Not content to just drink the kool aid of tax increases and bigger government, the state DFL has actually filled a swimming pool full of kool aid and are preparing to jump in.
If legislators and the governor don't come to a budget agreement and the state runs out of money to pay its bills, DFLers believe the state constitution requires a last-resort statewide property tax increase to pay debts.
Should such a doomsday scenario were to occur, property taxes would soar an average of 37.5 percent to cover $3 billion, according to Senate researchers.
So the governor using un-allottment to balance the budget when the legislature was wrong, but a 37% property tax increase during a recession is fine?
The DFL has been assisting in the court case that challenged the governor's un-alottment over the last year, but it appears now that they had no plan of action in case they won the case. That is the epitome of sloppy planning, and now Minnesota may suffer for it.
Even short of a massive Armageddon property tax increase, the DFL Senate is actively promoting a 400 million dollar tax increase. During a recession. Why, even President Obama knows that is a bad idea. From 2009-
"You don't raise taxes in a recession,'' President Barack Obama said today, maintaining that none of the new taxes that he proposes for higher-income Americans will take effect until the recession has passed.
White House Budget Directer Peter Orszag knows that you shouldn't raise taxes in a recession-
The bottom line is that despite what some people are saying, no tax increases would take effect during the recession. And even after the recession ends, 95 percent of working families would continue to enjoy tax cuts.
President Obama also knew that tax hikes in a recession are bad when he was a candidate in 2008-
Democrat Barack Obama says he would delay rescinding President Bush’s tax cuts on wealthy Americans if he becomes the next president and the economy is in a recession, suggesting such an increase would further hurt the economy.
Why is it that Republicans and Democrats can agree at the national level that tax hikes during a recession are bad for the economy, but in Minnesota, tax hikes during a recession are simply par for the course?
The only silver lining in this mess is that the more the DFL talks about tax increases now, the better the GOP will do in this year's elections. Suddenly, a GOP controlled state house doesn't seem like such a far fetched idea anymore.
3 comments:
Wouldn't Pawlenty just veto the property tax increase, refuse to call a special session and redo his unallotments? The courts didn't say he couldn't, just that he couldn't YET. The DFL seems to enjoy bashing their face into the concrete, but at what point does compassion require us to rescue them from themselves? November?
J. Ewing
I just don't understand the DFL. A doomsday property tax increase is a generational death wish. Their whole strategy has been "get Pawlenty" for 4 years, with no plan B, just half-court Hail Mary buzzer shots.
It would be amusing to see them react if Pawlenty agreed to say, $1 billion of taxes. Which of their many special interests would be more special than others?
Anon-
that is why the DFL is trying to spin this as a constitutional mandate. Then they can claim that a veto would be Pawlenty breaking the law again.
The longer the DFL tries to play chicken on this, the more they have to lose.
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