Dear Neighbor,
There are two things people want to talk with me about these days: Tax increases and government-run health insurance.
Everything else is secondary.
You know what? I agree. Those things are big deals after the Democrats raised our taxes and fees by $2.5 billion and then spent more than $150 million to bring a broken Obamacare system to Minnesota. It’s disgusting, when you think about it.
The 2014 session will start Feb. 25. Committee action has picked up and I am looking at each bill from this mindset: Is this something we need? Is this going to help Minnesotans? Can we live without this?
My legislative friends across the aisle have a tendency to over-regulate. That’s just the way they are and, with Democrat majorities in the House and Senate – and a Democrat in the governor’s office – we need to scrutinize.
There is no way – not a chance! – some of the tax increases Democrats passed last session would have passed on their own, but were enacted because they were buried deep, tied within the pages of a massive omnibus tax bill.
They were garnishments on a plate full of taxes.
The new Democrat tax on telecommunications? They could not have passed that as a stand-alone.
The new Democrat tax increase on warehousing? No dice.
The new Democrat tax increase on equipment repair that costs farmers? Nope. Even the governor himself acknowledges that was a mistake.
And putting taxpayers on the hook for a new $90 million Senate facility is the clincher. Nobody – and I mean nobody – would have given that plan the thumbs-up on its own.
This makes me wonder about the process and whether these omnibus bills are even constitutionally valid. I encourage folks to look up Artice 4, Section 17 of the Minnesota Constitution. It simply states, “No law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title.” If that’s the case, how on earth do we go from Tax Increase A, to Tax Increase B, C … and build a Senate Office Building along the way?
The demagogues will tell you it’s because they all pertain to taxes. That’s fine, but the bull meter still is pegged. Omnibus bills are a way to hide things that could not pass on their own and ride coattails into passage.
I’ll circle back with more on this subject another time. Until then, please continue providing me with your thoughts and ideas on the issues.
Sincerely,
Mark