News Cut Category Archive: Pawlenty

Romney makes money, political friends

Posted at 12:51 PM on July 16, 2009 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

Today's Gallup Poll makes clear the size of the task Gov. Tim Pawlenty has of getting the Republican nomination for president in 2012 (assuming he wants it). The big green bar up there (click for a larger image)? That's former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. The little one? That's Tim Pawlenty.

It's not an impossible task, of course, but Romney is making powerful friends the old-fashioned way. He's giving them money. The Boston Globe reports Romney's political action committee has taken in $1.6 million so far in 2009, and given away thousands of dollars to state and federal candidates (none from Minnesota).

Romney also has another advantage over Pawlenty. When his gubernatorial term ended, his state wasn't an economic basket case.

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Live-blogging Midday: Gov. Tim Pawlenty

Posted at 10:38 AM on April 13, 2009 by Bob Collins (20 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is on MPR's Midday today at 11. I'll be live-blogging his appearance, however I will not be in the studio so don't send questions to me. But do use the comments to section to discuss what he has to say.

I wonder if the question about higher political ambitions will come up?

11:06 a.m. - We're underway. Gary makes mention that people are betting against the Legislature finishing without a special session. A friend of mine, fairly well placed in a department agency, says they were planning for a special session even before the legislative session began.

11:07 a.m. - "The work always fills to expand the time," Gov. Pawlenty says.

11:08 a.m. - Gary suggests Pawlenty and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller don't get along. "It's not personal," Pawlenty says.

11:09 a.m. - Pawlenty says he won't sign a bill with a tax increase but says it's not because of the "pledge" he took in 2002. Eichten notes that even though it's not called a tax increase, he is proposing additional revenue.

11:12 a.m. - "In the last 24 months, there have been the largest block of tax increases in the modern history of Minnesota," Pawlenty says.

11:13 a.m. - Governor says economic projections are not generally reliable. "Anyone who tells you they know what the state budget is going to look like four years out is not telling the whole story," he says.

11:14 a.m. - From photographer Tom Weber:

11:15 a.m. - The governor repeats his contention that Minnesota has one of the most generous health care programs in the country and it's suffocating us. It will overtake the budget within 15 years.

Wayback machine: Gubernatorial candidates debate health care -- 2002

11:19 a.m. - On permanent flood protection for Fargo-Moorhead. "The limiting factor isn't state money...Minnesota and North Dakota hasn't been the holdup." He also says some projects in the area will be fully funded in bonding bill this year.

Questions from the audience

Q: You've taken to chiding the federal government for deficit spending. You have a history of balancing the budget in the short run by pushing the problem into the future. How can you be taken seriously for criticizing a president who's showing leadership?

A: Minnesota has a legal requirement to balance its budget every two years. We have not been in deficit.

BTW, Pawlenty did the Republican response to Obama's weekly address this weekend.

Aside: Did the governor just hint at his future? He was referring to the budget proposal four years out and said, "The new four year requirement only applies to me... the next governor -- if it's me or somebody else -- won't have that requirement."

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Q: Do you support that requires kids to be strapped into a seat (and making it a primary offense?)
A: I support it.

11:30 a.m. - Gary asks if he expects gay marriage to come up. "I don't think so. John Marty is the chief author of the bill and it'll take a super majority vote at the Legislature." He doesn't think the Legislature is interested in wading into it.

11:34 a.m. - The Franken-Coleman race. Says he doesn't know if he'd issue an election certificate after the state court's rule on the race. "We get asked, 'why don't you just sign it now?' Minnesota Supreme Court has said it shouldn't be issued until the state courts finish." If it goes to the federal court? "I'd want to look at what the courts did with the case, leaving issues for appeals. I just want to make sure I have all the facts in front of me. And a state or federal court could stay the issuing of the certificate".

He says having the ability to appoint a temporary senator would be "a good and helpful thing."

Pawlenty says some counties treated ballots differently. True, of course, but I continue to wonder why nobody is considering the idea of taking elections away from the counties and putting it in the hands of the state?

Pawlenty says both candidates have had a fair hearing.

Q: The Great Depression lasted 11-16 years depending on who you talk to. You said we have to count on a recovery and you've structured your budget as such, I'd like to hear specifics on why you think the economy will recover in four years?

A: Our own state economist, Federal Reserve, have said the economy is going to be in recessionary mode through 2009. But they suggest it will begin to recover in late 2009 or 2010. They don't see it as a Depression. They see a slow recovery.

Q: What are your plans for long-term care?

A: Everybody realizes the industry needs to change. It's old-style'50s nursing homes. A lot of seniors want to stay in their homes, so bringing help into their homes is one way to serve them. They don't want it to be old-style nursing homes, so the nursing home industry has to make that pivot. People aren't going into nursing homes and living for as long as they did.

Q: How can you call it no-tax increase when you cut funding to local governments and forced them to raise taxes? Elko just cut their police department.

A: "Some additional facts might be helpful to you: It's not written in a stone tablet that cities and counties have to raise taxes. Many have reserves." He says cities are making cuts more painful than they need to in order to "rile people up."

Pawlenty listed Waseca and Eagan as communities that do a good job.

"What about communities who've already cut to the bone," Eichten asks.

"There's a lot of data to look at. The mayor of the coalition of cities is the mayor of Wadena. He's got over a million dollars of reserves. Have they frozen salaries? In each case it's a little different," Pawlenty says.

11:47 a.m. - Should kids be allowed to graduate and the grad standards relaxed to allow them to? Pawlenty says "no." "We're in discussion with the legislators to give them a temporary reprieve if they agree to a fix.," he said.

Q: We had tax cuts in the Bush administration and economy is in the pits. What happened?

A: The housing "house of cards." People were allowed to buy houses without much money down. Financiers got their hands on mortgages and sliced them up and sold them around the world and then used that money to finance other arrangements. It's a story of greed; a story of reckless behavior. It started as a housing crisis and it's spread around the world..."

Pressed by Eichten on whether the tax cuts should have worked, Pawlenty said they'd run their course. "It doesn't exponentially grow." That would be an interesting discussion. Is there a limit on the benefit of a tax cut.

Q: Would you like to be president?

A: "I haven't given it any thought," Pawlenty says. Gary rightfully suggests that's baloney.

Q: If you had to choose today, would you run for re-election?

A: I'm keeping that to myself. He'll announce it late spring or summer.

Q: Does Rep. Bachmann speak for the Republican Party.

A: She's passionate. She's got strong views. She's unfairly criticized. She does speak for the mainstream conservative movement.

Q: Do you think young people will be sent off to re-education camps?

A: Members of Congress have said there should be forced service. Congresswoman Bachmann may have been referring to those kinds of proposals.

11:57 a.m. - When will you meet with legislative leaders? "I met with chairs of bonding committee last week. We have a lot of legislative meetings this week. I don't have anything scheduled with the two leaders. Part of the problem is we don't know what their proposals are. They don't even agree between the House and Senate. They need to finalize their work and agree with each other before they reconcile their differences with me," he said.

//end

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There's something about Pawlenty

Posted at 12:15 PM on April 2, 2009 by Bob Collins (7 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

It's budget season and that's open season on politicians, but after six years on the job, most of which have been taken up by budget cutting, it may be time for DFLers to acknowledge that Tim Pawlenty's nickname should be be "Teflon Tim."

Eric Ostermeier, who writes the Smart Politics blog over at the Humphrey Institute has analyzed Pawlenty's latest approval ratings and pulls out this nugget:

In fact, Pawlenty is one of only three Governors in the 14 states polled by SurveyUSA who currently has an approval rating in excess of the vote received during the state's last gubernatorial election. And only Virginia's Democratic Governor Tim Kaine (+5) has a higher net favorability rating vis-à-vis vote percentage than Pawlenty (+4). The average gubernatorial job performance rating across the more than one dozen states polled is 11+ points south of the average election vote tally.

What Ostermeier doesn't mention in his list, however, is that only Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick had the third party competition (Christy Mihos - 6% of the vote) in the election in 2006 that Pawlenty had from Peter Hutchinson in the same election (6.4%).

In that context, it was actually easier for Pawlenty to have a higher approval rating than on election night than most any other governor.

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The budget turnaround

Posted at 5:30 AM on March 3, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Pawlenty

When Gov. Tim Pawlenty took office, he inherited a $4.5 billion two-year budget deficit. Four years later, he claimed some credit "for the biggest financial turnaround in state history." The occasion in November 2006 was a projected $2.2 billion surplus. "We just climbed out of a big hole, and I am going to make sure Minnesota doesn't get thrown back in by overspending," Governor Pawlenty said at the time.

If the projected budget deficit hits $7 billion when it's announced today -- and some legislative leaders say it likely will -- that previous "biggest financial turnaround in state history" will be replaced by a new "biggest financial turnaround in state history." In this case, a U-turn.

When the governor last had a huge budget deficit, it constitutes about 15 percent of the previously passed two-year budget. If the projected budget deficit for the next two-year cycle hits $7 billion, that will climb to 20% of the size of the previous budget.

This time, however, there are few accounting gimmicks and shifts left to use to erase it.

We will, of course, have coverage of the announcement during the day. Be sure to check the archive of Monday's Midday broadcast, during which former Republican Gov. Al Quie and former DFL Sen. Majority Leader Roger Moe offered their ideas of how to clean up the mess.

Though I haven't seen the show's plans for today, yet, I'm presuming they'll tackle the issue once again.

MPR will provide live coverage of the governor's news conference on Midday, followed by analysis with former lawmaker Phil Krinkie and former Capitol reporter -- now head of Growth & Justice Committee -- Dane Smith.

By the way, later today on All Things Considered, Marty Moylan looks at whether people are trying to gamble their way out of this. Are people gambling more?

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Pawlenty watching

Posted at 11:17 AM on February 10, 2009 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty

After a two-and-a-half-month vacation from "does Pawlenty want to be president?" talk, the political wags are back at it because of the governor's trip to a security conference in Munich, following a trade mission to Israel.

Chris Cizzilla, who writes The Fix blog for the Washington Post says Pawlenty has "obvious national ambitions," but otherwise engages in the usual speculation that Pawlenty will run for president in 2012.

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The State of the State

Posted at 12:18 PM on January 15, 2009 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

Here's the Wordle depiction of Gov. Pawlenty's State of the State speech today. Note the absence of the word: "strong." Note the absence of almost any adjectives to describe Minnesota's condition. And one of the very smallest words is: "hope."

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Governor Twitter, President Pawlenty?

Posted at 4:02 PM on December 4, 2008 by Than Tibbetts (6 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

In the midst of all this budget deficit business, this message popped into the Twitter search for 'deficit':

"Interesting," I thought. I hadn't seen anything about the governor using the short-message service. You, the sharp News Cut reader, need no hint about the significance of 2012. I sort of dismissed the number; we all remember what it was like to have myname1998@hotmail.com accounts, right?

Then I read this Twitterer's bio:

It had to be a fake. Then things... disappeared.

Shortly after receiving an e-mail from Twitter telling me that TimPawlenty2012 was now following me, the account ceased to be. Grab your tinfoil hat.

If this was someone purporting to be Tim Pawlenty, it's highly unlikely that Twitter closed down the account. Support requests are notoriously slow, and fake Twitter personalities exist for many high-profile people. If you're creating a fake Tim Pawlenty, you're likely doing it for the exposure, not to cultivate two dozen followers and close up shop.

The messages are a typical slice of what you might expect out of a communications lackey — success stories, challenge-tackling and politically conscious messages of bipartisanship. If this someone really was Pawlenty, and Pawlenty really was a "potential presidential candidate," it would make sense to test drive a few Web 2.0 tools before ramping up a campaign, especially when the political posturing for potential President 45 has already begun.

Click on the image below to see the full feed, minus one status.

While we can probably assume the account wasn't actually being staffed by Tim Pawlenty himself, if it was someone within the governor's office or political circle, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that this person would have inside knowledge of Pawlenty's political aspirations.

Of course, none of this is really new, but it is news if it's straight from the horse's Twitter.

What do you think, Twitter users? Real or fake?

I'm waiting on a call back from Pawlenty's communications people.

5:07 p.m.: Pawlenty Communications Director Brian McClung responds via email.

Than -

No. Our office is not associated with any such Twitter account.

8:30 p.m.: Twitter Pawlenty wasn't disappeared after all. The account has been moved to twitter.com/TimPawlentyMN. The question remains. Who's office is associated with the Twitter account?

I'm waiting on a message back from TimPawlentyMN.

The person behind the account says he/she is "just someone from Minnesota giving updates on behalf of Tim Pawlenty." Mystery solved then, I guess. At least it was a fun distraction from the budget news.

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The really big number

Posted at 11:53 AM on December 4, 2008 by Than Tibbetts (12 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Pawlenty, Politics

So, elected officials of Minnesota, you've got come up with $5.2 billion in additional revenue and/or cuts to balance the state's budget. Where do you start?

Oh, and by the way, your 10 percent down payment on that deficit is due in June, by way of a $436 million shortfall in the current budget session.

If you're a budget nut, here's the PDF of the November financial report.

Inside the report, you'll find this nugget:

Spending projections for FY 2010-11 and FY 2012-13 do not include estimated inflation. Inflation, based on the CPI, is forecast to be 0.2 and 3.1 percent for FY 2010 and FY 2011 respectively. At these levels, the cost of inflation would be $650 million in the next biennium.

Inflation aside, the deficit works out to approximately $1,014 for every Minnesotan (based on 2007 population estimates) and $2,063 for every Minnesota taxpayer.

How do you plan to contribute? Higher health care costs? Higher local property taxes? Denser classrooms?

1:33 p.m.: It seems as though Californians and their $11.2 billion budget deficit have it easy. The Sacramento Bee says every adult in the Golden State needs to pony up $429 to cover the state's shortcomings.

Trivia: Total box office gross of movies in which California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears: $1,621,940,362
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty: Negligible

1:55 p.m.: The newsroom passes along this press release from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

States, which already have closed $40 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget gaps, face at least an additional $97 billion they must close over the next 18 to 24 months, according to a national report issued today by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Fifteen states are forecasting double-digit gaps in FY 2010. The largest are in Arizona (24.2 percent), New York (20 percent), California (18 percent), Wisconsin (17.2 percent), Minnesota (14.7) and Kansas (14.5 percent).

2:10 p.m.: Pawlenty's plan is starting to take shape. Here's what won't be happening, according to the governor.

• - New taxes
• - A stadium for the Vikings
• - Raising revenue with gambling money
• - Using money from the voter-approved outdoors/arts sales tax amendment to help fill the gap

3:02 p.m.: Gov. Pawlenty is apparently Twittering the budget crisis.

4:02 p.m.: Gov. Pawlenty is apparently not Twittering the budget crisis anymore. More on this here...

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Pawlenty on Palin

Posted at 9:01 PM on November 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

Keeping track of the keeping track of the governor:

The Los Angeles Times is following the meeting of presidential wannabees Republican governors in Miami where all the talk is definitely not Tim Pawlenty apparently. The people who want to talk to him, want to talk about Sarah Palin.

So he did, and that got the Times to reading between the lines:

See if you can follow this. Pawlenty ended with this:

"I think everybody will be looking back and second-guessing, triple-guessing this stuff for months and years... A lot of this is just like post-modern art. You can look at the painting and different people look at it and see different things...

"What you have to look to in the end is the data, an objective measurement of it. And so, politics as post-modern art analysis is fun and interesting but it doesn't get you very far. So I would just steer you to the data."

From the looks of it, did Pawlenty just say Palin was a bad pick?

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Tax credits for a 'green economy'?

Posted at 12:48 PM on November 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (6 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Pawlenty, Politics

Gov. Pawlenty today proposed an economic incentive plan for "green businesses" in Minnesota, but he invoked a component of the plan that may make the DFL see red in the coming session: JOBZ, Pawlenty's program that aimed to bring some business to the most distressed areas of the state.

Part of the governor's program would provide tax breaks -- $3.65 million worth immediately and another $82 million after his term is up in 2011.

Qualifying renewable-energy projects would receive an array of tax breaks in a green version of the Job Opportunity Building Zones program. JOBZ is designed to spur job growth in economically distressed regions of Minnesota. Green JOBZ would be open to qualifying renewable energy businesses anywhere in the state for up to 12 years, costing the state $3.65 million in the 2010-11 budget years and another $6.6 million in 2012-13.

But JOBZ has some problems, according to a report earlier this year from the Office of the Legislative Auditor.

Here were the major points:

Political courage?

Posted at 12:24 PM on June 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

According to a news release sent out by the U.S. Department of Transportation, this is what Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said as she stood next to Gov. Tim Pawlenty in Bloomington today and announced federal dollars to cut traffic congestion along I-35W:

"Our economic vitality and prosperity as a nation are increasingly becoming dependent on our willingness to embrace new transportation strategies," Secretary Peters said. "Thanks to the tremendous political courage of state and local leaders, the Twin Cities' future is looking promising and prosperous."

Since many of the projects (such as a toll lane on I-35W, which got $24.7 million in the gas tax bill) being partially funded were in the transportation bill vetoed by Gov. Pawlenty, and then overridden by the Legislature with the aid of a half dozen Republican lawmakers, it's possible she was referring to the bill Pawlenty and most Republicans despised because it raised the state's gasoline tax.

I called the Department of Transportation to ask what Peters was referring to when she invoked the phrase "political courage." They punted, saying a spokesman accompanying Peters would call me back right away. He didn't.

Peters spokesman Brian Turmail said she was referring to the fact "the Minnesota Legislature, working with Gov. Pawlenty, was able to pass legislation that included high-occupancy toll lanes on I-35W. In the past we've seen a backlash for those sort of decisions."

But that was in the transportation bill the governor vetoed, so is she saying passing the gas tax in a bill the governor described as "ridiculous" was actually "political courage"?

"Absolutely not," Turmail said. "She hasn't weighed in on the gas tax at the state level, but she opposes it at the national level."

"Would she like to weigh in on the state gas tax?" I asked.

"It's not proven to reduce congestion and when you' ve got a national energy policy on reducing gasoline consumption, it doesn't make some sense to increase it in order to pay for transportation projects," he said.

MPR's Tim Pugmire reports that Rep. Neil Peterson and Rep. Ron Ron Erhardt, two Republicans who were branded for their vote in support of the tax, were at the event in Bloomington.

The press folks were interested in other issues and questions. Too bad. It could've been a fabulous line of questioning.

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The vice presidential two-step

Posted at 10:00 PM on June 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (16 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

If we were to say we're surprised that Gov. Pawlenty now says he's open to being the vice president of the United States, we would have to pretend this is our first day covering politics for a living, that we don't know what political flirting looks like, and that we didn't know the steps to the dance.

1-2-3-1-2-3 ... promenade.

"I'm committed to being governor of the state of Minnesota. That's why I ran. I love it here. I don't have a big goal or ambition to go be Washington. I've got young kids. I've got a lot of work to do and great opportunities for public service right here in Minnesota." Pawlenty said.

"But if one of the presidential candidates were to ask you to be a running mate, would you accept?" host Gary Eichten asked.

"I said I would serve out my term as governor if I was re-elected. And that's what I intend to do," Pawlenty said.

1-2-3-1-2-3, step to the side:

"People always assign motives and labels, and half of the stuff is unfounded," said Pawlenty. "There are a lot of commentators and writers and people who speculate about this, but it's simply and clearly only that I want Senator McCain to be president. I don't need or want anything else other than that, and there's no agenda other than that." said Pawlenty.

1-2-3-1-2-3 ,
Pivot...

"For the 900th time, I am not running for Vice President. I don't want to be Vice President and I'm focused on being governor of the state of Minnesota and have said I will fill out my term."

1-2-3-1-2-3 .... change partners.

"I want to help him become the president, because I think he'd be a great president," Pawlenty said. "I don't have any designs on being vice president. If somebody came to me and said that, of course I would be honored to be mentioned, honored to be asked, and it would be difficult to turn that down, but I don't have any designs, and it's not why I'm such a great and strong supporter of Senator McCain."

And... bow.

It's not as if he signed some sort of pledge.

(Update 5:20 p.m. Mon 6/9) Listen to All Things Considered host Tom Crann's interview with Bob Collins)

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Is Tim Pawlenty ready to be president?

Posted at 10:42 AM on April 27, 2008 by Bob Collins (23 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

The chatter about the possibility of Gov. Tim Pawlenty joining the ticket with Sen. John McCain has had a familiar undertone to it in Minnesota: the "one of us" syndrome. For example, the Celtics will win the NBA championship and it will be covered here as a local story because Kevin Garnett, raised in Chicago, working in Boston, living in California is "one of us" because he used to play basketball here. Diablo Cody, from Illinois, living in California, is a local story when she won an Oscar because she once worked for City Pages and stripped.

Same with Pawlenty. It's a "Minnesota makes the bigtime" angle.

But now that people are starting to realize that John McCain can actually win the presidency of the United States, isn't it time to start covering this story from another perspective?

Is Tim Pawlenty ready to be president of the United States?

The choice of a VP candidate has been trivialized to "how does it help the guy at the top of the ticket to get elected?" Pawlenty has some strengths there. But let's keep in mind what the job of VP entails. It entails primarily being ready to step in if the president goes toes up.

Pawlenty has been working the national circuit for years. His stint as head of the National Governors Association gives him cover to burnish foreign policy credentials (such as his trip to Europe to attend an anti-terrorism conference), his focus on illegal immigration plays to his Republican base and even his veto the other day of a resolution on trade in Cuba provided an opportunity for him to weigh in on foreign policy, while ostensibly saying it's none of the business of Minnesota politicians.

Politically, he may be ready to be a vice presidential candidate. Is he ready to be president?

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The ethanol tax

Posted at 1:52 PM on April 14, 2008 by Bob Collins (57 Comments)
Filed under: Economy, Energy, Pawlenty

For all the talk about the ruin to be caused by the gas tax increase in Minnesota, comparatively little is said in the state these days about the "ethanol tax," which has had a significant impact in the cost of operating a vehicle and may, according to some people, have a role in rapidly increasing food prices.

For the last few months, I've been conducting an unscientific experiment: filling up my car with regular gasoline and comparing the performance with the ethanol blends I'm required to use in Minnesota.

Although Wisconsin drivers get a choice, lawmakers are considering an ethanol mandate, which would require 10 percent of gasoline to be a blend of ethanol, rising to 25 percent by 2025. Here's a copy of the legislation. Minnesota, on the other hand, requires all gasoline sold to be at least 10 percent ethanol.

I snuck across the border several times to fill up the 2004 Chevy Cavalier (the official car of News Cut) with ethanol-free gasoline. The result? My car got about 32.6 miles per gallon. The Minnesota blend gave me almost 29 miles per gallon, a 12% drop in performance.

Calculating current prices (the average price of gasoline in Minnesota now is $3.235. In Wisconsin it's $3.40), driving 1000 miles on Minnesota gas costs $111.55 (11.2 cents per mile). On Wisconsin gas, 1,000 miles costs $104.29 (10.4 cents a mile), a $7.26 savings, even though the difference in the price of a gallon is almost 17 cents. The "ethanol tax" works out to 2.3 cents a gallon.

In addition to the increased fuel costs to consumers, taxpayers also support ethanol producers with a 20-cents-a-gallon subsidy. The feds chip in another 51 cents a gallon.

My little experiment showed me that I spend an additional $80 or so a year at the pump because of ethanol. It's not a huge deal, although some of the rhetoric surrounding similar numbers in the gas tax debate suggested it's the difference between me keeping and losing my home.

But the "tax" is about to go higher. In 2005, there was no bigger supporter of a 20-percent mandate than Gov. Pawlenty. He signed a bill raising the requirement for ethanol in a gallon of gasoline to 20-percent by 2013.

Six Republicans in the House this year ran into trouble for supporting an increase in the gas tax. In 2005, however, 48 Republicans voted for what's turned out to be "the ethanol tax."

The concerns about the ethanol mandate, of course, are years old. An MPR story in 2002 documented the steamrolling of politicians by the ethanol lobby.

As MPR's Cara Hetland reported last fall, the ethanol mandate is an economic development program for farmers. And Cargill today reported an 86-percent jump in profits. Good for them. Consumers? Not so much.

But there is plenty of dispute about the effect of ethanol on food prices and, hence, its role -- if any -- in inflation. Last week, Texas A&M released a report that suggests that corn prices -- corn is used to make ethanol -- would have risen substantially anyway as petroleum-based costs -- fertilizer, for example -- went up. The report said higher corn prices "do have a small effect on some food items."

Update Mon. 10:14 p.m. - An article in Tuesday's New York Times doesn't let ehtanol/biofuels quite so easily, and invokes the U of M's C. Ford Runge:

C. Ford Runge, an economist at the University of Minnesota, said it is "extremely difficult to disentangle" the impact of biofuels on food costs. Nevertheless, he said there was little that could be done to mitigate the impact of droughts and growing appetites in developing countries.

"Ethanol is the one thing we can do something about," he said. "It's about the only lever we have to pull, but none of the politicians have the courage to pull the lever."

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The Governor's Coin?

Posted at 4:51 PM on April 12, 2008 by Bob Collins (10 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty

At one of the MPR story meetings yesterday, an editor said "Gov. Pawlenty is at an undisclosed location," which means Iraq... except when it means Kosovo, I guess, because that's where he turned up today to visit members of the Minnesota National Guard.

A lot of folks have forgotten about Kosovo and the "peace-keeping" mission that President Clinton left for President Bush. It's been almost 9 years.

According to the governor's Web site, Gov. Pawlenty is shown awarding "Spc. Michael Anderson, the Governor's Coin after Anderson helped escort him to sites around Kosovo."

The Governor's Coin? What's on The Governor's Coin? How do you get one? How much are they worth?

I've sent a request to the gov's office for a picture and some history. If you have some insight into the coin, by all means post it in the comment section. (Update: Gov's office to send pictures on Monday.)

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Cancer in miners: Whose problem is it?

Posted at 5:15 PM on April 10, 2008 by Bob Collins (4 Comments)
Filed under: Pawlenty, Politics

I wrote a couple of days ago that Gov. Pawlenty doesn't usually lose a showdown with the DFL. But this -- the bill that would allocate $5 million to study lung disease among taconite workers -- might be an exception.

Gov. Pawlenty, according to MPR's Tim Pugmire, may veto the bill, because he wants to tap the Taconite Economic Development Fund, a tax on taconite companies intended to spur development on the Iron Range.

Republican Rep. Denny McNamara of Hastings gets the "money quote" of the day.

Members on the other side of the aisle, you're going to vote to tax the snot out of everybody else and let the Iron Range skate, and they're making money hand over fist. We're either in a recession or on the verge of a recession throughout the state except for one spot, the Iron Range.

It's never a good idea -- politically speaking -- to paint yourself into a corner, by allowing your opponents to position your position as "your cancer isn't my problem."

It is -- and has been -- Pawlenty's problem for awhile now. His administration already was under fire for appearing to sacrifice the lives of miners by keeping secret possible evidence that there was a link between taconite and cancer.

Under the bill, says Pugmire, the bulk of the $4.9 million needed for the study would come from the surplus in a state workers compensation fund -- money that comes from the state's employers. In a way, the idea isn't that much different from Pawlenty's plan to take money from the Health Care Access Fund -- a tax on health care providers -- to help erase a budget deficit, which set a precedent for using a surplus for things it was never intended.

The money -- $4.9 million -- is hardly a drop in the bucket, except in comparison to, say, the $30 million the state will ship to ethanol producers, in a bill the governor signed last year.

Pawlenty, as noted before, is a very smart politician. Coming out on top with a veto of the bill will challenge that ability.

Sign or veto? What say you?

Update 10:36 p.m. Aaron J. Brown, on his outstanding blog, MinnesotaBrown.com, points out one interesting factoid:

What Pawlenty and many outside the Iron Range often fail to understand is that our taconite tax revenue, while significant during good times (and not all times are good), is not a secret pot of cash that we use to buy beer and ammunition. It is what mining companies pay IN LIEU of PROPERTY TAX. Mines own or lease thousands of acres of enormously valuable land in northern Minnesota and they don't pay a dime in property tax. Suburbs raise their revenue from those sleek office buildings along the freeways and in overpriced residential homes. The Iron Range raises its school and community funds from taconite taxes, and per capita we get less money over time as a result. But wait, there's more. All the while over Range history a portion of these taconite taxes have gone to the state general fund or to the University of Minnesota fund, money that has benefited more than a million people who couldn't find the Iron Range on a map.

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