Polinaut: January 28, 2009 Archive

The Daily Digest: 1-28-09

Posted at 8:17 AM on January 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Daily Digest

Gov. Pawlenty offered a budget that is Pawlenty's plan is 2.2% smaller than the previous two-year budget. It cuts health care eligibility, higher education and aid to cities and counties. It does increase spending for education and provides tax cuts. It also relies heavily on one-time money. MPR, the Pi Press, the Star Tribune, KARE, Forum Communications, the St. Cloud Times, AP, MinnPost, Fox9, KSTP and WCCO have stories.

Here is a deeper look at the cuts to health care (MPR, the Pi Press and the Star Tribune follow).

Here is reaction to the cuts to local government aid. MPR, AP and the Pi Press have stories.

MPR and the Pi Press have reaction to the cuts to higher ed.

K12 is spared the budget axe and even sees more money.

Gov. Pawlenty uses a lot of one-time money to pay down the debt.

One use is the selling of bonds on future tobacco fund revenue.

The federal stimulus package will also ease the deficit pain particularly in education and health care.

Minnesota is set to spend transportation money from the stimulus package.

The allocation of the sales tax money for the arts and outdoors is still unclear.

Business taxes would get cut under Pawlenty's plan.

The news comes as Target and Best Buy whack more employees.

2008 U.S. Senate Race

The Senate trial resumes. Several testify that their ballots were wrongly rejected. MPR, the Pi Press, the Star Tribune, AP, Forum Communications and MinnPost have stories.

CNN offers analysis by its Democratic and GOP contributors on the race. Guess who thinks Coleman should step aside? Guess who thinks there were irregularities?

Congress

The U.S. House takes up President Obama's economic stimulus package today.

Obama is downplaying GOP support for the plan after meeting with Republicans.

GOP House Minority Leader John Boehner tells his members to vote against it.

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann wanted bipartisanship when it came to marking up the bill.

The Hill also says Bachmann twittered as Obama was addressing the GOP.

Congress relaxes rules on lawsuits over pay inequity. GOP Rep. John Kline is mentioned.

2010

Minnesota Brown says the DFL candidates for governor will make the rounds this weekend.

Conservative group rips local requests in stimulus package.

Posted at 8:57 AM on January 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck

On the same day that the U.S. House is set to vote on the proposed economic stimulus package, the conservative Freedom Foundation of Minnesota has released its "Top 10 list of worst funding requests from Minnesota cities." Here's the list:

10) Shorewood $300,000 Tennis court improvement and rehab - A backhand shot from a prosperous southwestern suburb that should be vigorously returned by taxpayers.

9) St. Paul $2.1 million Western Avenue reconstruction "including bike facilities, traffic calming elements" and "public art" - An artful attempt to have patrons, a.k.a. taxpayers, underwrite the collaboration of St. Paul public works engineers and artists in creating fun sculptures, playful signs, "traffic calming elements" and bike facilities.

8) Burnsville $50,000 Greenhouse gas tracking program - How exactly does a city-run greenhouse gas tracking program stimulate the economy?

7) St. Cloud $150,000 Street sign upgrade program - The state has mandated that street sign lettering be 150 millimeters for capital letters and 113 millimeters for lower-case letters.3 A case of a city government asking the federal government for funds to comply with a state government mandate to replace signs that were already pointing the right way and doing the job.

6) Hanover $750,000 LED streetlight conversion - How many years worth of city electric bills will it take to pay off the $750,000 cost of changing the bulbs in this city with an estimated population of about 2,500?

5)St. Louis Park $3.5 million New water meters for St. Louis Park residents - The city wants to open the federal tap to give 12,800 water customers new water meters and install remote meter monitoring equipment.

4) Roseville $1.5 million New clubhouse and maintenance shop for city golf course - Roseville's city-run Cedarholm Golf Course, a 9-hole par 3 course, lost over $800,000 between 2000 and 2007 (years inclusive).4 Why should all taxpayers be asked to "chip in" even more money at this losing enterprise?

3) Burnsville $550,000 Nicollet Commons water feature rehab - Burnsville expects taxpayers to open the federal floodgates for a $550,000 upgrade for the water fountains and sculptures in its highly touted town square style park.

2) Duluth $6 million Spirit Mountain snowmaking and maintenance facility - This multi-million dollar snow job attracted national media attention to Duluth.

1) St. Cloud $750,000 Skateboarding Park - Ever since a local entrepreneur closed the doors of his skate park in 2006, enthusiasts in St. Cloud have tried to raise a quarter of a million dollars to start building a huge state-of-the-art skate park "plaza." The city even agreed to carry donors' debt for four years, but donations--to use skateboarding terminology--continue to "grind" along well short of their goal. So the city has done a "kick turn" and asked taxpayers to foot the bill for the entire project. Taxpayers need to become familiar with another skateboard term and "grab" their wallets.

The group gets its information from the U.S. Mayors website.

The Freedom Foundation was created by Annette Meeks, Brian Sullivan, Tony Trimble and Vin Weber, all well known Republican activists in Minnesota.

Pawlenty campaign raised $750,000 in '08

Posted at 11:49 AM on January 28, 2009 by Mike Mulcahy (3 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2008, MN Legislature

One of the biggest guessing games in Minnesota politics is whether Gov. Tim Pawlenty plans to run for re-election next year. Pawlenty won't tip his hand until after the legislative session because he doesn't want his political plans to add even another level of contention to the debate over the budget.

But the governor's campaign reported today that Pawlenty is sitting on a healthy and growing war chest. The governor raised just over $750,000 last year and increased his cash on hand from about $375,000 to nearly $580,000. Not a bad place to start from if he is planning to run.

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House passes stimulus package.

Posted at 5:24 PM on January 28, 2009 by Tom Scheck

DFL Rep. Collin Peterson was the only Minnesota DFLer to vote against the package. All of the Republicans, including first-term Republican Erik Paulsen, voted against it.

Here's the Roll Call:

Voting Yes:

Tim Walz, Betty McCollum, Keith Ellison and Jim Oberstar

Voting No:

John Kline, Erik Paulsen, Michele Bachmann and Collin Peterson