Budget and taxes
By Eric Ostermeier on May 5, 2009
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is seemingly a fixture in the state and national media these days, and in particular on WWTC 1280 AM's Northern Alliance Radio Network. The Minnesota U.S. Representative appeared once again on Brian Ward and John Hinderaker's "The Headliners" program last Saturday morning to discuss excessive government spending,...
By Eric Ostermeier on April 26, 2009
Although House DFLers were able to push through a tax bill on Saturday to raise approximately $1.5 billion in revenue for the State of Minnesota, 20 percent of its caucus peeled off to join the Republicans in voting against the legislation. The DFL was able to pass the tax hike...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 30, 2009
With the release of the DFL's budget earlier this month, the war of words (and policies) in the budget battle between the DFL leadership and Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty has seemingly intensified. During her media availability last Friday, House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher described her recent meeting with the...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 22, 2009
During the House DFL leadership's press conference last Thursday in which they unveiled the broad strokes of their balanced budget plan, Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Majority Leader Tony Sertich used biting language to characterize the budget plan of their political opponent, Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. In defending their own...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 20, 2009
On Thursday, Upper Midwestern U.S. House Democrats unanimously supported a bill that would impose an additional tax on bonuses received from certain Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) recipients. The measured passed 328 to 93 in the lower chamber. The bill (HR 1586) taxes at 90 percent bonuses given to employees...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 9, 2009
"The word-mincing going on around here gets creative." That was what Republican House Minority Leader Marty Seifert said at a media availability session last Friday in reference to 'Democratic-speak' and how he believes the DFL will seek to raise taxes, without saying they are about to raise taxes. Seifert...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 4, 2009
One of the frequent refrains heard throughout the DFL leadership this session has been a criticism of Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget as failing to be structurally balanced beyond the 2010-2011 fiscal years, and a disapproval of the Governor's use of one-term solutions, such as tobacco bonds, to facilitate the State's...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 3, 2009
How are states going to balance the budget deficits that are mounting across the nation? For that answer, you'll have to ask the Democrats - as they control both the Senate and House in 17 of the top 20 states with the largest FY 2010 per capita deficits. The National...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 2, 2009
8:05 a.m. Minnesota House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher is giving a talk at the Humphrey Institute this morning entitled, "Leading for Minnesota's Future." 8:08 a.m. Speaker Kelliher compares the time of her childhood in the 1970s and early 1980s to the current budget and financial crisis today. Her family had...
By Eric Ostermeier on March 1, 2009
Although the new budget forecast for the state of Minnesota will not be released until Tuesday, state lawmakers are already confirming the doom and gloom that many Gopher State residents fear they will soon be facing. At the end of January, during the unveiling of his budget proposal, Governor Tim...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 25, 2009
Although President Barack Obama’s first Address before a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening was pitched by the White House as a "plan to confront our nation’s economic and fiscal crises,” more than 70 percent of his speech focused on other domestic or foreign policy issues. A Smart Politics content...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 11, 2009
A recent article at MinnPost explores how Governor Tim Pawlenty is out of step with many state leaders, and governors across the nation, in taking a "hands-off" approach when it comes to lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass federal stimulus legislation. Pawlenty has not always been shy when it...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 8, 2009
While Minnesota taxpayers are on the hook for approximately $200,000 to pay for its 62-day U.S. Senate race recount, that long process, and Norm Coleman's subsequent court challenge, is saving taxpayers' money nationwide as Minnesota's Class II Senate seat remains unoccupied. Last month Smart Politics documented how the 'non-vacant' vacant...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 4, 2009
As DFL legislators tore into Governor Tim Pawlenty's budget plan in committee hearings on Tuesday, the DFL caucus looked very much like a party with supermajority (Senate) or near supermajority (House) status. The DFL's icy reaction to the Governor's plan for corporate tax cuts and state bond sales did not...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 3, 2009
With updated budget numbers expected in the coming weeks, Minnesota’s current $2.6 billion projected budget gap for 2010 ranks as one of the top 10 largest in the nation, according to new numbers compiled by the Naitonal Conference of State Legislators. Minnesota’s 14.7 percent budget deficit ($2.6 billion) for 2010...
By Eric Ostermeier on February 2, 2009
From the rising unemployment numbers to the state budget crisis, the news in Minnesota seems to be getting worse and worse. Adding insult to injury came the recent news last week that Minneapolis ranked as the fourth least desirable metropolitan area to where Americans would like to move out of...
By Eric Ostermeier on January 28, 2009
Governor Tim Pawlenty's discussion on the role tax policy should play in the upcoming budget battle during Tuesday afternoon's budget presentation was a near masterful display of how combining the bob and weave with an occasional jab can make a seasoned fighter stay in the ring for many rounds...
By Eric Ostermeier on January 16, 2009
Governor Tim Pawlenty's State of the State Address on Thursday afternoon saw a significant change in the policy issues he raised from his previous address on February 13, 2008. These changes largely reflected the harsh economic reality that has beset both the state and the nation during the past year....
By Eric Ostermeier on January 14, 2009
On Tuesday, Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty and Wisconsin Democratic Governor Jim Doyle signed executive orders calling for department heads to identify, by the end of February, "Specific activities, programs, and services ... for potential cooperative service arrangements." The orders were signed to create "Significant improvements to the delivery and...
By Eric Ostermeier on January 10, 2009
In a year that has seen rising unemployment, a volatile stock market, and increasing state and federal budget deficits, the backlash on talk radio and in print against legislators in D.C. and at state capitols for receiving pay raises has been pronounced. The idea that the nation’s legislators who are...
