Capitol View: February 13, 2009 Archive

Tax Commission: Broaden sales tax and hike cig taxes to pay for business tax cut

Posted at 12:54 PM on February 13, 2009 by Tom Scheck (4 Comments)

Governor Pawlenty's Tax Commission released its recommendations today. They say the state should eliminate the corporate income tax and provide several other business tax breaks to make the state more competitive. In order to pay for it, the commission recommends a cigarette tax increase of $1 a pack and broadening the sales tax (to possibly include a sales tax on clothing, on services, etc.).

Here's the report.

Governor Pawlenty reportedly is in favor of cutting business taxes (his budget plan would cut the corporate tax in half) but isn't in favor of the tax increases.

UPDATE: Here's a comment from Governor Pawlenty's spokesman, Alex Carey:

The Governor is interested in making Minnesota a more job friendly state - that's why he proposed reducing taxes on job providers. However, he does not like the idea of raising sales taxes on consumers and is not embracing that portion of the commission's proposal.

I'm trying to confirm where the governor stands on increasing the cigarette tax.

(Update: Pawlenty's spokesman told me that you can "infer" where Pawlenty stands on the cigarette tax increase by looking at his budget proposal, which doesn't include a tax hike in it. When asked if he was not willing to support a tax increase on cigarettes, Carey referred me to his budget proposal. I followed up: So he's not willing to take it off the table? Carey: Let me call you back. Pawlenty told WCCO-AM "We have to be careful about shifting more and more of the tax base to consumers, particularly the low income." He didn't say he opposed it.)

Update: Here's the latest e-mail statement from Alex Carey:

The Governor considers cigarette taxes to come under the heading of taxes on consumers, which I mentioned in my statement before.

I asked Carey to give me a simple yes or no answer since Pawlenty is usually unequivocal in his opposition to tax increases.

Update: I just talked to Carey again. He said "Governor Pawlenty does not embrace the sales tax portions of the proposal. So no, he does not support a cigarette tax increase."

Question of the Day: What do you think of the idea?

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House passes stimulus bill.

Posted at 1:37 PM on February 13, 2009 by Tom Scheck

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the $787 billion stimulus package. No Republicans voted for the bill.

Here's how Minnesota's membership voted (from this Roll Call):

DFL Rep. Tim Walz, DFL Rep. Betty McCollum, DFL Rep. Keith Ellison, DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar

GOP Rep. John Kline, GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen, GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann, DFL Rep. Collin Peterson

Ready for the road

Posted at 3:26 PM on February 13, 2009 by Tim Pugmire (1 Comments)

State lawmakers hit the road late next week, and also the following week, for a series of town hall meetings on the budget.

They want to hear what the public has to say about Gov. Tim Pawlenty's proposal for solving a $4.8 billion budget deficit. That shortfall is expected to grow when a new economic forecast comes out in two weeks. House and Senate leaders shared their expectations for the listening sessions today during their weekly briefing sessions with reporters.

The assistant majority leader in the Minnesota Senate, Sen Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, said she's looking forward to hearing from people who don't get to come to the Capitol.

"We're hoping to not just have kind of the usual suspects that come to town hall meetings, but to really get some good input and thoughts from Minnesotans," Clark said.

House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, said she expects the meetings will produce some good suggestions for balancing the budget.

"I think that the collective wisdom of Minnesotans is much greater than 201 people sitting at the Capitol," Kelliher said. "So, I fully expect that we're going to learn some things we don't know about. And we're also going to get some ideas that had not surfaced before."

A Republican leader in the Minnesota Senate questioned the value of the meetings. Sen. David Hann, R-Eden Prairie, challenged DFL leaders to cut to the chase and release their alternative budget proposal. Hann said he already knows Democrats don't like the governor's budget.

"Why do we want to take this around the state and have a bunch of discussion on something they have no intention to act act on?," Hann asked.

House GOP Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, has toned down his earlier criticism of the meetings. He's no longer using the phrase "misery tour."
Seifert said he plans to participate in the meetings and listen to what people have to say. But Seifert also said he wants to hear budget solutions, not just complaints.

"I hope they don't turn into political basketball games, where the Democrats gin up the public employees and the liberal activists to come on one side, and our folks have a cluster of our like-minded people that show up," Seifert said. "And it just ends up being kind of a mini version of two state conventions, to jeer and cheer depending on what they think."

Here's a list of the scheduled meetings:

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009

Mankato: 6 p.m., Mankato Intergovernmental Center
Rochester: 6 p.m., Rochester Community and Technical College
St. Cloud: 6 p.m., St. Cloud City Hall Council Chambers
Willmar: 6 p.m., Kennedy Elementary School

Friday, Feb. 20, 2009

Albert Lea: 10 a.m., Albert Lea City Hall Council Chambers
Winona: 3:30 p.m., Winona City Hall Council Chambers
Marshall: 2:30 p.m., Southwest Minnesota State University Lecture Hall
Worthington: 10:30 a.m., Worthington City Hall Council Chambers
Little Falls: 9:30 a.m., Morrison County Government Center
Alexandria: 2 p.m., Alexandria City Hall
Duluth: 9:30 a.m., Duluth City Hall Council Chambers
Virginia: 1:30 p.m., Mesabi Range Community and Technical College
Brainerd: 10:30 a.m., Washington Educational Services Building
Bemidji: 3:30 p.m., Bemidji State University

In addition to the meetings, the Senate Tax Committee will be at Minnesota State University Moorhead on Feb. 20. The meeting will take place from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Comstock Memorial Union.

Monday, Feb. 23

Woodbury: 6 p.m., Central Park Amphitheater

Tuesday, Feb. 24

Bloomington: 7 p.m., Bloomington City Hall
Minneapolis: 6 p.m., Minneapolis Park Board

Wednesday, Feb. 25

Burnsville: 7:30 p.m., Fairview Ridges Hospital
White Bear Lake:
6:30 p.m., White Bear Lake High School - South Campus

Thursday, Feb. 26

St. Paul: 6:00 p.m., West Minnehaha Rec. Center
Plymouth: 7:00 p.m., Plymouth City Hall
Coon Rapids: 7:00 p.m., Coon Rapids City Hall
Forest Lake: 6:30 p.m., Forest Lake City Hall

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Court: Coleman hasn't yet shown a widespread problem with RABs

Posted at 4:34 PM on February 13, 2009 by Tom Scheck

AP issued this bulletin as a result of this order from the three-judge panel that's overseeing Norm Coleman's election contest.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The judges in Minnesota's U.S. Senate trial say Republican Norm Coleman has not yet shown a widespread problem with absentee voters being denied the right to vote.

In a ruling late Friday, the three-judge panel say that rejected absentee ballots in 12 of 19 categories should not be counted in the Senate race. That's a setback for Coleman, who wanted to count ballots in all but three categories.

Coleman is trying to undo Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead by arguing that thousands of rejected absentee ballots should be counted. But the order from the judges will limit the number of ballots to be reviewed for counting.