« MN GOP: TOP TEN AL FRANKEN OVER-THE-TOP, NEGATIVE PERSONAL ATTACKS #2 | Home | AL FRANKEN ON LETTERMAN »
AP: INCOME TAX INCREASES BREWING IN SENATE
By Michael B. Brodkorb | March 28, 2007
"In a one-two tax punch, Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed a tax increase that would hit businesses and acknowledged serious discussions about ratcheting up income taxes — and maybe not just on the wealthy as House leaders suggest.
The income tax proposal hasn't made it into bill form yet, and Senate Taxes Committee Chairman Tom Bakk said his fellow Democrats haven't coalesced around an approach for raising more money for public schools and college tuition relief.
One option is to reinstate income tax levels to what they were prior to cuts in 2000, effectively raising taxes across the board. The other option is to follow the House DFL proposal of adding a fourth income tax bracket that would affect only the state's top earners.
'I'm willing to admit some of those tax cuts I voted for weren't sustainable,' Bakk said after an evening closed-door meeting with DFL senators. He said the majority caucus appears 'pretty evenly split' on how to proceed.
Either proposal would be a long-shot given Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty's repeated threats to veto any bill with a state tax increase." Source: Associated Press, March 28, 2007
Click here for complete story.
Tags: Uncategorized
Topics: Uncategorized | 17 Comments »
17 Responses to “AP: INCOME TAX INCREASES BREWING IN SENATE”
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:42 PM
So Bakk says the tax cuts weren’t sustainable? I wish these guys in St. Paul would ever ask me if I can afford to send them more money to spend. This is legalized robbery. We have 600,000 fewer people than Wisconsin yet we spend over $6 billion more a biennium. We have a $2 billion+ surplus and these guys still say it’s not enough. The DFL is the epitome of greed — government greed.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:10 AM
The DFL says that it only wants to tax “the rich”.
The problem is how the DFL defines the term “rich”.
The DLF definition of “rich”: Anyone who owns an alarm clock.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:28 AM
I’ve got an idea. Let’s just talk about how much things cost, and how poor we all are, and how we all hate taxes.
Let’s ignore the plight of real people – people who drive on roads, need police to patrol their neighborhoods, and have kids in public schools.
Let’s ignore the plight of real people who have seen their property taxes raised by Republicans.
Let’s ignore the issues – and talk about our wallets.
March 29th, 2007 at 4:18 AM
How disingenious Brian. Seems to me that we all drive on the roads, that the police protect us all, and a great many of us have kids in school. Seems to me we are real people. Does that mean we can’t complain when the government robs us of the money WE earn to the point we can’t feed our kids or keep our houses.
What difference does it make if you say you’re going to give me $500 off my property taxes if you’re going to take $1000 out of my other pocket?
Also, I don’t see it as the fault of the Republicans that property taxes have gone up. COunties and cities are run mostly by liberals and they are the ones who keep wanting more and more for their pet projects. I’ll keep reminding myself that the coffee shop in the local high school, that my tax dollars paid for, is so good and necessary for a kid’s education.
March 29th, 2007 at 6:35 AM
Let’s ignore the plight of real people – people who drive on roads, need police to patrol their neighborhoods, and have kids in public schools.
Yeah, people who make money aren’t real people, just those low income folks who pay no taxes already.
Let’s ignore the plight of real people who have seen their property taxes raised by Republicans.
Lies and the lies told by Brian Hanna. Your County Board voted to raises your taxes, Brian. Your city council voted to raise your taxes, Brian. You can’t show one bill, one vote by the legislature raising your property taxes. There are plenty of cities who took their LGA reduction like grown ups and found ways to reduce their spending. Just because your liberal Minneapolis council people didn’t have that courage doesn’t mean Republicans raised your taxes. Lies, lies, and more lies, Brian.
Let’s ignore the issues – and talk about our wallets.
Yeah, people who dare to worry about the power-drunk DFL and their desire to raises taxes like they’ve got just two years to do it should stop acting so selfishly. Just sign over your paychecks to them and stop whining.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:39 AM
Yep Brian, the plight of ordinary folks suffering through one of the most successful economies in history. Those poor wretched souls watching their incomes rise, unemployment remain at a historical lows and their state coffers burgeoning under the weight of record tax revenue in-takes.
Oh the humanity! Yes, by all means, let’s raise taxes! It’s for the kids.
Pull you head out of your ass Brian.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:47 AM
BTW Brian, aren’t the “people who drive on roads” exactly the people the DFL hates? I mean, shouldn’t those people be herded like cattle on to a public transportation system that costs more than owning a car to use and doesn’t meet their needs?
Also, “need police to patrol their neighborhoods”… you mean the police that liberals fired? In neighborhoods stuffed with criminals that liberals refuse to prosecute? Are you talking about those property owners who liberals hate, because they own stuff?
… re: public schools… you mean those indoctrination centers that are completely failing to prepare our children for any future. I mean, those institutions where it doesn’t matter if you can read, write or do arithmetic, so long as you’ve excel in understanding homosexuality and “feel good about yourself?”.
Give me a break. It’s not that liberals are wrong on some issues. It’s that they are wrong, dead wrong, on EVERY issue.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:56 AM
Brian
Let’s talk about the people who do not want to work; the people who cannot afford the
child(ren) they have, so they go out and have another child and force me to pay to raise it; the people who come to Minnesota strictly for a handout.
It’s called personal responsibility, and I’m afraid it’s in short supply herein Minnesota.
The more government we have, the bigger it gets, the more inefficient and effective it becomes.
You guys on the left want to sock it to the “rich”, who already pay their fair share of taxes. It’s nothing more than the politics of envy. You’re not as successful as someone else, and for some reason that is their fault. It really is sad that you believe that.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:20 AM
I am constantly amazed by these DFL fools who feel the need to raise every tax they can think of. The economy grows and the state treasury is bulging with extra money and these asshats have the gall to say they need more. I hope the public pays attention to these fools and toss them out on their ears in 2008. Too much to hope for?
March 29th, 2007 at 8:40 AM
Never mind 2008. Isn’t there a way we can force these fools to adjourn NOW, before they do even more damage? They have no earthly idea of what they are doing, and either don’t understand or do not care what the REAL consequences will be. It’s probably both.
March 29th, 2007 at 8:40 AM
Never mind 2008. Isn’t there a way we can force these fools to adjourn NOW, before they do even more damage? They have no earthly idea of what they are doing, and either don’t understand or do not care what the REAL consequences will be. It’s probably both.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:01 AM
Minnesotan’s will get upset by the tax increases and we will watch the MN house or senate turn back over to republicans as the DFL’rs who won by slim margins in the suburbs will be out of a job in two years.
Too bad so many were fooled by the DFL to vote for them as now they realize just what it brought. Minneapolis however will remain a DFL stronghold and also the armpit of the state as fewer and fewer people have reason to even bother going into Minneapolis.
The great liberal democRat experiment “Murderapolis” will go on but at least it is just democRat on democRat violence.
Let them kill themselves off and we will drown the their democRat vote as they dilute into the suburbs and find their neighbors do not agree with their liberal views. 
Maybe with the death of the baby boomers we can also lay to rest liberalism?
Sure would be a good thing for the country.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:06 AM
I live in a modest home and have three kids. I am taxed in the 28% bracket. Last year I spent $35,000 on non-subsidized daycare / education. I and my spouse go to work everyday. The DFL thinks we have too much, and wants me to give more. Surely there are some democrats out there that are in the same boat as I, can you please report to the blog where all of yor extra money is coming from to pay for the new programs that will alledgedly make our state better.
Plain and simple the DFL stands for the promotion of an entitlement society, they feed their loyalists with free money like a meth dealer searching for new addicts. The only way to get more is to keep sending them to Saint Paul for their annual “drug deal” agenda designed to steal more money from the working family.
Its not about LGA, its about leeches on society taking money from all the hard working people trying to get ahead while doing the best they can. I’ll take 2 hard working immigrants in this country any day if we can trade 1 derelict sewer bum that belongs somewhere other than Minnesota.
Yes, I did my taxes yesterday. I think I’m pissed today, I’d better be careful, it looks like I am likely to boil over next year.
While Mayor (Chris) Coleman is promoting his “Second Shift” program in Saint Paul. I might miss my kids childhoods while I am working the second shift to pay for the DFL’s expanding budget. Thanks.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:56 AM
Hey Brian,
Where is the logic in we’re going to raise your income taxes so we can lower your property taxes? There is no logic. By the way, the state has almost no control over local property taxes. Does anyone think that if the state gives out more local government aid that cities and counties will lower property taxes? Hell no!
As for the rest of your remarks about schools and police, I cannot help it that your Minneapolis city council and school board are corrupt and incompetent. You should move somewhere else Brian or elect honest and competent leaders.
March 29th, 2007 at 11:54 AM
I love these DFL clowns that pretend to be for the little guy. Then the first chance they get to raise taxes on…the little guy.
You say, “I thought they were raising taxes on just the ‘rich’, right?”
Nope.
Gax taxes hit the little guy extremely hard.
Who is most likely to have an older car that gets lower miles per gallon? The little guy.
Who is most likely to need more repairs because they have an older car? The little guy (higher sales tax to cover those light rail lines that aren’t anywhere near his house, or don’t go anywhere near his job).
The “rich” guy can handle the increase in gas taxes, wheelage taxes, etc. – not that it’s the right thing to do. But the little guy is nailed by these massively regressive taxes that this power hungry DFL legislature is putting on them, all the while spouting the crap that they’re helping the little guy.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:01 PM
Brian – you Libs miss the point. You don’t even know what the argument is.
We could double the number of handouts and programs tomorrow and boost the economy without raising a dime in taxes IF government learned two words, Efficiency and Effectiveness.
Mindlessly throwing money at government discourages both.
I’m sure everyone else on this thread would agree with me; If I thought for one minute that my tax money actually helped people or improved student’s ability to prepare for their future I’d open my check book and ask “What do you need!â€
Government efficiently is what, 20-25%? Then they take the 25 cents on the dollar that isn’t eaten by bureaucracy and give it the wrong people for the wrong reasons. If the truly needy get anything it is a few cents. Road building is a perfect example of this too.
If a non-profit handled money and produced results like government we’d demand they all go to jail, and have.
I don’t remember who said it but it holds true; The only positive impact most government programs have on society is employing people to run the government programs.
My wife and I work with a few incredible charities though our church and contribute to several others that produce fantastic results. We dream of what more we could do if government didn’t take more than half our income (when you add it all up). I can do at least three times as much good with my money as government can do with it. Doing the most greedy thing I can think of, taking my money and investing it and never sharing it, still does more for the population than government does with it because it grows the economy. And, as a friend of mine so eloquently puts it, ‘If you raise the water level, even the turds will float higher’
So Brian, and all you other Libs, the next time you want to talk about the Plight of Real People maybe you might consider getting Government the hell out of the way so real help can happen. If you want roads maybe try demanding money that is supposed to go to roads actually goes to roads. If you want to educate kids maybe the government should be more concerned about educating kids than increasing Education Minnesota Union head count.
So until I see evidence that thousands of my dollars is used for something other than a backyard bon fire at the capital I will keep one hand on my wallet, thank you very much.
March 31st, 2007 at 10:43 AM
When you see our troops on TV, when you see a school bus, when you see a stoplight or a police car, even when you turn on your water faucet – that’s your government at work.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that.