Gubernatorial debate is on MPR at noon.

Posted at 11:43 AM on August 3, 2006 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)

MPR's Midday program will air Farmfest's gubernatorial debate at noon.

Comments (1)

I am very upset with today's midday program. There was no diversity of opinion, and your guests knowlingly lied to your audience. I pointed this out, but it was not corrected on air. Specifically, Dave Strom stated that state and local taxes are progressive. He knows full well that this is not true. State and local taxation was deemed 'slightly regressive' when the tax incidence study was published in 2005. At that time, it projected that in 2007, the top 1% of minnesota earners would only pay 8.4% of their income to state and local taxes while the bottom 10% would pay 16.3%. Since the report was published, we have increased regressive sales and property taxes, and added an increase to the cigarette tax. This makes the disparity between poor and rich even greater than projected.

http://tinyurl.com/q2zgv

Table 3-5 supports my claim of the percentages above. Table 1-5 shows that we're trending more regressive, and page 26 of the report (p 38 of the pdf) clearly states that overall taxation in MN is regressive.

I would like to appear on a similar segment on tax policy, to talk about the impact of our regressive tax system in this state. To my thinking, loss of class mobility is a leading factor in criminal activity. Our regressive tax structure doesn't provide a large enough tax base to provide the best environment in the nation to raise a family, as it once did. The solution is to cut property and sales taxes and increase the income tax. We should increase taxes to include funding for universal healthcare coverage for Minnesota, and Early childhood education. They talk about caring about the plight of middle class and lower class families, but they are unwilling to provide anything of value to these families. Tax increases are only one half of the equation. If we can provide services that will reduce costs for families, those offset the cost of the taxes. Nothing like an opinion along these lines could be found in your program.

Failing an invitation to me, I would ask that you feature someone from Growth and Justice to talk about the other side of the question.

Usually I am pleased with your quality of coverage, but a public disservice was done today. Shame on Midday.

Warmly,
Justin C. Adams
Independent Candidate for State Representative
District 58A North Minneapolis

Posted by Justin C. Adams | August 3, 2006 1:07 PM

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