Free Republic

What the young learners have in store for them in the future is anybody's guess. Legislators wish to create something called a "school climate center," which sounds meteorological, but would be, instead, a command center to fight bullying. Fight bullying? It sounds like no fighting in the war room, from "Dr. Strangelove." Bullying is a bad thing, and I imagine teachers and administrators and even the kids know it when they see it. But that isn't enough. It is apparently painful to DFLers -- all of whom passed the new anti-bullying measure in the House -- that Minnesota's anti-bullying law...

Four months ago when the legislative session began no one knew what to expect. It would be the first time in more than 20 years that the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate as well as the Governor’s office. Now with just three weeks before the scheduled adjournment of the 2013 legislative session the intent of the DFL lawmakers actions are clear. They are doing everything imaginable in their power to drive entrepreneurs and job creators out of Minnesota. Just like a bunch of young cowboys driving a herd of cattle, the message these cowboys are sending to...

Recent events at the Capitol make clear that we ­Minnesotans are on track for one of the biggest tax increases in recent state history. But suppose you could wave a magic wand and erase our budget deficit, pay off the $801 million left from the school shift, actually have a surplus — and do it all without raising taxes. There’d be dancing in the streets, right? Well, our legislators could do precisely that right now. They would simply need to freeze spending for the next biennium at current levels — about $35 billion — and we wouldn’t need a dime...

House DFLers are going after "The One Percent" in a big way. Make that the 1.1 percent of Minnesotans who earn the highest incomes. The DFL-controlled House passed a tax bill -- 69-64 with all Republicans voting "no" -- Wednesday, April 24, that creates a new, fourth income tax bracket with an 8.49 percent rate -- up from the current 7.85 percent rate -- for the top-earning 1.1 percent of Minnesotans -- couples with taxable incomes over $400,000. On top of that, the bill would impose a temporary 4 percent income tax surcharge on the 0.5 percent of taxpayers making...

Editor's note: Reacting to a proposed tax affecting Minnesota "snowbirds," U.S. Rep. Trey Radel, a Fort Myers, Fla., Republican, sent this letter to Gov. Mark Dayton. It was published recently in the Naples Daily News.Dear Gov. Mark Dayton, I'm writing today to thank you. As a Floridian, I am overjoyed to hear about your plan to raise taxes on Minnesotans, most especially the so-called "snowbirds." Your proposal gives us a chance to shine here in the Sunshine State. We love to share southwest Florida with snowbirds from all over the country. We are proud to host or be home to...

Spend most of the year in St. Pete, pay the government in St. Paul. You may have heard it can get cold in Minnesota in January, or for that matter in April. Last week the temperature dropped to seven below zero in the Twin Cities, which is one reason many Midwesterners head to Florida or Arizona for the winter. But now Governor Mark Dayton wants to tax the snowbirds even if they are no longer legally state residents. "There is a snowbird tax—absolutely," the Democratic Governor told reporters the other day. . . . Details are sketchy, but the idea...

With a majority of the state's precincts reporting early Wednesday, Nov. 7, a proposed constitutional amendment to write man-woman marriage into the constitution has apparently lost. The defeat is historic, making Minnesota the first state to turn back an attempt to write man-woman marriage into a state constitution. The Associated Press said around 1:45 a.m. that the marriage amendment was defeated. But Chuck Darrell of Minnesota for Marriage, the lead group supporting the amendment, wasn't giving up. "No, we're not conceding. There's just too many counties out there," he said. Meanwhile, Richard Carlbom, campaign manager for Minnesotans United for All...

Democratic lawmaker called on to resign for having oral sex with boy, 17, in bushes at public rest stop after meeting him on Craigslist Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2191164/Kerry-Gauthier-Democratic-lawmaker-called-resign-having-oral-sex-teen-bushes.html#ixzz24DL9gNTt

State Democratic leaders are increasing pressure on a DFL legislator not to seek re-election after authorities said he had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy at a rest stop in Duluth. "I am deeply disappointed with Rep. Kerry Gauthier's conduct," said House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis. "The conduct was wrong and ... I believe he should withdraw from the race for re-election." Last week, the St. Louis County attorney's office decided not to pursue charges against Gauthier, a first-term legislator from Duluth, for allegedly engaging in oral sex with a 17-year-old boy in a wooded area behind the...

Kurt Bills' campaign released an online ad Monday, July 30, that mimics nearly shot for shot the landmark 1990 campaign ad entitled "Fast Paced Paul." That offbeat ad introduced Wellstone, then a virtually unknown college professor, to Minnesota voters. Initially seen as a sure loser, Wellstone upset incumbent Republican Rudy Boschwitz that year. Bills -- a high school economics teacher also largely unknown to state voters -- is encouraging a comparison as he challenges the popular and well-funded Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar. The version from Bills, "Quick Kurt," can only be viewed online.

Minnesota's secretary of state is our state's chief elections official. His duty to impartially administer elections requires him -- more than any other constitutional officer --to remain above the fray of partisan politics. Yet on the proposed voter ID amendment, which he opposes, Mark Ritchie has replaced the Legislature's straightforward title with a fog of bureaucratic gobbledygook. . . . Ritchie pulled a similar stunt on the marriage amendment, substituting a title that polling shows will likely push the vote toward his favored result. ... Ritchie knows partisan politics is strictly off-limits in his job. He acknowledged this in a...

Let us bury, once and for all, the unsupported assertions that Minnesota's election system is the best in the nation and there is no evidence of ineligible voting. Consider that on Election Day in 2008, more than 500,000 people walked into polling places, filled out pieces of paper called Voter Registration Applications, and then voted. The state treated these individuals differently from those of you who registered prior to the election. Specifically, your registration information was compared to the Department of Public Safety records indicating you are a citizen and are not a felon with unrestored voting rights. Additionally, your...

Dedicated readers of Minnesota Democrats Exposed began notifying us of robo-calls being sent out of a Washington, D.C. call center into the districts of GOP lawmakers over the last several weeks. The calls, paid for by the AFL-CIO union organizing machine, ask union members to stay on the line while they directly connect the caller to the phone number of their state representative, where they are encouraged to leave messages about how they strongly support tax increases to protect union jobs. Many callers, however, used the connection to their legislator as a chance to say “thanks” for standing up to...

Last Thursday, California's liberal Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a balanced budget that doesn't raise income taxes. Imagine that -- on the same day that Minnesota's governor insisted on implementing a significant income tax increase, California -- a state that faced a budget deficit five times larger than Minnesota's -- did the right thing. It is living within its means. Fact is, we're the only state in the nation without a budget. That is because Gov. Mark Dayton is unable to shake the urge to fall back on the failed tax-and-spend politics of the 1960s. It's hard to imagine...

What we have here is a failure to compromise. Much of the state budget could have been passed, but the governor chose not to get those parts of the deal done. At midnight the lights went out unnecessarily on lots of state workers and government functions tied to parts of the budget that could have been passed. At the 11th hour legislators proposed a lights-on measure that would have kept the government running for a few more days. The governor dismissed it as a gimmick. In other words, bring on the pain - an unnecessary infliction of pain. But, as...

How did Minnesota careen off the cliff to a government shutdown? Looking back, we could have predicted on Jan. 3, 2011 -- the day Gov. Mark Dayton took office -- that we'd face a shutdown "crisis" in June. Dayton is the old-fashioned version of a tax-and-spend liberal. He yearns, with almost religious fervor, to increase government spending and to hike taxes on "the wealthy." In 2010, he squeaked into office by a mere 9,000 votes, in a political climate that swept fiscally conservative Republicans into power across the nation and in the Minnesota Legislature. Dayton's election was something of a...

During the gubernatorial campaign, Mark Dayton said he would not shut down government. In his State of the State address, Gov. Dayton said: "It should not happen; it need not happen - not as long as we are willing to work together and to compromise our individual views for the common good." We couldn't agree more. As Republican leaders in the Minnesota Legislature, we have no interest in shutting down government. We want to get down to brass tacks and resolve the state's budget before the June 30 deadline. But we are currently the only party to this negotiation. Despite...

Repeated again the other day in a letter to the editor by Ron Schally of Stacy, Minn., was the contention that Gov. Mark Dayton's family trust sits in South Dakota, avoiding much of his " 'tax the wealthy' pitch." I sympathize with Mr. Schally, although I can't quite nail down the location of Dayton's trust, how much it is worth and what exactly it means for the trust to be sitting in South Dakota. I called the guy who does my taxes, but being a smart fellow, he was out enjoying the few days of summer we might get this...

< snip > Dayton's plan is appalling -- not only for the services it deems "critical" but, more important, for those it does not. For example, the governor plans to stop all aid payments to schools. Additionally, health care providers who serve Minnesotans on medical assistance will also go without payment. And at a legislative hearing this week, an administration official acknowledged that bridge assessments also did not make Dayton's list, apparently failing to meet the governor's "critical service" standard. < snip > Dayton is hiding behind the state's courts and Constitution to justify a cynical and draconian plan motivated...

Republican legislative leaders said today they are disappointed that Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton pulled two of his key budget commissioners out of a legislative budget session today. Calling the action counterproductive, they said it's important to get a better understanding of what types of budget cuts Dayton wants to prioritize as the two sides try to resolve a projected $5 billion deficit. They also rejected Dayton's recommendation that a professional mediator help them bridge their differences. "We were elected to lead,'' House Speaker Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove, said. The Republican response came two hours after Dayton announced he had asked...