When Gov. Mark Dayton last week unveiled a proposed state budget and tax plan that would, among other things, lower Minnesota's sales tax from 6.875 percent to 5.5 percent, the plan sparked a vigorous debate among Patch readers.
Patch has had more than 100 reader comments on our story that asked people to take our poll, then share their thoughts on Dayton's tax and budget plan. Here's a sampling of some of the comments:
George P. Burdell: A simplistic response to this comment would then be; Democrats want to clean out our wallets and institute socialisim... which really worked well for the USSR...hmmm.
Brad Koehn: I'll be curious to see if Minnesotans spend enough on clothing worth more than $100 to bring in $2B in revenue. I'm a bit skeptical of that part. The rest looks good.
Rob: All I know is, my $500 clothing purchase will be five $100 clothing purchases from now on ;-)"
Chris Mau: 'My budget fix would take more than six months, BUT... We should allow the copper mining project up north. The environmental damage can be minimized (still some damage), but the economic impact outweighs that. Second, include a sales tax on all food, clothing, and services and reduce sales tax to 3.5%. Third, increase the gas tax and use that money the gas tax money to build more lanes in the metro area. Trafflic delays are discouraging business growth in the metro area.
Fourth, increase income tax rates to make up any shortfall after the three steps above. State income taxes are DEDUCTABLE, while sales tax isn't. If my state income taxes increase $300, I'm only going to pay $200 because I can deduct those taxes. If I pay the state in sales tax, I'm out the entire $300.
With the additional economic growth and the lower, but broader, tax base, I think I could balance the budget in 18 months (which is pretty good for a married parent)."
Susan: "Whatever you want to call it; extremism, partisan ideology, absolutism, or just plain old stubbornness, more and more Americans are expressing their disapproval. Each party has their idea of the perfect and absolute way the country should be run, thankfully one side will never have it's way entirely."
Eric: "In the end, this (Gov.'s plan) is a net tax increase. The governor is just playing a shell game shuffling things around to try to confuse and hide what it is, more money for greedy government, less for those who earned it."
To see the complete Patch post and all of the readers' comments, cllck on to this link.
To see a Patch story and UpTake video of Dayton's speech, click on this link.
Not a lot of money when you think that 27% of the revenue is from the state or federal government. Much of what the county does is dependent on grants and intergovernmental funds and lobbying is what ensures the money keeps coming. I served on a city commission for years and much of our budget was grants and earmarks. Yes, we spent money and staff time on lobbying but because we needed to. I'm now in college and I regularly engage in "lobbying" for different organizations I work with. Somehow the government needs to now where to spend money.
One of the items they are lobbying for is call the Magic (Minnesota Accountable Government Innovation and Collaboration) Act. This will allow the counties to provide services to their residents based on what works well in their particular county. Current laws says the way it needs to be implemented is the same in Hennepin County and small rural counties. What works in the big cities does not necessarily work in the rural areas. But at this point counties hands are tied on the way services are provided.
Thanks for the work involved in obtaining what the state/federal mandates are for Wright County. I would appreciate this information being made available to the Wright County public after you've completed. If possible, would like to get a rough estimate what each of those mandates (funded or unfunded) cost the county taxpayer. Glad you are on the Wright County Board and appreciate your initial efforts.
In addition, there are numerous other unelected and unaccountable governmental bodies that should not even exist, ie. the Met Council and Ramsey County Railroad Authority. Those groups eat tax dollars faster than a cop eats donuts. They need to abolished. NOW. When will see anyone run for office that has the guts to advocate abolishing these unconstitutional power grab agencies?
Just cancel all non-essential services today. You told us they were non-essential. It wasn't my call. Since you deem them non-essential, just cut them all. You'd be a hero because you could cut everyone's taxes, too. Oh, but you're too stupid and beholden to the government unions to ever take such a common sense approach.