Dayton talks taxes, gambling, endorsement

Posted at 5:06 PM on January 25, 2010 by Tim Pugmire (1 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: Minnesota Governor

Former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, a DFL candidate for governor, is offering new details about his "tax the rich" proposal.

Dayton has frequently talked on the campaign trail about increasing income taxes on the wealthiest 10 percent of Minnesotans. He says the change would bring fairness to the tax system and provide the state much-needed revenue for education and other essential services. During a wide-ranging session with reporters today, Dayton explained that he would propose adding three new income tax tiers. He also said households with income of $150 thousand and above would have to pay more.

["You've got three ways you can balance the budget," Dayton said. "You can raise taxes on the richest Minnesotans. You can raise taxes on the rest of Minnesotans, or you can pretend you're going to wave some magic wand and 5 to 7 billion is going to disappear from state spending without no consequence to anyone, which is the Republican answer right now, which belongs more on the comic page than it does on the front page."

A state Republican party official blasted Dayton for offering what he called an out of touch tax and spend philosophy.

Dayton also talked at length about his decision to bypass the DFL endorsement process, his support of an expansion of gambling and other issues. We'll post video of Dayton as soon it's converted.

Comments (1)

He's definitely got my vote. I see him as being the best candidate of all 20+ of them.

Posted by Colleen Morse | January 28, 2010 4:12 PM

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