Posted on 06/30/2011 10:37:49 PM PDT by matt04
Minnesota state government goes into shutdown as budget talks end without deal on $5B deficit.
Talks between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and top Republicans fell apart well before a midnight deadline. Dayton demanded tax increases on top earners, but the GOP refused.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Instead of looking at their feet and mumbling about a 6% increase in government, every GOP legislator should proudly proclaim their opposition to the kind of increased government spending that has bankrupted our future and put us on a fiscal footing one step above Greece.
Editorials across the state recognize that Governor Dayton is reneging on his pledge to avoid a government shutdown.
Citizens recognize that Dayton is playing shutdown politics by not calling a special session and by refusing to close out budget program areas that are agreed upon.
It seems some Republicans are snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.
We have principled leaders who are squared off against a weak, erratic governor who was a failure as a U.S. Senator and who won his seat by a margin of only 8,000 votes.
And we have GOP legislators out there talking about new revenues!?
So what happens if a budget deal comes together that includes hundreds of millions or even a billion in new revenues?
Those who exhorted the GOP to compromise by larding another billion on to the budget will go out and do what they did in 2010 - work and vote for DFL candidates.
Independents, who swung hard to the GOP in 2010 for fiscal reasons, will once again be up for grabs because the GOP failed to deliver on their central promise, feeding
the cynicism so many independents feel regarding the state of our politics.
And the GOP base will be left demoralized, disappointed, and dispirited. After being forced to swallow the turd of double digit spending increases, we’ll be given a
small breath mint entitled, “well, at least we didn’t raise income taxes.”
Taking away tax deductions is a tax increase for those who lose it. Expanding the sales tax in a way that generates more revenue is a tax increase. Minnesota doesn’t
need tax increases, no matter the form. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
The state has enjoyed an average spending growth rate of 21% percent since 1960. It is time for government to yield to the reality of our dire fiscal situation.
This is the best opportunity Republicans have had in the modern era to craft the kind of limited, efficient, and transparent government that defines the essence
of our collective conservative values.
To lose this opportunity to Governor Dayton and the Democrats would be an infamy almost beyond comprehension.
This is a defining moment in the career of all 109 Republican legislators.
My perception of the numbers is a bit different, but I agree on principle.
The aspect of generalizations being applied across the board 100% confuses the issues and is totally misused in these arguments.
Correct. That was my point.
I don't buy it.
And Dayton STILL wanted more.
The guy needs to be in a looney bin. Seriously.
Nobility has nothing to do with it. When we speak in public with such a broad brush or post on a board without qualification people build perceptions of us. It is politically foolish to use such imagery.
The challenge is to find ways to help them in the short term and get them working in the longer term.
There are adults out there who cannot walk, speak, or use a toilet.
Compassion is not rewarding slothful, albeit criminal, behavior. Compassion is getting these people to work, dontcha think?
Compassion is a private matter. Charity is ruined by government. Doncha think?
The guy is medicated already, IIRC. He had numerous opportunities to call a special session and pass ‘lights on’ bills. He failed to do so. He had numerous opportunities to call a special session and fund parts of government on which there was agreement. He failed to do so.
It’s the Dayton Shutdown now and forever.
So do Democrats plan to just keep raising taxes until they take 100% if the income of the anyone who is a producer?
Both the GOP House and Senate budget targets propose to spend just over $34 billion in the upcoming budget cycle. That’s a fact.
The next fact is that the state will spend about $30 billion in the current budget cycle, which ended June 30.
Any first grader can tell you that these numbers mean that the GOP intends to INCREASE spending in the next budget cycle, not CUT spending.
The numbers make for about a proposed 13% increase in state spending.
Only in leftist government world does a 13% INCREASE in government equal to a “severe cut”.
The cause for panic amongst the Marxist set was the annual release of the Minnesota Tax Incidence Study published by the Minnesota Department of Revenue (DOR).
The study causes lawmakers and policy makers to sit up and take notice because it is thorough, accurate, reputable, and professional. The study is put together everyyear by a team of non-partisan tax professionals at DOR who enjoy a reputation forunbiased and objective work in an area that inevitably attracts emotional and vitriolic rhetoric.
The same reputation for professional and unbiased work, unfortunately, isn’t enjoyed by the “journalists” who toil at the liberal rags that pass for newspapers and legitimatepublic policy web sites.
They shrieked their collective horror at the study’s conclusion that the top 10% of income earners in Minnesota pay 10.3% of their income in state and local taxeswhile the other 90% pay 12.3%.
This news, of course, drives liberals nuts because in their world, successful peopleshould be punished while the less successful should be rewarded. The lever for thatbalancing is the government, which is asleep at the switch, in their view.
Inevitably, the news over the next days and weeks will be filled with calls by the DFL and their media allies to “balance” the state’s increasingly “regressive” tax system by raising taxes on job creators and, by the way, bringing some more moolah into state coffers to help sustain those double digit spending hikes that are so critical to the government economy that sustains liberal politicians by sustaining their political patrons (e.g. teacher unions and the social services industrial complex).
The dirty secret is that these outlets are cherry picking the data and not telling the full story.
There are two ways that a tax system becomes more regressive. The first is to cut taxes for those at the top of the income distribution ladder. The other way is to increase taxes for those at the bottom.
All taxes aren’t created equal. Some are progressive in nature while others are regressive.
A system has been created to measure taxes on this continuum. The “Suits Index” is a system that tells us which taxes are progressive and which are regressive and how much so.
Check out the taxes that are most regressive:
· Tobacco taxes;
· Minnesota’s “sick tax” to fund state health care;
· Utility taxes;
· Gasoline taxes;
· Estate taxes;
· Gambling taxes;
· General sales taxes;
· Corporate taxes (which in some fashion are passed to consumers).
Think about it. Dems have participated in raising just about every one of these taxes in the recent past. And then they turn around and cry foul over a system that has become more regressive.
Now there are two way to fix this “problem,” if that’s what you think should be done from a public policy perspective.
You could adopt the rat plan, which is to raise progressive taxes, meaning the income tax, and therefore bring more money into government.
The alternative is to cut regressive taxes, which is what House Speaker Kurt Zellers suggested in response to the media breathlessly demanding his reaction to the newsthat job creators and other successful people aren’t ponying up their “fair share.”
Are the wealthy paying up when it comes to taxes?
Take the income tax, for example.
When broken down by decile, you can see that the successful pay the majority of the income tax. And the less motivated amongst us?
The bottom 10% don’t pay ANY income taxes. In fact, they get back from the state over $17 million through refundable credits and other goodies.
The next 10% pay NO income taxes and receive $23 million in refunds.
The next 10% pay in, net, a little over $4 million, which is less than 1% of the total income tax collected.
The next 10% pay, net, about $80 million, about 1.1% of the total.
The next 10% pay, net, about $207 million, about 3% of the total.
The next 10% pay , net, about $357 million, about 5% of the total.
The next 10%, net, pay about $526 million, about 7.5% of the total.
The next 10%, net, pay about $788 million, about 11% of the total.
The next 10% pay, net, about $1.2 BILLION, about 17% of the total.
The next 10% pay, net, about $4 BILLION, about 56% of the total.
Put another way, the top 20% (those with household incomes above $90,000 per year) pay nearly three-quarters of the income tax while the bottom 20% pay nothing and even get something back.
Put another way, the top 5% of households (households income above $183,000) pay about 43% of the income tax.
Put yet another way, the top 1% (household incomes above $430,000 per year) payabout 25% of the income tax.
That is what the media won’t be telling you about Minnesota’s tax burden.
Are the successful paying their fair share? They most certainly are and then some.
If the DFL wants a more progressive system, maybe they ought to rethink all the regressive taxes they’ve embraced to satisfy other elements of their constituency.
McCotter is from Michigan.
And no, I'm not trying to be funny.
does anybody have a phone number for Dayton so that we can call and raise Hell?
Thanks for the reminder. I should post that to FB every now and then.
“I cannot accept a Minnesota where people with disabilities lose part of the time being cared for by personal care attendants so that millionaires do not have to pay one dollar more in taxes,” he said.
And I suppose those millionaires can pack their bags and leave taking their money witht hem. There are much better places to live.
I have a co-worker who just got elected as township supervisor or some such. He claimed a rep came in and discussed what was going on with them and said that there has been no negotiation by the legislature and that we are not hearing much of what is going on, or that what we are hearing is poor information about it. I tried like heck to convince him that taxing the so-called rich was not the path to prosperity for the several states or federal government and that neither one of us had a legitimate claim to the earnings of anyone else. He got all indignant about the "excessive" salaries of CEOs and such, so it was basically a lost cause.
Yes and at that rate the producers will no longer produce.
bttt
I’m in Minnesota and have watched this whole thing closely. Its important because I believe its a coordinated plan by Dems at the national and state level. They’re desperate and know they have nothing to run on in 2012 and are trying to force Republicans to commit political suicide. I think Minnesota is the test and if it works they will do it in DC.
Dems see it as a win/win. Shut down in a way that causes the most pain and blame it on Republicans. If Republicans cave, they will lose TP voters. They probably hope TP goes third party splintering the conservative vote. Its all about 2012.
Dayton is doing what he’s been told to do — he’s not at all bright.
This is brilliant! Is there any way this can happen? :)
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