Tuesday, April 8, 2014

MN DFL Catering to the Base

To me it looks like the DFL is working real hard to buy votes and spend money in this election year.  Maybe they are concerned they won't have a chance next year.

MinnPost Minimum Wage Deal
MinnPost Senate Office Building
MinnPost Bonding Proposal
MinnPost Tax Cut 2
MinnPost Tax Cut 1

To me it seems that their tax cuts have been aimed exclusively at their base.  I definitely didn't see any change in my tax bill after the rerunning them after 3Apr14...  I mean the DFL "supposedly" worked hard to align the MN taxes with the Federal taxes...  Except when it came to addressing the marriage penalty.  Apparently they are ok with penalizing couples for getting married.

I am most interested to see how these choices work out in the Fall:
  • Will the folks who pay the taxes appreciate the additional spending and gifts to the "poor"/Unions?
  • Will the country folks remember that the DFL passed marriage equity against their wishes?
It is definitely shaping up to be an interesting election season...

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Maybe the bills passed by the dfl reflect what they believe are the best policies for the state. I don't know much about the tax cut or bonding bill so I don't have opinion about those. I wouldn't be too concerned about dfl reps losing their seat because of their gay marriage votes, though, the GOP hysteria over the anti bullying bill seems a little related to me.

If the dfl does lose one or both chambers it will be because of low turnout, though the gov race should bring people out. I think people (me) are too disgusted with congress to care about voting for those races. I do think Franken will keep his snate seat.

Sean said...

What would be an example of tax relief that is not politically motivated?

John said...

Something like relieving the state's marriage penalty. It cuts across all income levels, and it would have brought MN into alignment with the Feds. Which I thought was one of their stated goals.

I think they may lose a chamber or 2 because they voted against the will of their constituents. Especially in rural America.

John said...

Oops... rural MN...

Sean said...

They did conform to the feds on the marriage penalty for 2014, but I agree they should have done so this year.

The State Senate isn't up for election. The State House is going to be close. (I would assume, then, that you're similarly concerned about suburban Republicans who voted against the will of their constituents on that issue?)

John said...

Yes, I forgot... Laurie's "both" got me.

I don't think anyone gave a clear "affirmative" regarding wanting marriage equality ASAP. They just voted no regarding the amendment that would have banned it permanently. I think there is a significant difference between this and saying yes to gay marriage.

Whereas the rural folk majority clearly said they wanted gay marriage banned permanently.

John said...

"Maybe the bills passed by the dfl reflect what they believe are the best policies for the state."

Laurie,
That is a possibility, though I a really have no idea how that new Senate office building is going to help the State.

And giving local property tax relief, paid for out of state income taxes... With the checks coming out in the Fall... It does seem suspect.

Finally, I am not excited about borrowing / spending almost a BILLION dollars that we or our kids will need to pay back. TC Bonding Summary

John said...

Moved here

From Laurie:
Obviously they know this is not a popular proposal, but are moving ahead with it anyhow, so they must thing this is the best option.


"But DFLers cited studies by the state Department of Administration that showed moving senators into temporary office space during the Capitol renovation, either elsewhere on the Capitol campus or in downtown St. Paul, would be nearly as expensive as a new building, and would leave a continued space crunch in the Capitol itself once the renovation is complete."

that does seem hard to believe but it is based on an official Department of Administration study :)

John said...

MPR Senate Office Building

I didn't have any luck finding the report.
Dept Of Admin Senate Bldg

Anonymous said...

I have always seen politics in terms of a clash of interests. We elect people to do what we want them to do. I don't think it's a bad thing when they actually do what they were elected for. Too often, they do not.

Unlike most countries we have a consensus based government, which means that people who lose elections still have a significant role in governance. This has been a part of our system of the since the beginning and some people seem almost to believe that the will of the minority should prevail over the will of the majority. They talk about how policies that are enacted contrary to their views are illegal, forced on them at the point of the gun. To me, this is a very strange way of thinking, but I can't tell you how common it is. These days, we see it most often in this widespread belief that we should be able to opt out of laws we don't like.

--Hiram