lost my vote in the last election because of it, not because he did it, but because he could not own up to it.
The Dems on the other hand, when out of power complained about the "fee increase" and are now doing the same thing.
Nice try on the "can't get um on the facts so lets attack the person". |
It's my understanding, and I could be wrong, that Dems attacked Pawlenty because he couldn't own up to the fact that his fees were really tax increases. I don't think the Dems necessarily attacked him for increasing the fees. Especially considering the fact that Dems wanted tax increases for education, transportation, etc.
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"Here is something for those who think I have not done much on my own to think about. I must then be one of the luckiest people around, and I think I am, I should then be able to keep that same luck going for the benefit of our area." - New ALEDA Executive Director Dan Dorman.
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