I was brought up to accept responsibility for my actions. Unfortunately Sen. Gretchen Hoffman, R-Vergas, Minn., in a Sept. 21 Forum opinion column, just wants to blame others for rising property taxes after she and her GOP colleagues pushed through over $600 million in permanent cuts to programs designed to provide important property tax relief to rural Minnesotans.
Hoffman and other legislators will have you believe that the state can slash over half a billion dollars of property tax relief aids and credits to homeowners and communities without having any impact on rising property taxes. Really? They will have you believe that the state can wipe out the Homestead Credit – a direct property tax benefit of up to $304 for homeowners – and not force up property taxes. Get serious. . . .
The New Ulm Journal has been reporting sporadically on a local controversy over converting a boiler in the local steam plant to coal.
Today, the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission (NUPUC) sided with economic common sense and the efforts of a local citizens group, New Ulm Citizens for Clean Energy, and voted no on the proposal.
The report showed that projected coal and natural gas prices no longer showed coal burning to be advantageous like it had been when proposed in 2006.
In addition, three factors made "status quo" burning of only natural gas more effective: fracking, the economic downturn and EPA regulations.
The economic downturn created a drop in energy demand that drove down market energy prices. It also caused large electrical output facilities to be generating a surplus because the high demand they were built to accommodate disappeared.
Increases in the practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, generated increased natural gas production and lowered its price to extremely low levels.
Current and anticipate costs from environmental and greenhouse gas regulations also raised the project's cost. Current regulations alone would require an additional $1.5 million of work on non-project related smoke stacks in order for the Boiler No. 4 project to be in compliance. . . .
Unlike the Journal's board, Bluestem isn't happy about fracking, but the local citizens and environmentalists are happy, and they're right about the problems that still surround the use of coal for power generation. Pleased with the vote,the Sierra Club sent out the following statement:
New Ulm Says No to Coal
Facing pressure from community members and updated economic analysis, New Ulm Public Utilities Commission votes to suspend coal conversion project
New Ulm, MN – On Tuesday, the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission (NUPUC) voted to suspend project activities for a proposed conversion of Boiler #4 at its steam plant to coal. Concerned citizens cheered as commissioners voted not to move forward with a plan that would have increased air pollution and cost the city over $23 million.
Sue Kimmel of New Ulm Citizens for Clean Energy was very pleased with the decision. “Coal is our dirtiest form of energy; burning coal is a leading trigger of asthma attacks and the biggest source of mercury pollution. We thank the New Ulm Public Utilities Commission for today’s decision to keep New Ulm coal free.”
The NUPUC plan to convert Boiler #4 to burn coal was part of the long term energy plan developed in 2006. New Ulm Citizens for Clean Energy has been working with the Sierra Club and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) to stop the project from moving forward since NUPUC applied for an air permit for the project from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in 2009.
Said Kimmel “Investing in coal would have reduced our capacity to invest in long-term clean energy solutions that could benefit New Ulm’s environment and economy. We look forward to working with the NUPUC to identify opportunities to move towards a clean energy future.”
At the July NUPUC meeting, the NUPUC's consultants Sargent & Lundy presented an updated economic analysis of the project that concluded coal was no longer the most economic option for New Ulm, but recommended the NUPUC move forward with the air permit application to keep its options open. After revisiting the report and acquiring additional information on natural gas and coal pricing, the NUPUC staff recommended suspending work on the project, writing in the recommendation that the “project has lost its economic benefit to the City of New Ulm.”
"Today, New Ulm was faced with a decision: choose yesterday’s dirty coal energy or move towards a cleaner energy future. They chose a clean energy future," said Jessica Tatro, Sierra Club Organizing Representative. "This is a major victory for the people of Minnesota and part of a national movement of communities moving beyond coal.”
Bluestem hasn't paid much attention to the raging arguments online about redistricting, mostly because there's only so much time in a day, regardless of how important an issue redistricting might be. Those who want to follow the game should start with Minnesota's community sites on the left and right: Minnesota Progressive Project and True North.
That connection loops this post back the Minnesota blogosphere debate and the name in our headline. Over at True North, the blogger who wrote up DrawTheLine MN: Giving “Potemkin” A Bad Name is having a hard time matching names and places on the state's political map.
Since Bluestem believes that Mitch Berg is as fine a conservative blogger as one might find anywhere, we're here to help him as he looks --and fails--to identify Republicans on the Citizens’ Commission on Redistricting. Having failed to find more than one Republican on the Commission, Berg quite logically concludes that Draw the Line Minnesota has constructed nothing but a progressive Potemkin Village in Citizens' Commission. Fair enough based on the research he presents.
But given Berg's completely solid credentials as a blogger and researcher, it's a bit puzzling that he missed spotting Kent Kaiser. Having enlisted our Pretend Internet Boyfriend Mr. Google as unpaid intern on the prairie, we found a lot of connections between Professor Kaiser and Minnesota's conservative Republicans.
Berg writes:
Kent Kaiser of St. Paul is a professor of communication at Northwestern College. Previously, he served as the communications and voter outreach director in the office of the Minnesota Secretary of State. While with the Secretary of State’s office, he serviced as liaison to the U.S. Census Bureau and on the boards of Kids Voting Minnesota and Kids Voting St. Paul.
Yet again – not a single political contribution found.
Since Berg uses criteria in addition to political contributions to assess other members of the commission, it's fair to look beyond contributions for evidence of Mr. Kaiser's political leanings.
Kent Kaiser is an assistant professor of communication at Northwestern College in St. Paul, a Center of the American Experiment senior fellow, and a native of Silver Bay who formerly served as communications and voter outreach director for Minnesota Secretaries of State Mary Kiffmeyer, a Republican, and Mark Ritchie, a DFLer.
Kaiser was also on the Late Debate with Jack and Ben, a conservative podcast that's included on True North, to discuss redistricting back in August.
Berg and Kaiser are both on @ulookgoodinred, a twitter list kept by Bridget Sutton, wife of Minnesota GOP chair Tony Sutton. Kaiser is the adviser to the Northwestern College chapter of the College Republicans, according to his biography on the conservative reilgious private college's website. That biography also notes:
He has served as a political communications consultant to numerous first-time candidates for public office, including two who won seats in the U.S. Congress.
Berg might look into that, just in case Keith Ellison is on Kaiser's client list. That might help build his case that Kaiser has no GOP cred.
Photo: Via TCSocialscene, Kent Kaiser with Jeb Bush after the former Florida Governor's April 26 presentation on education. Kaiser is so not a Republican on True North today.
Yesterday at the Minnesota Independent, editor Jon Collins broke the news that the Corrections Corporation of America's private prison in Appleton, shuttered for want of business from the state of Minnesota, may reopen.
It’s been almost two years since the privately-run prison in Appleton has held prisoners. But in early 2012, the prison’s owner, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), expects to fill Appleton’s Prairie Correctional Facility and another facility in Colorado with 3,256 inmates from California.
In the last ten years, the revenue of CCA, the country’s biggest private prison company, has almost doubled, according to their annual reports. Critics say that CCA’s success, and even the likely reopening of the prison in Appleton, stems from their use of lobbying and campaign donations to push through tougher crime laws and increase detainment of illegal immigrants.
“Prison privatization contracts are designed by policy makers. It’s important for these companies to have a political strategy to increase their market share,” Paul Ashton, author of a recent report on private prisons for the Justice Policy Institute, said in a conference call Wednesday. Private prison companies “game the system,” he said, by pushing to increase market share, which in the private prison business means putting more people in prison.
The Appleton facility is in DFLer Andrew Falk's House district and Gary Kubly's Senate District. When the state began transferring inmates from the private Prairie Correctional Facility to the less-costly public facility in Faribault, the Morris Sun reported that both legislators went to bat for the jobs the corporation provided:
“Devastating’’ is how Appleton Mayor Ron Ronning, himself an employee of the private prison, described the consequences to his community should the facility be closed or mothballed. The mayor was among well over 120 people, most of them employees of the facility, who packed the Appleton Civic Center on Friday morning for a town meeting hosted by State Sen. Gary Kubly, DFL-Granite Falls, and State Rep. Andrew Falk, DFL-Murdock.
Mayor Ronning said he feared that Appleton and the surrounding rural area could see a major exodus of jobs and suffer the economic strife that gripped it during the farm crisis of the 1980s, when businesses shuttered their windows and homes were left vacant.
The 1,600-bed Appleton facility is currently housing 542 inmates from Minnesota and another 525 from the state of Washington, according to Tim Wengler, its warden. The state of Washington has been slowly reducing its number of inmates.
So what's the problem with re-opening the prison and putting people in Appleton back to work? Back to the Collins' report. Go read about the influence of private money on public justice. And there's also this:
One thousand seven hundred fifty miles from L.A. to Appleton CCA and other private prison companies are doing very well. In 2010, CCA saw total revenue of $1.67 billion, according to CCA’s annual report. But there is a human cost to the industry too.
Amy Gottlieb of the American Friends Service Committee told the Minnesota Independent that prisoners transferred to other states often face both emotional and legal hurdles.
“Ultimately, we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people around the country who are being locked up, held away from their families, in the immigration context are often unrepresented by council,” Gottlieb said. “People are profiting off of that.”
According to CCA’s website, one of the benefits of out-of-state inmate management is that the company will “[a]dhere to state-specific policies and procedures, as well as hundreds of standards set by the American Correctional Association and our company.”
But the fact that prisoners, including detained immigrants in some federal facilities, are being held in the less accountable private facilities is of concern to advocates like Gottlieb.
“We have seen over and over again that the private prison lobby is extremely powerful and they have deep connections to a lot of politicians and get a lot of federal contracts,” Gottlieb said. “That creates very serious concerns when what we are really talking about here are human rights and human rights violations.”
The Cuentame community told the story via the powerful video, "Immigrants for Sale":
I've praised both Kubly and Falk in the past on Bluestem, but won't hesitate to cry foul if either cheers this development by CCA. Opening the prison for detainees would only feed the human supply chain for private profit that was at the core of SB1070--and copycat bills like ALEC zombie legislator Steve Drazkowski's own HB3830.
Rural Minnesota needs jobs, but profiting from human trafficking isn't the way to do it.
In this morning's Winona Daily News, Bill McMillan shares his experience at one of Representative Steve Drazkowski's town halls when he asked a question about closing tax loopholes for corporations. And since the Rochester Post Bulletin has now shared that Draz's Deform 2.0 meeting is Thursday, Bluestem recommends that readers go get their own precious memory with the Draz.
I asked Drazkowski if it was true he voted against legislation that would have raised revenue by closing tax loopholes for corporations making money in Minnesota but sheltering it in tax havens overseas. (The Minnesota Department of Revenue estimates the amount to be $90 million per year.) He said he opposed this legislation because it would have meant “raising taxes” on those corporations and he was opposed to raising taxes of any kind. I think most Minnesotans would not consider this “raising taxes,” but as requiring those corporations to pay their fair share.
It's been said the most radical idea in America is a long memory. McMillan demonstrates why when he reminds readers of priorities Draz claimed before the last session:
Before the session began, Drazkowski stated in a guest editorial: “Personally, my top priorities are our kids, our elderly and vulnerable adults, our roads and bridges and public safety.”
In March 2011, Drazkowski was one of only 16 of the 134 State Representatives to vote for a $19 cut per pupil to our schools.
This year, Drazkowski voted to drastically limit the number of people allowed to get Elderly and Developmental Disability Waivers for individuals needing care in a facility such as a community-based group home. (About one-third the cost of nursing home care)
He voted to cut the renters tax credit. (According to a recent survey, 27 percent of households in Minnesota are rented) this would result in a $170 increase in these households, which tend to be low income and elderly.
Perhaps Draz is the sort who only cuts those he loves, but Bluestem thinks the Mazeppa lawmaker simply forgot to share ALEC's agenda with the MNGOP caucus staff writer who drafted the column.
Bluestem hopes readers in the Rochester area will attend and give suggestions for reforming government, though perhaps Draz and his Republican friends only want to hear suggestions that are already in the ALEC corporate bill factory's "State Budget Reform Toolkit."
I coveted a friend’s toy and wanted her to let me play with it, yet I never wanted to share my favorite toy.
“You can’t have it both ways,” my mom used to tell me. “Either you play only with your own toys or you play with others’ shared toys and you share yours as well.”
A good lesson but apparently one that some state legislators haven’t learned. Several, including state Rep. Steve Drazkowski, who represents Kenyon, and Rep. Pat Garofalo, who represents part of Northfield, have been on the public speaking circuit, urging voters to reject any levy referendums in their districts.
Garofalo and Drazkowski claim that the state boosted spending to school districts in the budget passed this summer and that the 133 districts statewide seeking levy increases (or the continuation of an existing one) are “double dipping.”. . .
But what’s almost as disturbing as the fact that the GOP leadership has now picked up this "double-dipping" argument and is circulating it widely, is the contradiction it represents. These are the same legislators after all, who want local governments to house state prisoners longer and bear more of the cost of attorney representation in parental rights cases, and who all last session clamored for the state to allow local governments to handle their own taxing and spending.
But as my mom used to say, you can’t have it both ways, legislators. Either you want local government to govern locally, or you don’t. If 133 local school districts want more money, how about you let local voters decide whether it’s needed? ...
Go read the whole column. Smith--who often champions Mike Parry--writes for a newspaper in a chain that leans right.
Perhaps this is why the Republican Party of Minnesota and its army of serial retweeters has moved on to the next moral panic, the one spurred by Parry's show hearings over a union organizing drive.
Something has to draw attention away from the Draz and Garofalo Education Messaging Fail Show, now held over for another week of repeated negative editorial comment all across Greater Minnesota, no matter how red the district might be.
Photo: Steve Drazkowski, R-Message Fail, via Politics in Minnesota.
Southern Minnesotans will have a chance to meet with legislators in Austin and Rochester (provided, of course, that the Post Bulletin decides to share the day of the event in its posting).
Congressman Tim Walz will make an appearance at Hy-Vee in Austin next week.
The democratic lawmaker will be at Hy-Vee on Tuesday as part of a “Congress on Your Corner” stop. Walz has several stops planned throughout southern Minnesota this fall, according to a news release.
“Hearing the thoughts and ideas of southern Minnesotans is the cornerstone of our representative democracy. I am looking forward to the opportunity to hear from folks,” Walz said in a news release.
Walz is scheduled to be at the grocery store from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
The Minnesota House Republicans are bringing their Deform 2.0 to Rochester next week. Bluestem hopes that the Rochester Post Bulletin will deign to share an important part of the basic Journalistic Five W's and tell readers what day the Town Hall meeting takes place.
Perhaps the Republicans failed to include that information in their press release since the day is missing in both versions of the announcement in the paper (article and blog post). Perhaps this is a secret the PB political reporter and Tea Party stenographer Heather Carlson is keeping to herself in Republicans to hold town hall on reform:
Rep. Mike Benson of Rochester, Rep. Steve Drazkowski of Mazeppa and Rep. Duane Quam of Byron announced the town hall yesterday, which will focus on the GOP's "Reform 2.0" initiative for the upcoming legislative session. The town hall will be from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Century High School, 2525 Viola Road N.E. in Rochester. Minnesota House Majority Leader Matt Dean is also expected to attend.
News reporting or treasure hunt? Perhaps the legislators are simply aping the habits of corporate bill factory ALEC and aiming for a selective audience. Bluestem can't wait to blog about the Drazkowski for Congress campaign.
Photo: Screenshot of the PB blog post. I commented about the missing day earlier in the week but no correction has been made. (11:36 a.m. Saturday, Central time)
Standard & Poor's downgraded Minnesota's bond rating yesterday from AAA to AA+. Predictably, the governor's office and Republicans hauled the trebuchets out of the barn to hurl flaming talking points at each other.
Nestled in their the Minnesota Valley redoubt, the editorial board of the New Ulm Journal gives the reaction a resounding thumbs down in State bond rating:
THUMBS DOWN: Standard & Poor's downgraded Minnesota's state bond rating from AAA to AA+ on Friday. It was the last of the three major credit rating services to give the state an AAA rating.
This should be a wake-up call to our governor and our legislators. S&P cited the state's reliance on one-time measures to balance the state's budget, instead of finding addressing the recurring instability.
We doubt the state's leaders are listening, however. Gov. Mark Dayton issued a statement blaming Republicans for not raising the needed revenue. Republicans responded that the governor wouldn't need to raise the revenues if we cut spending the way they want. In other words, they carried on the same argument that led to our government shutdow in July.
It will take time to put the state back on a solid financial footing as it is. The longer the parties bicker, the longer it will take.
Image: A trebuchet. If the budget debate makes you want to hurl, it should.
One shibboleth shared by conservative legislators (and the corporations that enable them) in attacks against the middle class is that wages and benefits must be gouged in order for American businesses to remain competitive in a global marketplace.
An item in last week's Austin Herald, Hormel union OKs contract, suggests that wet blanket isn't being thrown everywhere on the American Dream:
United Food and Commercial Workers Union members at Hormel Foods Corp. voted to accept new four-year contracts for about 4,000 workers in Austin; Algona, Iowa; Fremont, Neb.; Beloit, Wis., and Atlanta, Ga.
The new collective bargaining deal will mean a base wage increase of $1.50, improvements in health care, improved retirement security and a pension increase.
“The strong contract that we secured with Hormel is a pretty big deal,” said Dick Schuster, a Hormel employee in Fremont, Neb. for 38 years, in a news release. “At a time when pensions are under attack nationwide, we were able to bargain for significant improvements to our retirement security. Our contract is a testament to why sticking together and speaking with one voice benefits all workers.” . . .
. . .“Our communities need good jobs with pay and benefits that can support a family,” said Vincent Perry, a four-year veteran at the Hormel plant in Algona, Iowa, in a news release. “Good union contracts like ours help build more stable and secure communities.”
Not all news coming from the livestock industry is good for rural communities. In an unrelated item, hog rustlers have been stealing pigs from barns in Southern Minnesota and Iowa. Higher hogs prices have made stealing truck loads of market-ready hogs worth the risk. The Des Moines Register reports in Pig thieves are getting 'greedier and more gutsy' in north Iowa, farmer says:
.. .Officials in both states so far are unsure where the hot hogs are being sold and say it's possible they're being trucked out of Iowa or Minnesota.
“It would take a well-organized operation to transport this many animals,” said Marc Chadderdon, an investigator with the Nicollet County sheriff’s office in St. Peter, Minn. “I think they go out and they’re doing their recon ahead of time, and they’re picking these barns for reasons.”
Reed Kuper figures there could be a ring of 10 to 20 thieves involved. He’d love to gather all of them in a room for questioning and play them against each other.
“Then everybody’s going to start squealing,” he said.
Photo: Oink! Union workers are bringing home the bacon for their communities, while hog rustlers are stealing it from farmers.
Bluestem will be staging a full production of "Tales of Hoffman" tomorrow. For now, readers who've missed the ethically-challenged tweet princess and yarn teller can get a little taste now that she's back from "a little getaway" that seems to have kept her quiet for much of the time since the shutdown ended.
I can’t say I am shocked to read that property tax increases and school levies, pushed by local officials, are being blamed on state legislators. This public relations tactic, shifting the blame, is an age-old practice.
However, I am surprised that editorial boards and city officials believe they can still pull the fleece over voters’ eyes on this issue. The problem is simple: there is out-of-control spending at every level of government.
As one of the members of the legislature who shifted school funding and ended the homestead credit, Hoffman should be taken at her word about "shifting the blame."
She's expert at this--always the victim, never accountable--so like Hoffman, BSP isn't shocked to read her words. Unlike the senator, however, we're not surprised that she's taking this approach. Of course it's the editorial boards and city officials who are wrong, just like Barbara Goodwin was wrong. Never mind what that mean, bi-partisan ethics subcommittee ruled unanimously about Kvetchin' Gretchen.
Read the whole thing. Hoffman may be late to the game, but she repeats the standard issue talking points with aplomb and vigor. Elsewhere in the paper, readers discover that the Otter Tail Commissioners question Hoffman on tax shift:
The Otter Tail County Board of Commissioners told State Sen. Gretchen Hoffman on Tuesday that local units of government will take the heat this year when, in fact, the state legislature shifted the tax burden to the local level.
“The state budget was balanced on the backs of local taxpayers,” said County Commissioner Doug Huebsch. “We’ve been prudent in our county budget process and have put in place hiring freezes. Nonetheless, we’ll be forced to ask county residents to increase their local tax burden just to meet basic services.”
That’s because, for 2012, the county will not receive about $2.3 million from the state that was previously promised.
“We were blindsided with the loss of the state-paid market value homestead credit,” said County Administrator Larry Krohn.
The elimination of the homestead credit totals about $1.8 million for 2012 and the loss of county program aid for next year amounts to close to $500,000. . . .
. . .County commissioners told Hoffman that they are like many residents statewide who were frustrated by the lack of compromise which led to a state shutdown this past summer.
“There was a lack of leadership on both sides (Democrats and Republicans),” said Commissioner Lee Rogness. “Leadership, sorely missing, isn’t a cost to taxpayers. It’s something that should be expected.”
Republican Tea Party candidates ran on creating jobs. After they took office they switched to social issues. Disenfranchisement of the poor and vulnerable, gun rights, union busting, abortion, gay marriage, and defunding education are the issues the Republican Tea Partiers have pushed in the Minnesota State Legislature.
Check the record of the senator some voted into office in the Tenth District. Has she put forth any job creation or economic stimulus ideas or bills? She was the “business experience expert entrepreneur” candidate who ran on her business background, boasting to anyone who would listen about her businesses in North Dakota. Was she promoting the Minnesota business climate? She was not.
Instead, she is a proponent of the Tea Party, which proposed cutting the budget for job creation efforts by more than 50 percent, to cut workforce development, and to cut the Trade Office by more than 30 percent. The result would be a loss of 754 jobs.
Is this what you thought you were getting when you cast your vote for Gretchen Hoffman? Or, by now, do you realize you were handed a Bait and Switch? You know the answer.
Hoffman's legislative record must be someone else's fault. Bluestem credits the American Legislative Exchange Council's corporate bill factory for the agenda Hoffman pushes. The Vergas freshman serves on ALEC's HHS Task Force.
As fans of Minnesota's most popular blogged telenovela may remember, when we last left the Emo Senator, our hero was experiencing a fleeting moment of lucidity as he voiced his support for local school boards to put levies forward for voters' approval or disapproval.
In today's episode, Senator Parry displays the fickle nature that has gain him so many adoring fans via the miracle of the Internet. The Star Tribune reports in Child-care union drive fires up the Capitol:
"You cannot be the employer and unionize yourself.'' Added Sen. Mike Parry, R-Waseca, one of the organizers of the Senate hearing: "The governor is walking a very thin line of trying to make law.''
Two of the state's largest unions have been going door to door to solicit support of child-care workers and have asked Dayton to unionize the workers through executive order. Dayton has said he will not do that but supports having a vote taken among providers.
Across the country Republicans have been challenging the role and influence of public employee unions. In Minnesota, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have spent years attempting to organize providers in Minnesota.
In a letter to Dayton, Zellers and House Majority Leader Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, said the providers "are independent contractors, not public employees nor employees of any single employer. You lack the authority, since an executive order purporting to unionize these small businesses would inherently entail lawmaking.''
Dayton said he has made no decision beyond rejecting the path taken by labor-friendly governors in several other states, which was to recognize the unions by executive order after their organizing drives. He said Tuesday he is asking his legal staff to determine the scope of his authority. "I would rather there be an election than have [unionization] imposed on child-care workers and providers,'' he said.
Officials of the two unions said they believe if the matter comes to a vote among providers, the decision to unionize will prevail.
"To be honest with you, we're really excited about it,'' said Denise Welte, organizing director of SEIU's Local 284. Jennifer Munt, spokeswoman for AFSCME, said, "Our position is, child-care providers have already voted. If the governor wants them to vote again, that's fine. We're not afraid of an election.'' Organizers have been collecting authorization cards from those who favor unionization since 2005.
So there you have it: The Emo Senator opposes a secret ballot election by day care providers. Fiddle-dee-dee, Governor Dayton! This democracy thing can only go so far, and The Emo Senator certainly has his limits, especially when it involves an opportunity to signify against That Man and his evil grounds keeper.
The Star Tribune article also cites a young up-and-comer who might be ready for her own soaper on Bluestem: Representative Mary Franson, of Alexandria and beyond. This material is imaginative comic gold:
Rep. Mary Franson, R-Alexandria, was a child-care provider for four years. She said she worries about "propaganda" children might be exposed to, including forming the phrase "tax the rich" in macaroni noodles as a craft project.
Since Franson was once a daycare provider herself, her vision makes Blustem wonder just what sort of craft projects she put the kiddies in her care up to. Don't Tread On Me Playdoh snakes? Or did she simply share Grover Norquist's scary stories with the tykes about shrinking a baby in a bathtub?
In Drazkowski hasn’t ruled out run for Congress, Winona Daily News reporter Mary Juhl reports that Tony Sutton likes what he sees in Steve Drazkowski. So much, in fact, that the Republican Party will back the controversial Mazeppa lawmaker before the Congressional district endorsing convention:
Sutton said the party would consider backing Drazkowski if he secures support from constituents and activists in his district before an endorsement convention in April 2012. [emphasis added]
“People are looking for candidates they can believe in who tell it like it is,” said Sutton. “There’s no doubt Drazkowski would bring that to the race.”
Unless that's just a very prolix way of saying "is endorsed at the district convention," it looks like Sutton has caught the Drazombie "say no to local control" contagion. If taking control away from school boards is good enough for state representatives, then dictating terms prior to a congressional endorsing convention shouldn't be much of a problem.
Examples of ALEC model bills Draz has carried or intends to carry include his SB1070 copycat bill and the supermajority amendment that will form the centerpiece of House GOP Reform 2.0.
Sen. Carla Nelson (R-Rochester) is also pushing the same lies that Rep. Pat Garofalo (R-Farmington) is. . . .
Republicans are trying to undermine the school districts that have levies on the 2011 ballot. One-third of the state's school districts have levies asking for voters to increase their property taxes to pay for basic expenses which the MN GOP refuses to fund.
Nelson wrote an op-ed on September 9, 2011. In it she referenced specific numbers for her school district. Several superintendents for local school districts wrote an op-ed in today's Rochester Post Bulletin pointing out her lie of omission:
... we are now seeing some legislators come forward with a misinterpretation of a spreadsheet from the Minnesota Dept. of Education (MDE) that is misleading our public. In some cases, the purpose has been to oppose districts' efforts to renew or increase an Operating Levy referendum this fall. (To be clear, Sen. Nelson did not express such opposition in her article and has stated that she does not believe it is her place to publicly raise such opposition.) . . .
Check out the whole post at MPP.
Nelson's caution in diving off the same cliff from which Garofalo and The Draz leapt may reflect that simply fact that she serves in a swing district in an area where redistricting might make an enormous difference in how voters receive her schtick.
Already, DFLers see her as vulnerable, with one challenger having registered with the campaign finance board and seeking his party's endorsement for the seat.
Attorney Ken Moen of Rochester will challenge first-term GOP Sen. Carla Nelson for the District 30 seat in 2012. Moen, a DFLer who filed his candidacy last Thursday with the Campaign Finance Board, has not held office before, but his days as an activist and campaign worker began during the first Paul Wellstone for U.S. Senate campaign in 1990. Moen has also volunteered for Tim Walz, Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken, and Gov. Mark Dayton’s campaigns, as well as state legislative races.
He is currently the only DFLer who has filed to take on Nelson, a Republican who successfully ousted DFLer Tina Liebling from the District 30A House seat in 2002, but later lost to Liebling in 2004. ...
...Moen said he has not discussed his candidacy with former Sen. Ann Lynch, who lost to Nelson in 2010, but added that he feels fairly certain based on conversations with Senate DFL caucus officials in St. Paul that she will not enter the race. Lynch sent out a fundraising appeal in April, but little has been heard from her since. In either case, Moen said, his candidacy will go on. ”If she runs, she runs,” he said.
Minnesotans should thank Pat Garofalo and Steve Drazkowski.
The two Republican legislators have done what needed to be done after a divisive legislative session and subsequent shutdown. By meddling in local school districts' decisions to ask voters for new levies, the two men have achieved a new Minnesota Miracle: uniting editorial voices to speak out against their nincompoopery.
The latest in the wall of opinion aligning against the House Republicans' overeach comes in Mankato. The Free Press's Mark Fischenich reports in Schools again turning to voters:
Rep. Pat Garofalo, a Farmington Republican who is chairman of the House Education Finance Committee, told Minnesota Public Radio that school districts have as much revenue as they need.
“Unfortunately, we have some school boards that are using people’s generosity to engage in the fleecing of taxpayers, and that’s just not acceptable,” Garofalo said.
Mankato Democratic Rep. Kathy Brynaert, a longtime member of the Mankato Area School Board before her election to the Legislature, said Garofalo’s rhetoric is out of line.
“I find that statement totally unacceptable from a state representative,” said Brynaert, a member of Garofalo’s committee. “Obviously he’s impugning people’s integrity when you say something like that.”
Brynaert sees his promised attempt to defeat referendums as a violation of democratic principles and the idea of a separation of powers. And she said the idea of school boards “fleecing” taxpayers doesn’t make sense because voters have to approve any tax increases at the ballot box — a standard not required of other elected bodies. . . .
Brynaert, a former school member, isn't alone. Even uber-conservative Glenn Gruenhagen, who serve on a school board as well, isn't following Garofalo and Draz's lead. And he points out a hard fact about levies:
And Gruenhagen isn’t sure the sentiments of elected officials hold much sway with citizens when they approach the voting booth. As a school board member, he voiced his thoughts on proposed referendums and they passed or failed “regardless of what I said.”
Garofalo seems to have missed the fact that voters can--and do--vote down proposed levies.
The long article also looks at the cost of the school shift and the value of the slight bump in funding in the ed budget bill. Go read the whole article.
Of course, we all should question how tax dollars are spent and that will likely be a strong focus in the months ahead, especially in these trying times. But we need thoughtful analysis and consideration from our leaders, not sound bites for political effect. Antics of both Garofalo and Drazkowski show there is more bullying going on in education than just in the classrooms.
Earlier posts about Greater Minnesota newspaper responses:
The editor of the Crookston Times doesn't disappoint. Indeed, he seeks renewed vigor in reviving the interest of our nation's people formerly known as the super-rich in creating jobs.
In For just pennies a day, you, too, can help a 'job creator,' Mike Christopherson shares his dreams that some day, somehow, America's job creators will once more pin their hopes on creating jobs, rather than just swapping naked credit derivatives or acquiring another corporate jet. His editorial is based on this plea:
Christopherson concludes:
The truth is, many job creators couldn’t be less interested in creating jobs. More employees mean higher payroll costs, and higher payroll costs mean fewer limousine rides, golf junkets and cushy flights in their Gulf Stream jets.
If only the government would get out of the way, they say, with its nasty, meddlesome offers of tax rebates for employers who hire more employees and tax cuts made permanent for those whose great-grandchildren would never have to work a day in their life and still live a life of unfathomable comfort.
Feel free to dismiss this editorial as just more class warfare whining. Many will. But others know that you don’t have to be a socialist country to have reasonable socioeconomic class divisions that actually exist in more than theory, and actually encompass families that get by, get by easily, and do very well financially. The rich may not have have declared war on the less-than-rich, but they are winning this battle anyway, thanks to their bought-and-paid for congress and president.
Our nation continues to struggle economically, big-time, and yet a big chunk of people, these so-called job creators, have felt no pain whatsoever and, arguably, are doing better than ever. That’s worth a good whine, and then some.
Photo: Sally Struthers used to ask us to think of poor children. Now we're supposed to turn our pennies over to the mega rich.
Reading around the state, BSP has read yet another editorial giving the thumbs down to state level meddling with local districts. In Lawmaker against all these school levies, a short take for Friday, the Marshall Independent's board writes:
THUMBS DOWN: State Rep. Patrick Garofalo, a Republican from Farmington, is ready to go all out in a campaign against schools seeking levies, saying schools in Minnesota recently received a $50-per-pupil increase. He says the property tax shouldn't be used for schools "to go back for a second bite of the apple." We understand his position, especially considering about one-third of schools in Minnesota plan levy elections in November, but he needs to remember that school officials aren't exactly thrilled about the notion of having to put levies on the ballot, not in a time when property taxes are already destined to go up. In many cases, schools know that asking the public to pony up more money isn't very popular. Besides, in the end, referendum decisions are left up to those voters, who can prevent school boards from, as Garofalo put it, "fleecing" taxpayers by voting against levies. State lawmakers should stay out of it; don't they have enough to deal with at the Capitol? They should focus their energy on finding new ways to help schools and save them from having to dig deeper into the pockets of taxpayers.
The paper is right: local voters don't rubber stamp school districts' requests. For Garofalo to assert that school boards are out to fleece taxpayers is tomfoolery.
State Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, who is the chairman of the House Education Finance Committee, isn't happy about the fact that about one-third of school districts in Minnesota are going after levies this fall for additional operating revenue and criticized schools for going after a "second bite of the apple." State Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has reportedly sent a newsletter to constituents asking them to contact school officials about proposed levy referendums and "urge them to drop their request."
District 21A Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, said it's not his place to tell any school official what to do or how to handle their money issues.
"Representative Garofalo can do what he wants to, but I think our area superintendents and school boards and administration know what's best for their schools," Dahms said. "Of all the schools I visited in the 21st District I can't say that I know of any of them that aren't doing a good job in running their finances. For me to say anything about their finances, that's not my position."
Dahms' remarks parallel those made by the Emo Senator Mike Parry. Could their remarks signal a split between the House and State Republican Caucuses on this issue, or is the Dark Lord, Senate Majority Leader/Comm Head and Deputy Republican State Chair Michael Brodkorb simply smarter than a barrel of Drazkowskis
THUMBS DOWN: The classic definition for the Yiddish word "chutzpah" (an excess of nerve or gall) is the man who kills his parents, then begs the court for mercy because he's an orphan.
A newer definition could be the Republican legislators, like Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, chairman of the House Education Finance Committee, who aren't happy about the fact that one-third of school districts in the state are asking for tax levy referendums this November. Garofalo says schools got a $50 per pupil unit increase this year, and shouldn't use property taxes "to go back for a second bite of the apple." Another, State Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has reportedly sent a newsletter to constituents asking them to contact school officials about proposed levy referendums and "urge them to drop their request."
To freeze school funding levels year after year, to withhold school funding payments session after session to balance the state's budget, to force schools to cut millions from their budgets and programs to stay solvent, and then to criticize districts for going to the taxpayer to ask for an additional levy to avoid more cuts?
That's chutzpah! These legislators should be ashamed for what they are doing to Minnesota's public schools.
Nobody should have been shocked this week to learn that elected officials representing Moorhead and Clay County gave preliminary approval to property tax increases. They did so grudgingly – Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland cast the decisive vote on a divided City Council – and vowed that they’d keep scrutinizing the budgets to try to soften any tax hikes before final approval.
The city is forced to find ways to replace $827,000 in Local Government Aid and elimination of a homeowner tax credit paid to cities representing another $538,000 in lost revenue. The $1.3 million revenue gap is a direct consequence of the Minnesota Legislature’s refusal to raise statewide taxes – action that merely shifts the burden downstream to local governments. Cutting the city budget absorbs part of the gap, but the preliminary budget calls for an 8.3 percent increase in property tax, translating into $73 more in taxes on a $140,000 home.
Read the whole editorial which, like so many of Greater Minnesota's editorial judgments concerning the property tax shift, is as withering as an mid-September frost. It leaves the legislative majority just as exposed as limp zucchini, defrosting in the garden:
So, while members of the Minnesota Legislature can crow about their achievement in holding the line on spending, local taxpayers repeatedly have been forced to pay higher property taxes – often cited by voters as the least popular tax. Ultimately, Minnesota voters will have to decide if they want that to continue.
It will also be more difficult now for state legislators to say that property taxes are strictly a local decision and come from the local level. Clearly, the Legislature and the governor changed state law in a way that will likely cause local property taxes to rise, even if locals don’t increase their levies.
Looking to Minnesota's southeastern corner, it's not surprising to find ALEC model lawmaker Steve Drazkowski doing the sort of crowing that the Forum editors derided. For as the editors of the Winona Daily News recently pointed out with regard to local school levies, the corporate bill factory zombie has no shame.
Draz and other Southeastern Republicans aren't the ones doing the reconsideration mentioned in the headline. They're doing the sort of crowing scorned by the Forum and other editors:
"The credits make it difficult for our cities, counties, and townships to budget when they're not sure how much of a credit they'll receive from the state," said Jeremy Miller, R-Winona. "Everyone seems to agree that in the long run, the homestead exclusion will be better for the budget processes at the state and local level."
Miller must move in very small circles to think that "everyone seems to agree" that the homestead exclusion will be better. Perhaps he's merely riding the rhetoric of the world's smallest bandwagon. Howe has a slightly different cackle:
Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, and Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, agreed.
"By changing to an exclusion, the state's trying to be up front with counties and municipalities," said Howe. "When we make decisions on the local level, residents get better results."
But for Draz the Destroyer, it's pure anti-revenue template:
"We shouldn't make promises we can't keep with money we don't have, and that's just what reinstating the credits would do," said Drazkowski.
DFLers Ann Lenczewski and Paul Marquart proposed a bill this week to bring back the homestead value market credit.
This is a match made in some sort of violently perverted heaven: Michele Bachmann, Minnesota's own Matron of Mean, is advertising an upcoming appearance with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Arizona lawman who has earned national fame as a cruel and corrupt little fascist.
That's right! For the low, low price of $250, you can attend a VIP reception with both these proud Americans at the luxurious Scottsdale Plaza Resort outside Phoenix.
The gentlewoman from Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District can't get enough of Sheriff Joe, returning to Arizona for a visit yesterday, MSNBC reports in Bachmann courts 'America's toughest sheriff':
If you're running for president, how do you convince supporters you are tough enough on immigration? Get the endorsement of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America whose uncompromising stand on illegal immigration is a point of pride.
On Wednesday Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was the latest Republican presidential candidate hoping for Arpaio's backing.
She met in Phoenix with the Republican sheriff, whose endorsement is frequently sought by candidates in all types of races across the country.
Arpaio said he hasn't yet decided which candidate he will back in the GOP primary race. . .
The network reports that Bachmann didn't answer questions about whether she supports SB1070. However, last year Immigrants List cited her support for the bill, Andy Birkey reported in Group inducts Bachmann into the Immigration Hall of Shame:
5. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) — The potential presidential candidate has a history of inflammatory statements which go along with her outlandish voting record. She’s spread the widely-debunked rumor that Phoenix is “the kidnap[ping] capital of the United States,” using that myth to justify her support for an armed presence on the border. She’s advocates Arizona SB 1070, and told Bill O’Reilly that all local law enforcement should be required to ask for proof of immigration status. Bachmann chairs the House Tea Party Caucus.
Following Wednesday's visit, Bachmann was interviewed by KFYI's studio by Mike Broomhead (full Youtube here). Bachmann shared the details:
Bachmann:...I can't wait to come back and do a tour the border and maybe go back and see the tents that Sheriff Joe has set up. I'll be back.
Broomhead: Did he give you pink boxers?
Bachmann: Of course, I wouldn't have left his office. I got his book and I got the pink boxers and he wrote on the pink boxers to my husband, so I'm very glad....
Broomhead: ...He gets this racist moniker all the time. . . It's the easiest thing to throw at him. . . .
Bachmann: That's changing the story though. Because it's not about racism. I love--usually people think it's anti-Hispanic. I'v had a wonderful response from Hispanics. I love Hispanic Americans...
Is Bachmann targeting President Obama, who has deported record numbers of immigrants, with her comments about the need for a president who will enforce the law, or her Tea Party rival Rick Perry, who supported in-state tuition for undocumented students whose parents entered the country withotu authorization?
The conservative Bachmann, who counts evangelical Republicans, home-school advocates and members of the tea party movement among her supporters, stops over on the same weekend the state party considers rewriting its platform in what supporters call an attempt to broaden the party's appeal, especially with Hispanics and independents.
Moderates want to push the party toward the center on immigration, guns and gay rights. The proposed changes — opposed by the party's conservative wing — retreat from opposition to same-sex adoption, domestic partner benefits and child custody, avoid any mention of overturning Roe v. Wade and drop demands to end virtually all federal and state benefits for illegal immigrants and establish English as the official language of government.
Bachmann was lifted earlier this summer by a victory in the closely watched Ames, Iowa, straw poll — an early gauge of candidate strength — but she's trying to reverse a slide since the Texas governor entered the campaign and replaced her as a leading contender for the nomination. . . .
. . .
The party is also planning to outline a new effort to recruit Latino voters, an acknowledgment of the state's changing face. Hispanics accounted for about 80 percent of the increase in registered voters in the state over the last decade and the weak showing of GOP candidates in recent statewide races has been attributed, at least in part, to a lack of Hispanic support.
Bachmann has taken a tough line against illegal immigration — she supports building a wall on the border with Mexico and has suggested more troops should patrol the nation's southern boundary. In a debate earlier this week, she distanced herself from Perry after he said Texas offered incentives for illegal immigrants to contribute to their communities, including in-state tuition rates for higher education. Bachmann said taxpayers shouldn't pay for benefits for those who have broken U.S. laws.
In California, the GOP has been withering.
It's telling that Bachmann took the pilgrimage to Phoenix to visit BFF Sheriff Joe in an attempt to shore up her support in the xenophobic Tea Party Republican base, perhaps banking on the notion that painting Perry as moderate might hurt his chances.
Bachmann, in Phoenix for a fundraiser, is the most recent to seek Arpaio's approval.
Her visit came as a surprise to many in local Republican and conservative circles.
"NOT good form when a presidential candidate comes to Arizona and fails to notify the state party or Governor," Shane Wikfors of the conservative blog Sonoran Alliance said Tuesday night on Twitter. In a follow-up Twitter message, Wikfors expressed dissatisfaction with the Bachmann campaign "for blowing off conservative supporters in AZ tonight!"
Zunker has allegedly been molesting his victim since last August. The victim, who is under 16, would tell him to "knock it off" and "stop," which he would only do briefly before starting again, according to a complaint from the Carver County Attorney's Office. Zunker would allegedly touch the victim's chest against her wishes and when she asked him to stop, Zunker "laughed," according to the complaint.
The Carver County Sheriff's Office and child protection workers learned of the sexual abuse this August and began investigating it. Confronted by a child protection worker, Zunker confessed to molesting her "at least one time per week."
Asked to explain his actions, Zunker allegedly told them that he did it "because it made him feel good."
Lovely. The Villager reports that local Republicans are surprised and view the development as "a little more than a hiccup" for their organization:
Members of the Carver County Republican Party are scheduled to meet Thursday to select a new chair.
Several members of the party’s executive committee were caught off-guard by the allegations.
Rolland Neve, a member of the executive committee from Chanhassen, said he had heard that Zunker was stepping down because of work pressures.
“Holy smokes. I was shocked,” Neve said when he heard about the criminal charges on Tuesday.
Bruce Schwichtenberg, of Carver, said he was frustrated after learning details.
“I feel sorry for this person who is part of it,” he said. “It’s sad.”
Schwichtenberg said he didn’t vote for Zunker when he ran for the position of party chair and said Zunker had a limited history with the party when he was chosen as chair.
“It’s a situation where we have to move on because we have elections coming up in a year,” Schwichtenberg said. “It’s obviously a little more than a hiccup. But I’m hoping people don’t stay away and not be involved.”
Rumors about Zunker had been circulating for several days, as his normally active Twitter feed had gone silent, his Facebook page had been scrubbed, and his LinkedIn profile had disappeared. Zunker had been considered by some insiders to be one of the more promising folks on the Carver County GOP bench, with considerations for him potentially being a candidate for a county commissioner post or a legislative run down the road. The Carver County GOP will elect a new chair at their BPOU meeting on Thursday.
If found guilty of both counts, Zunker could face a sentence of 90 months in jail. Zunker’s next court appearance is scheduled for September 16.
According to Fox News 9, Zunker descibed himself on his twitter account as:
“a Christian, husband, Dad, small business owner, Conservative, MNGOP State Central Committee member and Chair of the Republican Party of Carver County.”
Looks like he might be able to add "job creator"--at a local house of correction--to that list.
Photo: A candid shot of Tom Emmer (left) and Zunker (right) from the Carver County Republicans' Facebook page. Zunker began molesting the victim in August 2010.
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