katojoe

Could this be Mankato's year in bonding?

2012-01-18T21:16:00.002-06:00

For those who've been watching Mankato's state bonding proposals being shot down for a decade or so, the news on Tuesday that Gov. Mark Dayton included Mankato's projects in his bonding bill was cause for celebration.

Dayton has included the $14.5 million Mankato Civic Center expansion project in his proposed $750 million bonding proposal, and this year it looks like there are at least some Republicans who control the Legislature willing to consider it as well.

The Republican caucus has taken a somewhat hard line on bonding proposals in the last few years in what I see as a pretty significant departure from how Republicans viewed this in the past.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty lead this new era of Republican thinking urging in his first term that bonding proposal have "statewide significance." That, in essence, put the old kibosh on what used to be a "spread the projects around the state so everyone benefits" idea.

"Statewide significance" was a good sounding political position but it didn't always play pure.

I remember when Rep. Bob Gunther of Fairmont urged the passage of a new Blue Earth fire hall as part of the bonding bill. He said Pawlenty challenged him and said "Gunther, how does this have statewide importance?"

Gunther replied that the fire hall had "interstate" importance because Blue Earth firefighters every now and then helped out with an Iowa fire being near the border. A bit of stretch, if you ask me.

The fire hall was approved.

So now we have Rochester Republican Sen. Dave Senjem not only the Senate Republican majority leader but also chairman of the Bonding Committee. That's fairly convenient for a number of groups.

When he was in Mankato on Tuesday, he said his philosophy on bonding would be to focus on higher education and other state infrastructure that needed repair or maintenance. It shouldn't be a jobs bill, as it has been described by Gov. Dayton.

So, Mankato leaders, playing the political winds a bit, have crafted our Civic Center expansion project as one that will bolster facilities for MSU hockey, with both men's and women's teams using the Civic Center as their main game AND practice facility, leaving All Seasons Arena.

I don't blame the Mankato folks one bit. When you've been hammered the last few years with a reasonable proposal, why not frame the message a little bit differently as one that jives with the majority leader's ideas never hurts.

When reason doesn't work, try politics.

And believe me, I support the project and I support Senjem, He's a very reasonable guy. We've long ago paid our own way on this project.

Of course, this sets up a fairly interesting scenario as House Republican leaders have said the bonding bill shouldn't be about "pet projects." I wonder if they were referring to Bemidji, Duluth, Crookston and St. Cloud civic center projects approved by Pawlenty and Republicans in the past few years. Hmmm.

Those projects, like the Blue Earth fire hall, must have been beyond the "pet project" stage and into the projects of "statewide importance."

It was interesting that while Pawlenty vetoed Mankato Civic Center proposals for years, he found time to enjoy a John Mellencamp concert down here. Apparently drawing business from St. Paul and the governor's mansion does not constitute statewide importance. But I digress.

The plot will definitely thicken here when Senjem explains how his Rochester civic center expansion is or is not a "pet project" or one that focuses on state infrastructure rebuilding and the Mankato project does not.

Hopefully, Speaker Kurt Zellers will not ask too many tough questions, or if he asks them, perhaps he will accept, though not agree, with the answers, as Pawlenty did for Gunther years ago.

Of course, they could always just kill the Mankato proposal because of the wisecracking newspaper editor in Mankato.

MLK Jr. Day event inspires again

2012-01-16T20:25:00.000-06:00

For years, you might have taken the attitude toward Martin Luther King Jr. Day like I did.

It's great to recognize King like we recognize Lincoln and Washington, and by God yes, we should've voted for the federal holiday way before 1983, but I didn't think you had to go to an event to show respect for the principles of King.

And you don't. You still don't.

But I would say you would be missing a huge opportunity for some inspiration to find a way to live like King by taking the day off and just feeling good about it.

MLK events like the one in Mankato Monday night and the one in St. Peter Monday during the day offer the inspiration that is sometimes not present in our daily routine.

The Mankato event is noteworthy for a number of reasons. It's in its 28th year, meaning it was celebrated two years or so before the federal holiday was approved by Congress and Ronald Reagan.

I've come full circle on this event. As a college student and editor of the MSU student newspaper in the 1980s, I believed I attended the first or second MLK Day event.

Last year, The Free Press was recognized at the event with the Business Pathfinder Award for our efforts to embrace the diverse community in Mankato in a way that helped them interact with that American institution known as the media.

But Monday's event was terrific in a number of ways. The award recipients for the Pathfinder, Young Pathfinder and Business Pathfinder couldn't have offered more inspiration or a better narrative.

Wilbur Neuschwander-Frink was recognized for her work on what she calls the "self advocacy movement" of people with disabilities. She has long worked with the disabled communities in a variety of ways and through the stories she has heard from families over the years, she was inspired to write and direct plays that these folks put on and participate in.

And, by all accounts, these plays are emotional for the audience and for the actors who demonstrate the "hurt of words" for people with mental disabilities by shredding them on stage.

Zeynab Omar, a senior at Mankato East, works taking care of elderly in an assisted living center, and engages her colleagues daily at school about issues of equal rights and ethnicity and "communicated with them without causing arguments, disagreements or misunderstandings," according to her teachers.

Pretty solid assessment for someone around their 18th birthday.

Lloyd Management Inc. was recognized for the Business Pathfinder Award for their program that helps new refugees learn how to navigate American laws, customs and cultures in housing and daily life.

When Lloyd Management's Julie Hawker got up to accept the award, she detailed a narrative of the program that involved other companies, other agencies, and most importantly the handful of refugee mentors who will help the next wave of immigrants with the same issues.

Many were in attendance as Hawker asked that they stand up and be recognized. They were with audience applause.

She was brought to tears thinking about the impact the program has had on families that are new to America.

But inspiration for the night did not end there.

Dakota Storyteller Colin Wesaw provided an outstanding, spontaneous Native American story about two Eagles raised by chickens who continued to think they were chickens until inspired by another Eagle.

He mentioned King and his legacy and the 38 Dakota hanged in Mankato, "the day after Christmas" 150 years ago. His story wasn't about that, however.

After 20 minutes of drama and humor and emotion, he brought the conclusion of the story down to one thing that related to everyone in the room who might be sitting "on a limb" with regard to really righting the injustices that still pervade America today.

"Get out there and help some people who need it. Get out there."

Forget Iowa, New Hampshire. Kato could decide president

2012-01-12T11:52:00.004-06:00

Let’s just say I know a good headline like the one above will get people to read this analysis, or depending on your point of view — drivel.

But I believe it is not out of the realm of possibility that voters in the Mankato region, or the 1st Congressional District could determine the outcome of the presidential election.

Why? Because we have a history of being so called “swing voters.” We vote for the person, generally, not the party, and we have a big, big independent streak.

Going back to the 1992 presidential election, the Mankato region and 1st District had one of the highest percentages if not the highest percentage of people voting for the independent candidate — Ross Perot. Remember him?

Then take the gubernatorial race. We had a very high turnout for independents including Jesse Ventura and Tim Penny and Tom Horner.

Take the 1st Congressional District. We for decades elected solidly Republican candidates until Tim Penny won the surprise race in the 1980s. Penny’s conservative/Democratic leanings kept him in office for years. Then we switched back to Republican Gil Gutknecht. Now we’re back to Democrat Tim Walz.

Given that this year the presidential election looks to be very, very close again, it could be a few thousand votes, and yes, it could be the independent-minded, unpredictable Mankato region that decides the whole thing.

So this year, more than ever, your vote will definitely count.

Joe Spear’s blog is regularly updated at katojoe.blogspot.com

Comics can be serious business

2012-01-10T17:20:00.003-06:00

I learned quickly as a rookie newspaper editor that you don’t just go messing with two things very often: comics and Dear Abby.

But once in a while, with the right cover, you need to change up the offerings on the comic pages. It keeps the newspaper fresh and offers readers a different perspective, if they’re all ready for that.

Some are, some aren’t.

So I usually go about changing things slowly. I believe we have received one or two calls so far from the switching out of the daily comic “Get Fuzzy” and replacing it with “Pickles.”

Let’s just say I bought the pitch of the Washington Post Writer’s Group salesperson who convinced me more readeo

rs would enjoy “Pickles” over “Get Fuzzy.” But before I made the move, I conducted a comic poll on our website and had readers compare “Get Fuzzy” and “Pickles” as well as “Red and Rover” and “Pearls Before Swine.”

“Get Fuzzy” had the lowest score, and “Pickles” is in 400 newspapers nationwide.

We also consider comics in terms of who they are supposed to appeal to demographically, and we try to offer some comics for every demographic. “Lola” is designed for an older female m family demographic. “Family Circus” is designed for a younger family demographic. “Baldo” is designed for a Hispanic demographic, and “Between Friends” is aimed at a young to middle -aged female demographic.

“Beetle Baily,” is the classic older white guy’s comic, and “Peanuts” is pretty universal.

“Pickles” is aimed at another family demographic, one that is getting older. It also has an intergenerational feel which is focused on an older couple’s relationship with their 30-something daughter, her second hubby and grandson.

Then there are comics that don’t fit into any real demographic but are just out there, and quirky. In this category, I consider “Pearls Before Swine,” “F-Minus,” “Mother Goose and Grim,” “Dilbert” and possibly “Non Sequitur.”

"Get Fuzzy" was in the quirky category, so it was competing with others for the same audience. The comic salesperson selling “Pickles” was down on the comic saying “Get Fuzzy had lost its focus.”

That’s the best line I’ve ever heard from a comic salesperson suggesting we jettison her competitor.

Comics have become pretty big business. Most cost us between $7 to $10 per week. An additional $7 to $10 for the Sunday version. It’s a bit of a oxymoron that the comic business can be cutthroat, but that’s kind of the truth.

Overall on the comics page, I find many comics aren’t inherently funny, at least not as much as it seems they were in the past. Many are mini-dramas played out on the comics pages, with the aim to, it seems, get readers to relate to everyday situations.

There are three I will go to every day and be sure to get a chuckle, usually “Dilbert,” “Mother Goose and Grim” and “F-Minus,” so you know where my comic tastes lie.

Joe Spear is editor of The Free Press. Contact him at jspear@mankatofreepress.com or 344-6382.

Latest perspective on news that impacts you

2012-01-02T12:58:00.000-06:00

What the government gave, it took away...then the lawyers got involved

An interesting story in StarTribune on Medtronic's adventures in Puerto Rico offers insight into what has become a trendy idea for raising government revenue: closing tax loopholes.

The story, by Bloomberg business news, basically shows how the government created tax breaks to encourage businesses to move some operations to Puerto Rico to help the impoverished country create jobs.

Many companies made hug investments and saved billions in taxes. But then a few years ago, the government decided it needed the money and removed the tax breaks.

Not wanting to lose billions in sales and million in taxes, the companies moved addresses of those business to tax havens like Grand Caymen and Switzerland.

Now they're all in tax court fighting what is sure to be a long battle.

The lesson here for the government is that if you're going to take away tax breaks that can cost companies millions, they're going to see if they can't stop you, or at the very least, involve the government in a very long and costly court battle.

It's not "consume, consumer, consume, it's "investment, investment, investment"

My friend Louis Johnston, economics professor at St. Ben's and St. John's, directs his Twitter followers to a chart by Wharton School economic Michael Mandel with this important point. We may be wanting to create jobs, but net private investment in the economy is still very low.

Here's Mandel's chart.

Mandel argues government investment is at a 40 year low and now is not the time to be halting it especially since private investment is down as well.

Interesting topic, and one that doesn't get much play in mainstream media.

House Republicans draw ire from own party, WSJ editorial page

2011-12-21T12:01:00.000-06:00

When the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page excoriates House Republicans, you know it's serious.

That's just what happened recently when House Republicans rejected a heavily bipartisan bill to extend payroll tax cuts to $160 million Americans. The Senate voted 89-10 to pass the two-month extension (all but seven Republicans voted in favor), with the idea being to negotiate another one after the holidays.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell negotiated that deal with Senate Democrats, who with Obama, agreed to a number of Republican ideas. Everyone seemed to think McConnell had worked with his friend Speaker John Boehner fashioning a Senate bill that would pass the House.

No so. And no one seems to know how the confusion or debacle occurred. My inside Washington sources tell me even if the Senate agreed to a conference committee now, procedural rules call for a minimum 90 hours of debate, something that would be tough to do before Jan. 1.

Those same sources also point to Tea Party Republicans again defying the leadership with Boehner's speakership on the line.

CBS News headlined the story: "House GOP takes a political beating in payroll tax fight."

Here's the story that quotes The Wall Street Journal editorial page, numerous other Republican Senators who I have never seen be this critical of their own party.

CBS story

Some samples from the Journal editorial.

"Given how [Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell] and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the president before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest."

"The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play."

And here are quotes from the CBS story from Republicans about their own House leadership.

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., said "now is not the time for drawing lines in the sand," while Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the ongoing fight is "harming the Republican party" and "harming the view, if it's possible anymore, of the American people about Congress."

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said there was "no reason" for House Republicans to keep up their fight, adding that "what is playing out in Washington, D.C. this week is about political leverage, not about what's good for the American people."

I'm not sure you can be more damning than that of part of your own party.

More from the Journal editorial: (full editorial)

"But now Republicans are drowning out that victory in the sounds of their circular firing squad. Already four GOP Senators have rejected the House position, and the political rout will only get worse"

"The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass. This is no easy double play."

Journal's advice: (which I agree with)

"At this stage, Republicans would do best to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly. Then go home and return in January with a united House-Senate strategy that forces Democrats to make specific policy choices that highlight the differences between the parties on spending, taxes and regulation."

Put out your flag: It's Bill of Rights day

2011-12-14T19:43:00.000-06:00

I'm putting up my flag Thursday, Dec. 15. It's the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment.

If we celebrate the 4th of July, we should definitely celebrate the Bill of Rights. The Founding Fathers could've been drunk when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. It's clear, they had to be sober when writing the Bill of Rights.

This country would look a lot different if the 70 or so people who met in Philly in 1791 hadn't decided the English common law our Constitution was modeled after needed some basic guarantees for average folks.

Alas, the First Amendment allows me to raise more hell at my newspaper editor job than is probably socially acceptable most places.

Today, I encourage you to make your kids learn the five freedoms of the First Amendment. Of religion, of the press, of speech, of assembly and the right to petition your government.

Pay attention Occupy Wall Streeters and Tea Partiers.

Yes, people with money and big media may have "more free speech" than most of us, but we still all have two choices: Speak or be silent. Silence is worse.

So raise your glasses, raise your flags. Be impertinent, outspoken and a pain to your government, corporations, politicians or whoever you want.

There's no penalty.

Tips on doing the Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis

2011-12-11T17:29:00.001-06:00

I realized my youngest daughter had never really seen the Holidazzle Parade in Minneapolis, so seeing a note that light rail rides would be free, I decided she needed to experience of one of the perennial Minnesota holiday traditions.

I think the last time our family checked it out was like 13 years ago, when our kids were like 7 and 5. The youngest one, now, 13 had never seen it.

The best part about it: it's not long, 30 minutes tops. Drawback, if you don't get spots early in the skyways, you have to squeeze in or stand in the cold if it's a cold night.

It's probably better viewed from the street but there are about four skyways you can view it from and there's a long verticle skyway that goes along the street at the downtown Target store.

But people get spots at skyways, and they rope them off so people can still move through them 1 to 2 hours ahead of the 6:30 p.m. start. The parade runs Thursday through Sunday every weekend until Dec. 18, I believe.

So you've really only got one more week to check it out.

The parade is cool. People walking wear suits with Christmas lights all over them. They have four or five big floats, all lit up and of course, a Santa float. (see picture).

With little kids, I'd almost recommend getting a hotel room and hanging out in the Twin Cities for a day or two.

We took the light rail in at 4 p.m. but it wasn't so crowded we couldn't sit down. We park at Ft. Snelling, but a lot of folks park at Mall of America, the first stop on light rail going back into Minneapolis.

We got downtown about 4:35 p.m. Walked about six blocks to The Local, an Irish pub/restaurant with reasonable prices for Minneapolis.

We got seated right away about 5 p.m., though with parties more than 2, I'm guessing there was a bit of a wait. We ordered a "sharing" plate of four pulled pork mini sandwiches with apple cole slaw on them and fries. $12. Beer was $5 a glass. A nice irish ice cream treat was $3.

Because air temp was like 17 degrees, we snuck into the Target skyway watch and squeezed in a spot at 6 p.m.

Place was packed after the parade, but caught light rail and did get a seat again. Back home to Grandma's in Eagan by 8 p.m.

A fun experience. My daughter enjoyed it immensely. I didn't mind it myself. A nice Minnesota holiday tradition.

She also enjoyed the big city seeing huge tree at IDS center and guys with spiked hair, or yeah, and the Tibetan protestors were walking along Nicollet Mall about an hour before the parade.

I'm shocked, shocked; Congress in Casablanca

2011-12-08T16:16:00.000-06:00

Many a member of Congress seem to be enthusiastically supporting an insider trading law of their very own that a few years ago was as popular as a lobbyist without a lunch ticket.

Amazing what an story on CBS "60 Minutes" can do to enable the righteous.

Congressman Tim Walz, D-1st District finds himself to be a very popular guy after taking over the authorship of the STOCK bill a few years ago from a retiring Rep. Brian Baird of Washington, who had found few if any co-sponsors.

"60 Minutes" aired a piece on the practice of several prominent members of Congress having traded stocks near the time they came into some inside knowledge about how government policies might impact a certain industry. All have denied a connection.

But since the "60 Minutes" piece, Walz has found an amazing 170 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

The law, which stands for Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, would essentially make it illegal for members of Congress to buy and sell stocks on knowledge they gained from being in a position of power in Congress.

The outpouring of support from all flavor of Congressman or woman stems from a desire, I suspect, for Congress to look above board in all its dealings at a time when it has some of the lowest approval ratings ever.

The whole bandwagon jumping scenario reminds me of a scene in the movie Casablanca when the prefect of police Monsieur Renault comes into Humphrey Bogart's saloon after he is ordered to find a reason to shut it down.

When Rick (Bogart) asks why the saloon must be shut down, the preferct says "I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling occurring in this saloon." And that's just before they hand him his winnings.

Members of Congress also seem a bit "shocked" that the insider trading law had not been in place before.

Vikings stadium, property taxes and other cosmic connections

2011-12-05T20:12:00.000-06:00

Biggest impediment to getting a new Vikings stadium approved any time soon: The Vikings 2-9 record.

People can accept losing teams though, and especially in Minnesota Nice country. The Wilf's shouldn't take Minnesota Nice for granted.

The 2-9 record isn't totally unacceptable to Minnesotans, and we're kind of like Packer fans in that respect: Keep believing in something even when the facts suggest your faith would be better appreciated at the first Lutheran church.

No, we'll accept a 2-9 record if the team looks competitive. And for the most part, the Vikings have been competitive in almost every game. They just can't be consistently competitive for the regulation amount of minutes in a game.

Embarrassing games like the second Green Bay game, though, better be gone for the season. We just don't have that much patience. At some point, we don't like stuff rubbed in our noses, even though we are humble Minnesotans.

Property taxes and the Vikings

One of the suggestions by the Vikings in recent full page ads in state newspapers was the idea very similar to what many of us know as "Tax Increment Financing." It's a tactic that has been used for every kind of small business in Minnesota and it's been used on projects from small town grocery stores to suburban strip malls.

The Vikings essentially proposed a kind of tax increment financing for the Vikings stadium: TIF as we call it, holds that revenues generated by a project be used to pay off that government's subsidy for that project.

So the Vikings proposed the public part of the stadium be paid off with revenues from player income taxes, stadium sales taxes and memorabilia taxes among other things.

The theory here is that because you wouldn't have those revenues if or (But For) there were no Vikings, it's legit to use them for a project, essentially creating a wash, or if you believe certain people, a "long-term" gain with short-term financing that doesn't really cost the general fund anything.

It's as good an argument as one might make to outstate Minnesota, where I surmise a good portion of the opposition to a Vikings stadium lies.

But I must say, of all the TIF projects I've heard proposed to small town councils in outstate Minnesota, that is one of the most creative, and possibly most saleable, ideas out there.

Revenue future: Minnesota's dilemma

2011-11-30T17:13:00.000-06:00

A two hour meeting with Mankato businesspeople and Minnesota Commissioner of Revenue Myron Franz revealed some surprises.

Business people were willing to "give up" some exemptions like sales tax rebate on capital equipment, willing to have legal services taxed, willing to give up somebody else's property tax break, in exchange for reforming tax code, mostly away from the property tax.

Franz told the group that Gov. Mark Dayton was "committed" to Minnesota tax reform but wants to gather information from public meetings around the state, from Republicans and Democrats, and then make a proposal for reform in 2013.

He said Dayton was a "taskmaster" who works very hard and doesn't want his advisors to sugarcoat anything.

Franz produced the prop of a three legged stool with each leg representing property tax, income tax and sales taxes. The percentage that state gets from each was proporotional to the length of each leg of the stool. A few years ago, the stool was pretty even and it stood up.

Now, with property tax making up almost 40 percent of all government revenue, the stool fell over. Interesting visual.

Most of the feedback on what needs to be fixed centered around the property tax. One business owner said three of her properties had increases of 20 percent. A manufacturing plant faced an increase of 7 percent.

Another business owner said their taxes were up 43 percent.

The commissioner and his staff will be traveling to dozens of cities throughout Minnesota in the next year where they will meet with businesspeople and host evening Town Hall meetings for the public.

In a conversation with members of The Free Press editorial board after the meeting, Franz said the Legislature gives the revenue commissioner a number to increase collections by and it goes into the state budget forecast.

That number is $83 million for this biennium. So Frans has to hire staff and figure out where to find $83 million and Legislators even push for more. But it will be a number he has to answer to.

The meeting was organized by Greater Mankato Growth.

Bank bailout done in secrecy: an outrageous story

2011-11-29T17:01:00.000-06:00

There's a great story on Bloomberg financial news online that details the bank bailouts of 2008, the need to keep it secret from taxpayers footing the bill, and the sort of arrogance that must have come with people making these decisions.

Here's the story.

In my mind, the big bank bailout is ranking right up there with the biggest scams of all time.

It is most troubling because it tears down the notion that we all live in an America where hard work is rewarded and we all take the same personal and financial risks when we screw up in business or the workplace.

Not so with some of these big banks, and I mean big banks. We should not confuse these folks with your average small-town banker or even bigger regional banks.

These were the biggest of the bigs and the Bloomberg story shows they had not only influence, but more or less protection from the mean results of capitalism gone bad, something all the rest of us and our families must face without the government protecting us.

Then, they not only didn't pay the price for their mistakes, they were rewarded with low interest taxpayer loans where they turned around and made $13 billion.

At one point, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is saying that he didn't want to release the names of the banks getting taxpayer money because of the "stigma" it would create.

That explanation is not going to fly with folks who face the "stigma" of unemployment and home foreclosures.

The Bloomberg story is what good journalism is all about. It takes on powerful interests, (Bloomberg sued the fed and the big banks for two years and finally won its Freedom of Information case), and exposes their evil to the governed.

You will not get this kind of journalism from a blogger or a political organization posing as a news organization.

Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown called the story one that would unite the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.

I couldn't agree more.

The federal deficit: remembering how we got here

2011-11-22T08:11:00.000-06:00

A story on NPR this morning reminded listeners about important and surprising facts we may have forgotten about how we got the current federal deficit, and how we got into this mess.

A few of the surprises: It wasn't just Democrats against the proposed Bush tax cuts in personal income and especially capital gains. Norm Orenstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institutes, reminds people he and others said at the time that the cuts in capital gains taxes were going to be a huge drain on federal revenues.

This was in and around 2000-2002. Says Orenstein: "Guess what, it was a huge drain on federal revenues."

In 2000, we had a $200 billion federal surplus. Now, it's in the area of $1.5 trillion., a seven-fold increase.

But we continued to cut taxes, and it is important to remember that the Bush tax cuts that were recently extended, had to be put through with the same, some say shady, parliamentary procedure they used to get the health care reform through Congress - the fuzzy "reconciliation" process.

Another surprise: the report reminded people that Allen Greenspan was saying paying down all our debt would have negative economic implications, would hurt growth.

But doing a little research shows that seven House Democrats and 2 Senate Democrats voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2003. One Republican in the House and one in the Senate voted no.

This will be instructive when the votes comes at the end of 2012 whether or not to extend the cuts. As someone who is schooled in economics, it seems to me there hasbeen enough time to examine whether these tax cuts "worked" in other words, did they create jobs. I would say no. Did they help keep the jobs that were already there? Possibly.

The tax cuts did put more money in the pockets of Americans instead of paying taxes. That's a given, but there was apparently so much "capacity" in the currently existing economy, no new jobs were needed to satisfy the increased consumer spending.

That's not surprising given a job market where one person is now doing the work that used to be done by two or three people.

Property tax confusion part 2

2011-11-21T17:29:00.000-06:00

By now a lot of folks have received their property tax statements and are probably most surprised by the lower value of their property and the higher taxes.

We heard of one case where a farmer said their taxes went up 100 percent.

The values are confusing because they compare last year's "market" value, a close proximity to the real value of your property and this year's tax value, which is not really a "market" value.

There's a sliding scale by which the new property tax law put into place by state lawmakers reduces your property value, but for tax purposes only.

For a home value of $76,000, the new law reduces the value of the property for tax purposes by about $30,000. For a $150,000 home, the new law reduces the value of the property for tax purposes by about $24,000.

Again, the value shows up as a value for tax purposes, but it's not very clear to most folks. So a lot of folks are looking at a value and seeing their home or business has declined in value.

In many cases, taxes also will go up, even if the local government did not change their rates or levies one bit.

The Legislature did this because they eliminated that tax credit they provided local governments, known as market value tax credit.

But the bottom line is they still cut tax relief. The market value credit was worth about $261 million in tax relief state wide, and they replaced with the exclusion credit, but that had the impact of lowering overall county tax bases.

So if they tax base is lower and the county's levy stays the same, taxes still go up in many, many cases.

Property tax increases will stun homeowners

2011-11-16T08:02:00.000-06:00

In a few days homeowners will get their property tax statements, formerly known as Truth in Taxation statements.

There are likely to be some big surprises.

The state budget deal agreed to last year by the Republican Legislature and Gov. Mark Dayton removed what is called the Market Value Credit.

Basically, it was a formula for reducing the property tax people and business paid. The local governments reduced your tax bill and were reimbursed for that by the state with a payment directly to the local government.

But it was usually only partially funded. So, the governments ended up giving a state mandated property tax break, but were rarely reimbursed for the full amount.

But eliminating the credit helped reduce last year's $1.5 to $2 billion deficit by about $261 million. And that is about how much property taxes will go up in aggregate this year, according to estimates by the Minnesota Inter-County Association.

The Legislature did try to mitigate this hit by providing what's called an "exclusion" to certain property. Basically they changed the state law on how local government's must calculate the value of your property and the tax.

Whereas, for example, a property that used to be valued at $76,000, will be valued at $46,000, thereby reducing the tax owed on that property.

But what people are likely to see on their tax bill is lower home value and higher taxes. The higher taxes come from local government having to set higher levies to make up for the loss of market value money. That will be a real shock.

As I've said before, the property tax is one tax where Minnesota is far below other states, so it's the one tax we could raise and still be "competitive."

But this is not likely to go over well. Tax increases will be 5, 10, 15 percent and most of the small towns and suburban areas will be hit hardest, locales that generally vote Republican.

It's going to be an interesting election.

Everything politics, economy, taxes

2011-11-14T18:50:00.001-06:00

Minnesota Republicans have today proposed a property tax relief program costing $80 million for next session.

That's to mitigate what are expected to be some pretty hefty increases in business and residential property taxes coming in notices the next few weeks.

The reduction and removal of the market value homestead credit helped plug a $1 billion plus budget hole last year and was part of the agreement between Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and the Republicans who controlled the Legislature.

Unlike years past, where property tax increases could be passed off on the local governments as a tangential reaction to the state, this year, the state Legislature actually did increase the rate at which property is taxed. No argument.

So, that message is getting through to lots of taxpayers. I'd be a little worried if I were an outstate Republican in a district that has in the past been represented by the other party.

The announcement of the property tax relief program today tells me two things: one, Republicans really believe they will be blamed for property tax increases this year, and two, they're already hearing about it from constituencies, like business, that know the higher property taxes are coming.

Republicans also will be faced with their own suburban-rural split in support. Typically, small town and outstate Minnesota have supported Republicans, but what some of those outstate legislators are now realizing their suburban brethren and leaders may not be in sync with constituencies of outstate legislators when it comes to property tax and local government aid.

Many can still not live down how they voted against an LGA compromise years ago, that would have been fair to outstate Minnesota. They were convinced by then "suburban brethren" led by a guy named Tim Pawlenty to vote against the compromise plan by Dan Dorman, a Republican from Albert Lea.

Actually, of all the taxes Minnesotans face, we rank lowest in property taxes, something like 37 to 47 if I remember right. So, logically, property taxes are the place where we could raise money and still be "competitive" with other states.

But property taxes and the "most public" of all taxes. Everyone can see what you pay. So they can really be a political hammer when used against those who raise them.

And Republican legislators and Dayton will not be able to escape the blame. Most legislative Democrats, however, can say they voted against the final bill, which is mostly true.

CNBC Republican debate offered more than CNN

2011-11-10T11:29:00.000-06:00

The CNBC Republican Presidential Debate Wednesday night was far superior in my mind to two debates hosted by CNN.

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and CNBC's Chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood moderated and did a great job. I liked that they stopped candidates who either weren't really answering the question (which happens a lot) or resorted to talking points.

And they cut candidates short if they were refusing to answer questions, like Newt Gingrich.

You could tell Bartiromo and Harwood were very knowledgeable about the issues.

It was also refreshing when they brought in several other CNBC correspondents to ask a question or two. The financial reporter and the personal finance reporter offered especially unique questions that matter.

They also focused on money issues, which was really a great idea. I think they probably garnered more viewership because Americans are really focused on the economy in this election, not social issues and even not much about foreign affairs.

CNN's two debate, one hosted by Wolf Blitzer and the other by Anderson Cooper were OK, but they did seem to let the candidates get away with not answering questions, and focused more on trying to bait candidates to attack each other.

Both networks hosted the debates with political entities. They CNN debate hosted one with the Tea Party and CNBC hosted this one with the Michigan Republican Party. I still don't care for such partnerships. The hosting also stacks the audience to be partisan, so if people don't make the connection, they assume a general audience is clapping for every talking point or sound bite.

I don't often agree with Michele Bachmann, but she complimented the CNBC hosts afterward saying she thought they did a good job hosting the debate, getting at substantive issues and not "baiting" the candidates to attack each other like the other recent debates.

To that, I agree.

Hallelujah: Congress just got sensible

2011-11-02T20:14:00.000-05:00

I've often said the political polarization in our country among leading political figures occurs because our society and media rewards political leaders for rhetoric, not reason, for combativeness not cooperation.

Well there are 100 members of Congress, 40 Republicans and 60 Democrats, who I am going to try to reward for their cooperation and their reason.

These members of the House recently sent a letter to the so called deficit reduction "supercommittee" to simply consider all options, including new revenue, in helping to solve the federal deficit problem.

They also, wisely, recommended the budget committee trim the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years, far beyond the mandate they have to trim $1.2 trillion.

Here's the story.
Here's the letter.

Of Minnesota's congressional delegation signing the letter were Tim Walz, D, 1st District, Collin Peterson, D, 7th District,

So thumbs up to them.

Not signing including Republicans Chip Cravaack and Erik Paulsen and Michele Bachmann and Democrats Betty McCollum and Keith Ellison.

And thumbs down to them.

Republicans signatories may have taken the larger risk in signing this letter. They face the wrath of not only the tea party, but of political kingpin Grover Norquist, who got several of them to sign his pledge not to raise taxes.

I admire the courage of Republican Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo who has tea party support and was a signer of the no tax pledge in 2008, but not last year.

She would prefer to solve the deficit she said, without raising taxes, but realizes there is more at stake her than ideology and we do not live in an ideal world.

Her quote from national story: "This is not an ideal world." She said the national debt is a problem created by Republicans and Democrats, and both parties must solve it. She said she is not "an absolute `hell no' person when it comes to considering all options.

"Grover Norquist is not in my district," she said. "I represent the state of Wyoming and its people."

Norquist seemed for one time in his life to be silenced. He didn't return calls to the Associated Press.

Many others signed the letter, many took political risks in doing so.

Reps. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, organized the letter.

Said Shuler: "I'll give up my election. I'll give up my seat" in exchange for an agreement to improve the country's fiscal future, he told the Associated Press.

Shuler gets on my A-list for most courageous political statement of the year.

Democrats signing the letter put entitlement reform and cuts on the line.

Democrat Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., "Those of us who are the strongest supporters of entitlement programs have to be at the table to guarantee sustainability," Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in an interview. "If we stand on the sidelines, those programs will be in enormous jeopardy."

Finally, some Congressional action we can reward. Others would do well to take their lead seriously.

It's "snow decision" in North Mankato

2011-11-01T20:33:00.000-05:00

The North Mankato City Council is debating snow plowing policies for this year with the choice between being nice and saving taxpayers money.

Maybe, I'm turning in the abominable snowman here, but I vote for saving taxpayers money.

The choice is between running a traditional snow emergency and ticketing cars that are violating parking rules even though they've been given fair warning and city plow crews going back and back again, waiting for reluctant vehicles and recalcitrant owners to move them.

A lot of other cities have snow emergencies. They can't afford overtime paid snow plow crews going again and again over streets waiting for owners to move their cars. Mankato doesn't do it. North Mankato shouldn't either.

Mankato has done everything possible to notify residents of the danger of being towed. They can sign up for text messages and the like.

There's plenty of opportunities for residents to comply.

North Mankato has been a bit reluctant to give its residents some "tough love" when it comes to snowplowing because so many have complained when it happens.

But many of those same taxpayers are saying North Mankato suffers from excessive municipal spending. They can't have it both ways.

A city can only do so much. Fair warning is fair warning. North Mankato has the right, and indeed the obligation, to save taxpayers money by "getting 'er done."

No whining.

Independents will clobber tea party and occupy Wall Street

2011-10-13T21:12:00.000-05:00

You've heard about the tea party.

Now you're hearing about the occupy Wall Street group.

Both have garnered more publicity than they deserve in my view, but that's what national broadcast media gravitates to: a good visual and people angry at the government. It's an easy, uncomplicated story and it gets ratings.

Ultimately, though, I think the same people who've influenced and in fact turned dozens of elections in the past will do it again in the next two years: the independents.

You won't find them at tea party rallies: (they don't go for the extreme radical stuff) and you won't find them at the occupy Wall Street stuff (they don't do much grass roots stuff, pseudo or not).

Nope. They're just average Americans, well educated, who vote for ideas instead of ideologies. They vote for people instead of political sound bites.

It's a lot like The Free Press editorial board if you ask me, but that's not the point here.

I'm no political consultant, but here's my take on how the next president will win the election. They'll appeal to independents on a number of issues as follows.

Deficit reduction long-term, bolster the economy with smart stimulus short-term. Don't take tax increases off the table, make taxes more fair at the same time. Eliminate corporate welfare to big oil as well as farmers.

Don't try to talk these folks into the idea that tax breaks for the rich will create jobs. They know a lo t of rich people, and they haven't seen them creating many jobs. There is not one iota of evidence that these folks have seen anywhere that will convince them of that fallacy and they are not the kind of people who believe a lie, even if you tell it to them 16 times.

But don't also propose ridiculous spending or regulatory ideas in the middle of one of the most prolonged worst economy in decades. Making unemployed workers a class for discrimination is just not going to fly with these folks.

Restricting Tony the Tiger as a longtime brand on cereal boxes to prevent childhood obesity is also not going to fly. It's way too liberal an idea. Besides, parents should be in charge of childhood obesity.

If anything, we should allow insurance companies to charge health insurance rates based on how many obese children in a family.

Ultimately, the independents are not going to be won over with slogans from left or right. They're smarter than that. They need meat behind the ideas. They need substance.

The party that provides it will come out on top.

Tax the rich in the context of a Christian message

2011-10-05T21:23:00.001-05:00

As the arguments on taxes and spending rage on in Washington D.C., and we launch into a debate about who has enough, who has a little and who should pay their fair share of taxes, the subject took on a new meaning for me at Wednesday night church listening to the pastor's sermon.

I saw it in a different context that might surprise you.

The sermon was as non-political as one can get, and was not terribly out of the ordinary. It was about how God provides a lot of the things we have, whether it be cell phones or the basics like a roof over our head.

The essential message was related via a story to the congregation about how the pastor knew a man who came up to him one day and said "All I have comes from God."

There are, of course, complications to understanding this message. Why do some people live in million dollar homes and some sleep outside every night in a cardboard box?

Rich or poor. It all comes from God. The pastor said he reacted with skepticism to the man. He, and others like him, and all of us in America, feel we work damn hard for our money and all the things we have acquired.

The American ideal and dream, most of us would say, does not come from God, but it comes from the sweat on our brow, the stress on our face.

That of course, in a nutshell, is the argument playing out in Washington these days. Tax the rich, some say, so they pay their fair share. Others say the rich have earned everything they got, and if we tax them, they will no longer create jobs.

I don't have to repeat the narrative which I'm sure readers have heard play out a thousand times on every cable news show possible.

I have just one thought on this: If we all believed "everything we had came from God" would we even be having the who-pays-their-fair-share debate?

The pastor didn't really have an answer for all this, nor did he need to. One can't explain, really, why some have lots and some have none.

Either way, he said, for those of us who've been given lots of things, "it's what we do with it" that matters.

That might be a good place to start the debate in Washington.

Did health care reform cause premiums to rise?

2011-09-28T13:40:00.000-05:00

The Kaiser Family Foundation reported health care premiums rose 9 percent in 2011, a report that is likely to generate a lot of talk on if the health care reform act of 2009-2010 had anything to do with it.

The short answer is yes, but only 1 to 2 percent of the total premium increase, according to Kaiser. Premiums would have increased 7 percent anyway.

On the other side of the coin, White House analysts say premiums only went up because insurers overestimated the cost of the new health care reform act. (They produce figures to back it up like health care worker wages were lowest increase in years), and they argue, average health care insurer company earnings exceeded estimates by 45 percent.

There's a solid article on this, giving both sides good weight, in The Christian Science Monitor here.

My own take: I tend to agree that if insuror premiums are way higher than they expected, they built in a little too much cost expectation. Seems plausible.

The only two provisions that the report says impacted the premiums were adding college kids at 26 or under to parent's plans and requirements for some preventative care, both of which should actually help lower costs. (Adding kids because most are extremely health and don't use health care though their parents are now paying extra premiums for them)

Preventive care should help stop a sickness from getting serious and costing more.

Carlson on Bachmann, Republican Tea Party

2011-09-28T10:11:00.000-05:00

An interesting blog by former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson on Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party influence on the Republican Party in Congress.

Carlson contends that only 25 percent of Republicans who control the House are Tea Party members, but they have tremendous undue influence, in his mind, over Republican Speaker John Boehner.

He contends Democrats will have field day with this in the election. I'm not so sure.

I do believe the 2012 election will start very early, and be very deep, and actually will engage people more than ever despite polls that generally show people are very disgusted with Congress.

Will they turn their disgust into action or into despair?

MnDot commits to Highway 14 safety

2011-09-27T12:05:00.000-05:00

It was good to see that MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel was committed to keeping the Highway 14 project west of North Mankato on track for needed safety improvements. (Story)

News that the project bids had come in 30 percent over estimates was troubling given money is tight all over. But Sorel reiterated his commitment to the project while saying MnDOT would be examining the bids and design to either rebid or possibly change the project's design/build nature so it is less costly.

The project is of particular interest to us here at The Free Press. Reporter Mark Fischenich completed an exhaustive three-day series last year on the safety record of the Highway. An in-depth examination of the safety statistics had never been done.

Here's the series

Our report showed, among other things, that stretch of highway had a fatality rate that was 94 percent higher than the state average. The series prompted MnDOT to take a closer look at putting some money into the project.

Before that, it had not been scheduled for work for some 20 years.

We hope the project can get done, and get done at price that seems reasonable. We all know making that Highway a four-lane to New Ulm will make it much safer.

We appreciate MnDOT and Sorel making the commitment to making that road safe.

Clearing up tax rates for rich and poor

2011-09-26T13:59:00.002-05:00

Regrettably, a so called "fact check" by the Associated Press muddies the water when it comes to determining who pays the highest tax rates, the rich or not so rich.

The debate was sparked by billionaire Warren Buffet continuing to proclaim he shouldn't pay taxes at a "lower rate" than his secretary or others in his office.

This statement gets summarized a lot in the media to a translation that he shouldn't pay lower taxes than his secretary which is an entirely different thing than a "lower rate" of tax.

What Buffet was really referring to was the capital gains rate that is 15 percent and a typical income tax rate most middle class couples would pay would be about 28 percent.

The AP article gets to that salient point in the 14th paragraph of a 19 paragraph article.

This AP article does a disservice to the whole debate in my opinion because it deals with "average" tax rates, "total" taxes the rich pay (we know they pay more in total taxes, almost all the time and almost always have, so it's kind of irrelevant).

One can make an argument for "average tax rates" because some wealthy folks pay a lot higher rate and others pay nothing. So, I would expect "on average" wealthy folks will pay a higher rate, also including all federal taxes, as the AP analysis does, though it doesn't say if it includes estate taxes.

That wasn't Buffet's point. It was the "rate" at which people are taxed, which, is really the relevant statistic.

So the AP did a fact check,but they left out the relevant facts to be compared. The big question is: Should we tax capital gains at 15 percent and regular income of the same amount at 28 percent? Most wealthy folks have capital gains, most average folks have "regular income" hence the disparity argument.

So, there you have it, a good argument for your next cocktail party.

And at the risk of sounding like a surly editor, don't argue Buffet should just pay taxes voluntarily if he feels this way, or you will get on my list for a free copy of "How to argue effectively."

Cal Thomas gets a C- for recent column: his job is in jeopardy at Free Press

2011-09-21T20:36:00.002-05:00

I agree with conservative columnist Cal Thomas sometimes. I think he sometimes has moments approaching reasonable thought and arguments that hold up the conservative banner well.

Then he lets his political leanings or allegiances or whatever get in the way of a good argument.

Take his Sunday, Sept. 18 column called "Ron Paul was right."

He starts out the column talking about the recent CNN/Tea Party debate (sponsorship between political organizations and news organizations has already been excoriated by me in a previous column), and how Wolf Blitzer's question on a hypothetical situation of a young person without health care somehow showed the bias or Blitzer and raised important principles of personal responsibility for all of us.

Then he says: "Normally, a hypothetical question should not be answered," That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard from a journalist. Blitzer's question may have been hypothetical in a literal sense, but the situation Blitzer described, a young person not buying health insurance but then getting treated and having his health care paid for by the rest of us plays out in this country thousands of times every single day.

It's one of the main reasons we have a health care cost and coverage problem.

Thomas gets a C- for lacking the apparent knowledge that this is one of the main problems.

Thomas says it sparked a necessary and controversial answer from Paul, and that's where Thomas veers into the land of odd thoughts.

Here's Blitzer's question: “A healthy 30-year- old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I’m not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I’m healthy, I don’t need it. But something terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it. Who’s going to pay if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that?”

Here's Thomas responding: The question was designed to appeal to the status quo with the federal government picking up the tab, but Paul cut through the question to give a powerful answer: “...what he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. ... That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody ...”

Blitzer interrupted: “... are you saying society should just let him die?”

More Thomas:

Some in the audience shouted “ yes.” They must have come from the previous debate where Gov. Rick Perry’s pride in executing convicted murderers was wildly applauded.

Responded Paul: “... We’ve given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves and assume responsibility for ourselves.

Paul essentially went on to say in the old days the churches handled people without health insurance. Yeah, tell that to my pastor. Medical bills can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I don't know when the last time Paul was in church or when he last talked to a minister, but the ministers and churches I know would not be shelling out $100,000 to "help out." each of their 20 families that need it.

They'd hold a spaghetti feed

At least Thomas admits a key point here in this whole debate, but he treats it as a minor point.

That is that federal law prohibits any organization from denying someone care at an emergency room because they cannot pay.

Thomas goes on to veer off on another topic about London ministers agreeing to help a jobless family, and if we all did that, our problems would be solved.

It would be nice, and it happens every day in America, but it will not solve the health care problem.

Thomas lack of attention to pertinent facts in this debate is hurting the conservative cause.

Since I make the decision to pay for Thomas's column, I'm considering firing him, and maybe picking up a very sharp conservative thinker in David Brooks of the New York Times.This isn't the first Thomas column that really gives a bad name to solid conservative thought.

Readers. What do you think? E-mail me at jspear@mankatofreepress.com

Your taxes, political accountability and random stuff

2011-09-21T16:30:00.000-05:00

Big buzz today on political/news wires and twitter is just who is responsible, accountable for predicted property tax increases this year in many communities in Minnesota.

I have in the past agreed with ideas Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassen, has come up with as chair of the Senate Tax Committee (that we should look at tax breaks to special interest like spending for instance), but I can't agree with her analysis and some of her facts as detailed in a Strib oped published Wednesday.

First and biggest myth to bust, well, as a myth: The Legislature didn't raise property taxes local government's do.

That's generally true, but when the Legislature CHANGES the property tax formula that local governments are REQUIRED BY LAW to use, the Legislature must take at least partial responsibility for increasing property taxes.

Most reasonable people would agree that if the local government does nothing, and the Legislature changes the way it must figure its tax rate, and tax increases happens, it falls to the government that did something (the Legislature) versus the one that did nothing (local governments).

I generally agree local governments are responsible for local property taxes, even if they do have to deal with uncertain state aid. Knowing it's uncertain, they should plan for that. But, when the Legislature changes the law that local governments MUST follow, then the Legislature, in effect, creates an increase in property taxes, all other things being equal.

The Legislature did try to lower property tax rates to make up for the loss of the credit, but as the Star Tribune editorial page points out, that was $30 million in relief, to make up for the lost of $260 million.

One-line takes on the news

Fed to buy $400 billion in long term treasuries, and also some mortgage backed securities

From NYTIMES:
The new effort is an experiment without a direct precedent, although the Fed tried something similar in the 1960s. Essentially, by shifting its money into riskier investments, the Fed hopes to drive down rates without expanding the size of its portfolio, as it has done twice in recent years.

By reducing the supply of long-term Treasuries, the Fed intends to force investors to accept lower rates of return on a wide range of riskier investments.

Economists project that the effort could reduce interest rates by a few tenths of a percentage point, a significant increment when multiplied by the vast extent of borrowing. The forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers estimated in advance of the Fed’s announcement — based on its best guess about the details of such a program — that the Fed’s efforts could add about 0.4 percentage points to economic output and create about 350,000 jobs

COMMENT: Interesting that Republican leaders were threatening that the Fed better not do anything to interfere with markets, which, essentially, is their mandate.

News that deserves one-line responses

2011-09-20T17:34:00.000-05:00

Welcome to a new feature of the Katojoe blog.

It's my Monday morning quarterbacking, Slats Grobnik take on news of the day with my promise to only use one sentence to comment on each story.

For you youngsters, Slats Grobnik was the composite character longtime Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko used to represent the "common man" if there is or was such a thing.

First story from MPR.

Dayton says Legislature is wasting time and money

Posted at 2:12 PM on September 20, 2011 by Tom Scheck (0 Comments)

Gov. Mark Dayton says he's none too pleased that Republicans in the House and Senate plan to hold hearings to discuss whether Dayton has the legal authority to allow people working for in-home daycare providers to join unions.

Dayton has said he's considering an executive order that would allow for those employees to vote on union membership, but he said he hasn't made a final decision. Dayton said lawmakers' decision to hold hearings before he takes any action is a "political ploy" and a waste of taxpayer money.

"Why don't they start by reforming themselves and recognize that they're a part-time Legislature that has been in session overtime all the way until the latter part of July?"

And he mocked committee chairs for holding hearings across the state on job creation - just weeks after the Legislature left St. Paul following the three week government shutdown.

"They had six months and they did very little on job creation," Dayton said.

"And I'm taking the initiative now, and we're proactively engaged in it as we will be for the three and a half years. So you missed your chance back then folks when taxpayers were paying for your salaries and your per diems."

Comment: Mark Dayton is usually a very reasonable sounding-guy, but this change of pace is interesting, sounds meaner, like Obama recently.

Next story:
From Washington Post

A $16 muffin, government finds extravagant spending at Justice Dept.

At a Justice Department conference, auditors said Monday in a report that doesn’t come close to topping the Pentagon’s legendary $400 hammer and $600 toilet seat but does, the auditors said, expose “wasteful or extravagant spending.’’

Cynthia Schnedar, the Justice Department’s acting inspector general, said in the report that some conferences featured “costly meals, refreshments and themed breaks” and that Justice failed to “minimize” costs as required by federal and internal guidelines.

Among the examples: Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres at $7.32 per serving; a Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy snack for $32 per person and coffee costing more than $1 per ounce, making a single cup $8.24.

And the $16 muffins? They were served at a 2009 legal training conference in Washington by Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. The report describes the $4,200 spent on 250 muffins and $2,880 on 300 cookies and brownies

Comment: As a taxpayer, I feel they're making progress, only spending $16 on muffins versus $400 on a hammer.

My favorite "Tweet" of the day from former Strib columnist and longtime Twin Cities journalist Nick Coleman.

"10 ways journalists can use Twitter... now, if we could just get journalists to try journalism... http://j.mp/qVEJSs"

As I journalist I'm bowing to all the new waves of technology helping us do our jobs, believe me, but someone has to point out "journalism" is still the main job.

Republican debate, tea party, Blitzer

2011-09-13T21:58:00.002-05:00

A few quick thoughts on the Republican debate on CNN Monday night.

I promise. They will be quick. It's way too early to be talking election politics.

It's a little troubling to me as a journalist that a fairly credible news organization like CNN would actually sponsor a debate with a political faction - the Tea Party Express in this case.

Would any independent voter view this as a slight crack in the network's credibility? I'll be interested to see if the smarmy Howard Kurtz or any other media critic takes them on in this issue or if this is the wave of the future.

Scary if it is.

CNN was almost branding itself with Tea Party as a kind of combo meal you'd buy at McDonald's. The marketers went over the line.

I hope it troubles Wolf Blitzer, who is a solid, credible journalist and he did a solid job on running the debate and asking some tough questions.

I can't say the same for John King, who just softballed question after question to Michele Bachmann after the debate.

She's a bit desperate, taking off after Rick Perry on the "little girl forced vaccination" issue and John King did nothing to hold her accountable for the outrageous statements she was making.

She even got a little mean, saying even though Perry apologized, that wasn't good enough. Sheesh.

She knows there was an opt out, but kind of said, well, people should be told by government there's an opt out.
.
Well, they kind of were told by the government. It seems Bachmann wanted government to get even more involved saying the opt out wasn't adequate and people need to be told (in my interpretation government needs to hold their hand). That's just contradictory to her usual schtick that people take responsibility for their own lives and not rely on government that she was advocating earlier in the debate

Again, no challenge from King. His interview with her could have been a campaign commercial.

Ron Paul was kind of the comic relief here, and, actually, he makes a lot of sense some times, despite the comedy.

Blitzer nailed on the health care issue. As a doctor, Paul said he was against health care mandates but would not throw people out on the street if they didn't have it and needed care. (thus all the rest of us paying for it, Blitzer said.)

Paul said, in his day, the churches handled it. Enough said there. Hope my pastor was listening.

Romney made few mistakes, and I liked his line about telling Perry that Texas was doing well because when you're "dealt four aces, you aren't necessarily a good poker player."

Perry tried to respond with equal witt, but it fell flat. That's what happens when you have an uppity East Coast politician, former CEO, make fun of the good 'ol boy from Texas.

I still haven't heard an economic theory from any of them that allows people to check it empirically — did this ever happen and can cause and effect be established kind of stuff — and doesn't require them to just have the "belief" about the way the economy works.

Milton Friedman is turning in his grave.

Ethical dilemmas of children testifying in murder case

2011-09-08T12:35:00.001-05:00

For the first time in my experience in the newspaper business, it is likely we will see a child testifying in a murder case.

Blue Earth County District Court Judge Kurt Johnson ruled Tuesday that one of the three Munt children who witnessed their father shoot their mother will be allowed to testify as to what they saw.

Johnson had interviewed all three children, a girl who was 7 at the time of the killing, a boy who was 4 and a boy who was 5.

The girl will not be testifying after Johnson determined she was "significantly traumatized" and declined to speak to Johnson at all during the hearing, where Johnson says, he asked general questions, not questions about the case.

The younger boy also will not testify after Johnson determined he may not have been mature enough to know everything that was going on or understand the court system.

The boy who was five at the time, may be called as a witness, Johnson ruled. He was able to answer general questions including the one where Johnson asked the children if they knew the difference between telling the truth and lying.

This case poses all kinds of ethical dilemmas for newspaper coverage and judges and lawyers as well. We're talking about a young boy who witnessed a traumatic event.

Will testifying further traumatize him? Will reading about his testimony and the case in the newspaper haunt him for the rest of his life? What kind of questions can appropriately be asked of a child who witnessed such traumatic events?

Defense attorneys have a job to cross-examine witnesses, to poke holes in their credibility. How pointed can questions be when asking a 5 year old? How much can the jury believe?

We will evaluate every question as we report the case and try to be sensitive to this young person's needs. At the same time, we'll balance that against what the public must know about not only this case, but the important ethical issues at stake.

If the boy is called to testify, he will testify in another courtroom away from the jury and his accused father.

That's a reasonable accommodation to what is likely to be another very difficult chapter in this young person's life.

Unfortunately, our court system relies on the testimony of witnesses, however difficult that may be at times.

Riding the "goattails" of a national story

2011-09-08T12:08:00.001-05:00

Unless you have been out of the universe for the last week, you now know the tale of the little girls and the goat making Mankato famous.

It started with an unusual police report heard by the late night editors on The Free Press copy desk. Sometime around 11:30 p.m., a Mankato resident called police to report that two very young girls in their pajamas were walking along Carney Avenue north of Riverfront Drive, and, they had a goat with them.

The story gets better. When police stopped the girls they said they were simply taking their goat out for a late-night walk. They couldn’t remember their address, but they knew how to walk home, so the officer was obliged to follow.

By this time, the story had made all the police radio chatter and there were reportedly several other officers who drove by to see what must have been classic scene: their fellow officer escorting the two young girls and their goat. Apparently many cell-phone pictures were snapped. (This is yet to be confirmed part of the story, but we’ll use a little journalistic license.)

The girls spun their tale thicker as they went on. They were hiding their goat in their closet because mom had bought it but dad wasn’t going to be too happy about it once he found out.

Of course, eventually, police determined the girls had taken the goat from the Sibley Park zoo after hatching the plot earlier in the day when they were at Sibley Park for a birthday party.

As is likely to happen these days with such a bizarre and funny tale of a goat-napping, once the story made The Free Press website, it went viral.

This story was made for the modern-day, multi-platform media world we live in. It likely went viral from The Free Press Facebook site, as the 2,000 or so people who are fans on the site likely forwarded it to their Facebook friends. If 2,000 Free Press fans have 10 friends each, we’ve just expanded our audience for this story by 20,000. If they have 100 friends each, the story expands by 200,000. And then those friends forward it to their friends and hence the “viral” nature of the story is developed.

Our Twitter posting and link to the story was also being “retweeted” around the globe. It was on the Drudge Report and in the Washington Post, as well as other media sites everywhere including USA Today and CBS Radio.

According to the last count, the story had been looked at 78,376 times, by almost 60,000 different users who spent an average of 3 minutes 48 seconds reading the story. And that’s just on The Free Press website. There is no accounting for how many times it was viewed on hundreds of media sites around the world.

The Associated Press picked up the story as well, and people commented on the story on The Free Press Facebook page from Tasmania, Australia to Melbourne, Fla.

The comments varied from readers appreciating the humor and cuteness of the story to those suggesting the parents should be charged with neglect.

Clearly, it’s a story right out of Mayberry R.F.D. and maybe that’s what gives it so much appeal. Nothing horrendous happened to the girls. In an age where we hear and see so much brutality, this story seems to have given people a little bit of hope that there is still innocence in America.

Interesting things I'm watching

2011-08-30T12:23:00.000-05:00

From the file of interesting newsmaker interviews, I found Piers Morgan's interview with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban on Monday night to include some very good political insights from a professional sports team owner.

Cuban said he doesn't like any of the presidential candidates of either party right now because they're all about "dogma" and philosophies and sound bites. None have offered an "action step" as Cuban says.

One can be for a lot of things, but until they lay out specific policies, none are being very honest. Well said, I thought. Voters should demand what Cuban demands: specific policies or in the business world "action" steps.

Here's the interview.

Been gone fishin`

2011-08-29T17:19:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since early August.

I've been on vacation and then spending a lot of time catching up once I was back.

I did have good luck the last day I was fishing on Big Sand Lake near Park Rapids on Aug. 8.

Landed a 24-in., 5 pound walleye, with friend Gene Fladeboe directing me how and where to fish. Caught the walleye in 25 feet of water dragging bottom with a leech.

It's a rare catch in August in northern Minnesota, so I felt lucky.

As my friend and Free Press photographer John Cross tells me, "never brag about a fish unless you've got a picture."

Well. I do and here it is.

We did catch and release this guy as this was required by the slot limit for the lake.

Now, back to more boring things like politics and government!

'Round the Town: 21st Century version

2011-08-03T12:16:00.001-05:00

This 'Round the Town column is a throwback to Free Press days of old. Back in the '70s it used to be a column just to let readers know what's happening "around the town."

The entries from Aug. 2, 1971 included "card club at the senior center, Katoans Book Club and Neurotics Anonymous at St. John's Episcopal Church."

About 40 years later we've got a few more things going for us.

With a nod to old traditions that may be good enough to resurrect, albeit through blogs, Facebook and Twitter, I'll give it a shot.

The Vikings are back in town, and that means about $5 million to the Mankato economy, according to the folks at the Greater Mankato Convention and Visitor's Bureau.

And Ribfest this weekend can't hurt the crowds as travelers could get a two-for on the Kato excursion. Here's our Ribfest preview story.

Ribfest held this year for the second time at Riverfront Park is expected to draw better and includes at least one more ribber than last year for a total of five, possibly more.

They've also nailed down three pretty impressive headline music acts with country act Tracy Lawrence, (Country always draws big) bluesy Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Little River Band, a longtime pop group with plenty of hits.

So the beer should be flowing and the ribs sizzling this weekend. Temperature are even supposed to be reasonable in the 80s.

More and more when I hear people who haven't been to Mankato in a while say what a great looking city is it. I'm going to say we're challenging Red Wing for the volume of green spaces we have in our city center.

The sculpture walk makes it even more attractive.

At a recent Mankato Moondogs game, I met a financial advisor from California who was on his way to a convention in Minneapolis, but enjoyed stopping at amateur ballparks around the country.

He said Mankato's Franklin Rogers Park was a real "nice ballyard."

Good to hear that term again. "Ball-yard"

Of course, Franklin Rogers was the editor of "Mankato Free Press" in 1971, and wrote a daily column called "Between Us" where he answered reader complaints, spoke of parking tickets and news of the day.

We'll maybe tackle that one another day.

Keeping up on debt ceiling debacle

2011-07-28T11:09:00.000-05:00

Here's a great resource for keeping up on the debt ceiling debate in Congress.

Articles are selected and reviewed for relevancy and accuracy by Pro Publica, a nonprofit journalism organization staffed by top editors who used to work at places like The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post.

Here's the link to Pro Publica. They say they will be constantly updating it with new stories.

Budget deal impact on Mankato, outstate Minnesota

2011-07-22T15:06:00.002-05:00

How will the Mankato region and outstate Minnesota be impacted by the recently approved state budget deal?

A few quick thoughts.

Health care, human services

Health care reforms will be a challenge for outstate providers. Reimbursement rates will be cut unless hospitals and others can prevent some tough medical cases (the poor on medical assistance) from returning to emergency rooms.

The reforms sound like a good way to save money, but remember, lots of these folks have mental illness and chronic conditions. Rural and outstate hospitals may have fewer resources to really make these "incentive" plans workable.

On the flip side, there should be a lot of opportunity for rural counties to join together in delivering services and setting up joint administrative centers for human services. There appear to be incentives to do these kind of collaborations. Some small counties have experience doing it already, so there's a model out there.

A little known provision in the final health and human services bill will blow a surprising hole in county budgets regarding payments for sex offenders:

Here it is:

Section 1 (246B.10) increase the county share for person civilly committed to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program from ten percent to 25 percent. This section is effective for all individuals who are civilly committed to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program on or after August 1, 2011.

Ouch. That will hurt, or it will create incentives for county attorneys to avoid committing sex offenders. That won't go over well with the public.

K-12 education

With the state borrowing from schools, and thus schools having to borrow themselves to make up for 40 percent delay in payments, it will be tough on small districts who face cash flow issues and face declining enrollment already.

A $50 increase in the per-pupil formula will not help a district that is losing hundreds of students, or even 50.

I would expect to see more stress on outstate school finances, and therefore, incentive to merge, like we saw recently with Le Center and Montgomery Lonsdale.

New required annual evaluations for teachers will be touchy for small school districts as everyone knows everybody and it will likely be a big cultural change at many schools that never had required evaluations.

Tying those evaluations to scores could also be problematic because students with risk factors for poor performance can be concentrated at small schools. One school in Mankato has 50 percent of its students that qualify for free or reduced priced lunches, while others are nowhere near that.

So, with teachers knowing they'll be evaluated based on student success, will there be an incentive to work at only the schools in neighborhoods that are middle class or well off?

Scores can be affected by small groups, but it's a positive that the local school boards and teacher reps will be able to choose what scores to use in measuring student progress.

Higher education

Of course, many regional centers have one or more state universities or community colleges. With cuts in the 10 percent range in higher education, it's clear these communities will be impacted with higher education job loss.

Minnesota State Mankato has cut approximately 100 high paying jobs over the last two years. Tuition will increase for kids going to school, which means they may have less to spend at the local malls, bars and restaurants.

Jobs

The $500 million bonding bill will help mitigate the job losses in outstate Minnesota where construction is typically slower. The bonding bill will also help mitigate some job loss from state employment, as the workforce is scheduled to be reduced by 6 percent through attrition.

The Mankato area has one of the highest concentrations of state employees in the state, almost 10 percent of wages, depending on how you measure it. Many other regional centers have the same kind of exposure to a state workforce.

The 15 percent cuts in jobs Republicans had proposed would obviously have had more impact.

Tom Horner: still willing to help solve budget problem

2011-07-11T14:24:00.000-05:00

I spoke with former Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner this morning.

He is visiting editors in southern Minnesota to say he is willing to help solve Minnesota's budget problem, much the same task he ran on in last year's election.

He has offered his help to both sides in the standoff. But, so far, no takers.

Horner suggests Dayton and GOP approve a narrow lights on bill and take two months to try to hammer out significant long-term spending and taxing reforms. Otherwise, he says, we'll simply be in the same spot two years from now.

He and former congressman and Independence Party gubernatorial candidate Tim Penny wrote an opinion piece for the Star Tribune suggestion solutions for a "third way" to solve the budget impasse.

That's simply a way for both sides to adopt solutions and still maintain their "core principles." Horner believes it can be done, even if Dayton doesn't get his "tax the rich" plan and even if Republicans don't get their "within our means" checkbook.

He was trying to drum up some attention in the state to get his former supporters, largely the independent voter in the middle, to contact Dayton and their legislators and urge an end to the shutdown and long-term reforms.

Horner suggests once the lights on bill is passed, the governor and the legislature should bring in experts to help them achieve goals like health care access and sustainable spending.

Horner is also sure the "third way" suggestion has to come from the governor's office.

I can't say I disagree a lot with what Horner has to say. The Free Press editorial board took a stand last year that Horner had the most reasonable budget proposal and that it involved necessary reforms.

I also urge readers to e-mail Dayton or their legislator. There are easy e-mail links here.

Observations on budget stalemate/shutdown

2011-07-01T11:49:00.000-05:00

A few thoughts on events that have transpired in the last 24 hours on breakdown of budget negotiations.

When all is said and done, Republicans and Dayton are not that far apart on the numbers. We should be able to work this out. However, it was very surprising and troubling to me that Republicans would try to negotiate social issues back into the budget debate after Dayton had vetoed many of these proposals.

Here's the confidential Republican proposal to detailed social issues.

That just doesn't seem like a reasonable strategy.

Dayton is showing himself to be formidable governor in terms of using the bully pulpit to "frame" the issues.

His use of the phrases that Republicans are "against helping disabled people with personal care attendants" and yet not making millionaires "pay one more dollar," will resonate with a lot of people who are not millionaires - the "one dollar more" phrase in particular.

Of course, the millionaires would pay way more than "one dollar more" but Dayton framed it in a way that will make people really think about this.

He also took out the heavy artillary when he quoted one Republican legislator who said of the millionaires "some of these people are our friends."

Whether you believe it or not, it makes it sound like they're really concerned about their millionaire friends pocketbooks and not their willingness to create jobs.

And it sounds like Republicans are really holding onto their millionaire friends not because they provide jobs (as they continually state), but just because they dont' think they should be taxed at a higher rate (a position that would play out far worse than the job issue framing).

Republicans are doing all they can to blame the shutdown on Dayton. They were in House chamber ready to vote, which played OK, but most media put quotes from opposition higher in stories where opposition called it a grandstanding.

Note to Republicans. If you want to have journalists give you the benefit of a doubt every once in a while, you might not want to continually question their integrity, at least not in public. (CC to Sarah Palin).

On the Republican proposals to add $1 billion in revenue: Most people would not consider borrowing from schools and future tobacco funds as a "conservative" idea.

Finally on tax the rich: Dayton would do better here if he said "tax the rich the same as the middle class."

If you ask most people if the rich should pay 1) the same rate of tax as the middle class, 2) a higher rate, or 3) a lower rate, the vast majority will say the same or higher.

The Minnesota tax incidence study that both sides have used for their own purposes, shows the rich pay a LOWER RATE than the middle class considering all taxes.

As I've said before, this battle is for the moderate Republicans to win. I've talked to several who would go for more revenue in sales tax, income tax and in a variety of places, but they feel beholden to a party that will impart its wisdom with a stick and not a carrot.

If moderate (and many outstate) Republicans can pull it off, I think they'll be able to maintain control of both houses. If not, it could be all Democrats in 2012 and they will essentially turn back everything Republicans have done, which, incidentally, also wouldn't be good for the state.

Five things Americans don't want to hear, but must

2011-06-29T16:04:00.002-05:00

Let's face it, we're moving forward into times where a whole lot of things are going to change.

At state and federal levels, the budgets are in deficits, serious deficits.

Government workers are having benefits severely cut back as well as jobs and pay. Ditto for private sector.

There are solutions to these problems. There are better times ahead, but we have to, as Americans and Minnesotans, understand some hard truths.

1. Medicare must be cut.

Yes. It's a great program. It has served many of our families and most importantly our elderly. But the exponential growth in the number of people who will qualify will create expenses that exceed our ability to pay for them.

Smart people and political leaders are trying to figure out how to deliver the same services more efficiently, but it may mean you talk to a diagnosis nurse on an 800 number before you get the personal meeting with your favorite doctor.

2. We can't completely protect ourselves from terrorists and others around the world.

We can, to a certain extent, but the number of groups, the number of unstable countries and the risk of nuclear weapons getting into the wrong hands are all on the rise.

It helps that we're trying to forge peacekeeping transitions in a lot of these countries, mostly Middle East, but it's hard to say this risk is decreasing.

3. We can't rely on the stock market as much as in the past as a solid investment for our retirement savings.

This confidence was shaken after the 2001 terrorist attacks and was somewhat regained until the financial crisis of 2008.

For years, baby boomers were told to leave your investments in one place. Over time the stock market is the best place.

I'm no expert, but it seems to me, the confidence in the stock markets has eroded with 2001 and 2008 events.

There are thousands of people who invested for their children's college education in 1995 who have a "cost basis" that is above what they have in that account. In other words, they lost money.

They will not have great confidence about investing again.

4. Voting matters less than it used to.

Corporations and organizations will have unlimited financial power, thanks to the Supreme Court, to influence elections. Corporations were cleared by the court to spend as much as they want on influencing elections, and in many cases, it can be kept secret.

5. These first four problems cannot be solved by the same old "passive American" democracy - that is, wait for a while, let the politicians handle it and because they want your vote, they'll fix it.

No. Americans are going to have to get much more "physically involved" in democracy in the future if we want change. It may be protesting at capitols or organizing groups over the Internet to recall politicians, but a "vote" may not be enough.

Democracy will require tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

"Public influence groups" will need to be formed with like-minded individuals to counter the power of "private interest groups."

If this all sounds a little depressing, that's not the intent. Rather, I write these things because I have great confidence in the American tradition of democracy directed by the people.

Happy 4th of July!

The most informative government shutdown/budget stalemate articles

2011-06-16T16:55:00.007-05:00

Here's what I'm reading to stay informed on the impending government shutdown.

Eric Black's MinnPost story on Supreme Court setting a hearing on constitutionality of judiciary's role in keeping some parts of state running. 7/11/11. Major implications.

Another solid explanation of the impasse regards policy between Dayton and GOP by Elizabeth Dunbar, MPR. 7/11/11

Another good story by Elizabeth Dunbar of MPR on some real costs of a state shutdown.

Star Tribune solid explanation of complicated budget numbers. GOP spending "not an increase."

Here's a solid opinion piece by Jim Mulder, former Independence Party candidate for lieutenant governor. It's a viable solution to the state budget stalemate.

Another good Doug Grow analysis from MinnPost. Friday, July 1.

Doug Grow's excellent analysis piece in MinnPost, Thursday, June 16.

Good info from people smarter than me: Medicare

2011-06-14T14:50:00.000-05:00

Here's one from experts at the Concord Coalition, the nonpartisan budget watchdog group.

Contrary to popular belief and Michele Bachmann, the previously inaccurately described "death panels" are not, cannot cut Medicare, but can and are needed to offer a promising way to curb health care costs and inefficiency.

Here's a solid article by Joshua Gordon of Concord Coalition showing these kind of "advisory" groups are often useful and key to solving big problems but are demagogued away by politicians.

Gov. Dayton at Society of Professional Journalists banquet

2011-06-08T21:59:00.000-05:00

A few quick observations from Gov. Mark Dayton's talk to the Society of Professional Journalists awards banquet in St. Paul Tuesday.

I talked to Dayton a month or so ago in Mankato. At that time, he said there was a 50-50 chance of coming to an agreement on the budget with Republicans.

Asked for an update Tuesday, Dayton said the odds are "less than 50-50."

That's alarming. It appears a government shutdown is imminent.

The other item of interest that drew the attention of other journalists at the event was the elimination of the early childhood funding bill (supported by both Democrats and Republicans and big money players like the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce).

Dayton said the bill was killed by a "tangential" fringe group, and Republicans bought the groups ideas.

Those ideas have been reported elsewhere as ones where the group feels all moms should stay at home to teach their children, and that government shouldn't do what parents should do.

Human services budget seemed hijacked

2011-05-26T17:26:00.002-05:00

Reviewing what the Legislature passed as a health and human services budget and Gov. Mark Dayton's veto of the plan, I get the feeling some good Republican ideas were sort of hijacked by over-reaching policy provisions that supported a national political campaign against the Affordable Health Care Act.

Whenever I've seen or heard Republican Chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee Jim Abeler, I've been impressed with his thoughtfulness. I've been convinced he sincerely wants to help people who can't afford health care to get treated and keep the costs reasonable to taxpayers.

That's why I was surprised to see things in the bill like the repeal of Gov. Mark Dayton's executive order on the early opt-in on Medicaid, something that would save the state millions and allow Minnesota to lead in health care cost reform.

It was disappointing to see provisions in the bill that Dayton described as "divisive policy provisions" that included prohibitions on stem cell research and provisions to somehow prevent the state from participating in the federal health care law.

Clearly, these were provisions that Dayton told legislators would draw a veto. They were in there anyway.

Abeler actually had some pretty good ideas in terms of controlling costs of state provided health care for the poor.

The experiment last year with GAMC patients that provided block grants to participating hospitals who worked with all providers as a team and improved outcomes at lower costs showed some success.

It's downfall was that outstate hospitals didn't participate because they said they couldn't afford a 50 percent reduction in their reimbursements.

That's the kind of reform that could have advanced the ball forward on this huge part of the state budget. But for some reason, all these controversial, divisive policy provisions got in there and scuttled the bill.

Obviously, a final bill needs to be reworked. Let's hope the political forces of the Republican Party let a smart guy like Abeler do his work.

State budget dilemma: here's the crucial info

2011-05-24T12:13:00.004-05:00

Outstate would be hurt more by GOP all-cuts budget.

14 Chambers of Commerce, many from outstate took the unusual and politically risky move of opposing Republican budget plan. Here's the story.

And here's a great backgrounder from Arne Carlson on the kind of fiscal situation Gov. Tim Pawlenty left us with. (Gives whole new meaning to Pawlenty's pronouncement in recent presidential bid that we have too much debt. He was the king of taking on debt!).

Carlson makes a key point: some budget cuts cost more in the future. Take cuts below needs to road funding during Pawlenty's administration.

Some 700 miles of highway are now in "poor" condition because we've never met the goal of 2 percent in poor in the last eight years.

When a state highway needs an overlay, if it's not in "poor" condition it costs about $130,000 per mile, according to MnDOT. When it goes to poor condition it costs three to six times more per mile, again, according to MnDOT.

The same thing can be said for health care. When Republicans reformed GAMC last year, they had to set aside $30 million for hospitals to draw from for all the folks that no longer qualified for GAMC as they came to hospital emergency rooms.

Some budget cutting does make sense - duplication of programs etc - but some absolutely makes no sense because we're not analyzing how it creates higher costs in the future.

Here's Dayton's detailed responses to Republican budget and story on same. His veto messages are unusual in that they carry very specific numbers, estimates from revenue and are worth reading.

Story with links to veto messages.

Sister paper in Joplin in the eye of the storm

2011-05-23T14:17:00.004-05:00

Eighteen staffers who work at the Joplin Globe lost their homes Sunday. Another eight sustained severe damage.

Many came into work Sunday night to put out the newspaper nonetheless.

Here's a first person account of surviving storm by Joplin reporter.

The Globe is owned by The Free Press parent company, CNHI, and I've had different conversations with the staff and editors there over the years.

They are now dealing with battles on two fronts: many have friends and family whose homes and families have been devastated by the tornado, but as always, they're dedicating to informing their readers at this very critical time.

They're no doubt working tirelessly around the clock. Here's their web site http://www.joplinglobe.com/

I can only imagine what they are going through. I remember when the St. Peter tornado hit in 1998, though Mankato was not damaged, we had staffers who lived in St. Peter.

Newsrooms, like other places, can get a bit chaotic during these times. Who's available to cover what? How do we split it up? How do we convince authorities to let us through? Is the equipment and machinery working?

It's a very difficult time when newspapers have to cover the disasters that affect their staff personally. But it's no surprise they rise to the occasion. We often see the need to inform the public at these times are paramount. People need to know what happened, and more importantly that help is on the way.

The newspaper gives them something that is familiar, and it is one of those times when the community is drawn together by ink and paper.

We suspect the folks at the Joplin Globe will leave bundles of papers on downtown corners where they can be picked up by anyone, subscriber or not.

We've offered our help in whatever ways might be needed. Our company executives have also started a fund for families.

We can only keep our colleagues and the folks in Joplin in our thoughts and prayers.

Vikings stadium battle intrigues

2011-05-11T15:44:00.000-05:00

For more than 10 years, the Vikings under various owners have petitioned the Legislature to approve a stadium bill, now, among some of the toughest economic circumstances and the worst Legislative imbroglio, we have two proposals getting political support.

Go figure.

I like the Minneapolis Metrodome revamp proposal because it seems less costly and offers higher value for taxpayer money. On the other hand, I like the idea of options for tailgating at the Arden Hills site.

Thinking about where Vikings owners come from - New York Giants fans, ala Meadowlands, I'm not surprised the went for the more "romantic" option, the option the brings football back to its blue collar roots.

You presumably won't have to buy an $8 beer going to the game at Arden Hills, or at least you won't have to buy as many of them. You can bring your food and coolers to the tailgating party.

And we can even compete, in that respect, with Packer fans.

I also remember tailgating and excessive drinking gave Minnesota the reputation for the most high profile injuring of an NFL official. Somebody hit the ref with a whiskey bottled tossed from the seats. It was ugly.

The big money hangup appears to be the road infrastructure costs would exceed by in some estimates $100 million what the state was willing to pay into the project.

But if the commissioners in Ramsey County and road engineers are worth their salt, they'll find a way to come up with the money IF they really need that much.

StarTribune has been noting in its editorials favoring the Minneapolis site, that it has a land interest near the Metrodome site and the value of that land would be "affected" by that. They don't say how much.

So I'm torn. I like the idea of tailgating, and Arden Hills is not far from some of my old stomping grounds. And since Hennepin County said it couldn't afford another stadium, it may be Ramsey County's turn.

Quarterly review of the truth of politicians

2011-05-05T16:13:00.003-05:00

I thought it might be useful to every once in a while just help debunk the half-truths, lies and misleading statements various public figures propagate from time to time.

As Mark Twain once said: A lie can make it halfway around the world while the truth is just getting on its shoes.

That's mostly because the truth sometimes takes a lot of work, and most of it is done by journalists not beholden to political causes (bloggers) or corporate interests (we'll let you decide who that might be).

There's an oft repeated figure that Gov. Mark Dayton's budget is increasing spending 22 percent to 29 percent.

Minnesota Public Radio's Catherine Richert has done a great job debunking this claim on MPR's "Poligraph" feature. Here it is.

Essentially, her research, done in conjunction with the Humphrey Institute shows the real increase in Dayton's two-year budget from current two-year budget is about 8 percent.

That's because the Republicans and others who cite the 29 percent figure don't consider $4 billion or so in one-time federal stimulus money that was used and the school funding shift that we didn't put on the books, but we are nonetheless committed to pay.

Richert describes the 22 percent claims as "misleading." I agree, and think that is a rather generous assessment.

What people also don't understand about this raw number is that a lot of the increases are increases for more people accessing programs for which they are eligible. And the eligibility standards were often agreed to years ago by both parties.

So for politicians of either party to assess blame on one party or the other is also a bit misleading. Their colleagues, at one point or another, agreed to this level of eligibility.

If we're going to blame someone for out of control spending, blame those who set the eligibility standards years ago. You'll likely find blame with lots of folks from both parties.

Bin Laden's dead body photos: Are we CSI?

2011-05-03T17:48:00.002-05:00

There's been a long running debate if newspapers and media should publish images of death.

What makes a photo of a dead body newsworthy?

The issue has once again been raised with the possibility of the U.S. military releasing photos of a dead, and mostly likely bloody, shot-up Osama bin Laden.

Of course, there are no rules, only guidelines and judgments.

Without seeing the photos, it is always tough to make a decision. If the photo is extremely graphic, for example, one contemplates either not using it at all, or using it on an inside page, where it will not ruin the breakfast appetite of our readers.

On the other hand, the death of bin Laden was no ordinary death or even ordinary homicide. This was the most sought after terrorist in the world.

Would we expect our readers to endure more death images and more gore when we're mostly glad the man is dead?

We ask ourselves: What does this photo tell the readers that the story and the print can't or don't tell?

With conspiracy theorism on the rise in the U.S. (i.e. Obama's birth certificate), should we publish the "real McCoy" dead Osama photo to prove to such theorists they're wrong, and silly? Do we have to prove bin Laden is dead? Will a photograph in the newspaper prove that?

Maybe the photo tells us the degree to which bin Laden was shot. Once, twice, multiple times. Would that tell us the nature of the military tactics involved or shed light on the people who did the shooting?

Would the photo show us bin Laden was gaunt and skinny and weak or fat and sedentary? How much of this do we need to know?

Will we be able to sell more newspapers if we run the photo? Will our competition run it and we'll look stupid by not running it?

I can tell you that it would be my bet that more people would buy our newspaper off the newsstand (about 10 percent of all sales) if we had a picture of a dead bin Laden on the front.

Just my hunch after about 25 years experience in this business. That isn't always a reason to publish. Some of our longtime subscribers (90 percent of our circulation) might be offended and cancel their subscription.

Tell us what you think. We've set up a discussion on our Facebook page, (Facebook.com/mankatofreepress) or e-mail us at editor@mankatofreepress.com

Editor's picks: Bin Laden coverage

2011-05-02T10:00:00.002-05:00

Roving the wire all day today and finding what seem to be interesting tidbits on the Bin Laden coverage.

I'll update regularly

Here's a Politico story quoting Rudy Giuiliani saying the "elation" feels strange.

Bin Laden story getting reaction from Minnesota political leadering, including Rep. Tim Walz, John Kline

Interesting AP story: Inside the Bin Laden raid

Interpol's take on future of Al Qaida

Politico: Bin Laden used wife as a human shield

Politico reporter gives a few details on Bin Laden's burial at sea.

Quiet week in Lake Wobegon

2011-04-29T16:41:00.001-05:00

The story commentors were their usual selves this week, discussing the nuances of voter ID laws to global warming and who deserves Medicare more as they continued their heated coffee klatsch in the electronic version of the Chatterbox cafe, where, incidentally, all seem to be above average.

Trouble is, there's no resolving that issue, or many of the others taking up our cyber-world table space. Don't they know we've got to make money here?

I had the usual amount of anonymous letters, not parsing words about the quality of our punctuation and use of split infinitives and BTW wishing us good luck in our endeavor to put out "that rag." Will we never learn?

Got a few congratulatory letters on our "Newspaper of the Year Honor" and a call from an angry fellow who wanted us to give the award back and pull our self-congratulatory ads because we forgot to publish the bingo numbers.

We aren't so smart and high and mighty if we can't remember the bingo numbers, he said.

I got a nice phone call from a young woman with a southern accent asking me to fill out a survey from the University of Georgia Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research. I didn't know such places existed in Georgia. She politely mentioned she'd e-mailed me the survey some months ago, and hoped I would remember.

Good luck with that lady.

She sounded so nice, I had to make like I would really attempt to fill out the survey should she send it again. In Minnesota, sometimes, we're just to nice for our own good. I received the survey and put it at the top of my file as a reminder to the requisite guilt I should be feeling.

Three grumpy businessmen, two irate mothers of felons and one reader who hinted at disappointment should we pull the "Ask Us" column rounded out the month.

This newspaper editor gig is tough work. I hear there's an opening for a radio host in the Twin Cities, someone to tell odd stories about average people one runs into in Minnesota.

I might be qualified.

The dreaded "presser": Who cares about press conferences?

2011-04-26T17:01:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure who invested press conferences, but from a controlling the message point of view, this person was a genius.

I'm guessing the institution arose out of some kind of war where reporters were told it was too dangerous to be on the front line and therefore "appropriate spokespeople" would be available to answer their questions, or more often, give "non-answers" to their questions.

In fact, if I remember my history right, the Lyndon Johnson Administration had such press conferences (if I remember right they were called the "5 O'clock follies") during the Vietnam War. They garnered the name because they were so bogus and filled with propaganda they were deemed not credible.

So, it's only logical that today's news consumers and news reporters should question the value of press conferences.

We've had two in two days in Mankato. Republicans in the Legislature stopped at the Mankato Airport to give their take on things as they are going at the Capitol.

Next day, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman stopped in Mankato to make a statement about his opposition and that of our own city leaders to cuts those Republicans were making to local government aid.

Very little new was said at either press conference. So why do we continue writing about them? A fair question. Sometimes, it's a slow news day. Sometimes, we write reports to let people know what's happening, and we were there.

Sometimes, we hope a challenging question from our enterprising reporters will elicit something new. We can only hope.

But we should aspire to more than that. It's not on reporters. Many would rather not write about the same thing. Sometimes, we spend time going to these hoping something new might be said. So our coverage is kind of a defensive mechanism to make sure we don't miss anything or get beat on anything.

We have skipped these on occasion when the presenting party announces what they're going to announce in a morning press conference in the Twin Cities. The story is on the AP wire by 10 a.m. and yet they fly down to Mankato and offer the same news at 3 p.m.

I always jokingly wonder, do they thing we are in a different time zone? Maybe just a different universe.

I always tempted to tell these folks: We do have running water down here now.

When Legislators don't listen to their constituents

2011-04-20T09:21:00.001-05:00

Rural Republican legislators are starting to see just how much budget cuts they're supporting hurt their constituencies, even more so than other places around the state.

An MPR report out of Tracy, Minn., shows those attending town hall meetings attended by newly elected Sen. Gary Dahms of Redwood Falls and State Rep. Chris Swedzinski of Ghent showed rural areas fear budget cuts more than tax increases.

From the MPR story:

"Once the meeting in Tracy got started, it was clear the audience wasn't much interested in the Republican versus Democrat struggle at the capitol. Voters like Diana Slyter of Florence were mostly interested in their own backyards.

Slyter said she fears that the partisan wars are distracting lawmakers from what they really should be doing, taking care of their home districts. She said long after the two political parties have hurled their final challenge at the other side this legislative session, the people of Minnesota will have to live with what sort of budget they end up passing.

That sort of sentiment was echoed by others at the Tracy meeting. Jason Swanson, the administrator of the nursing home in Tracy, said care centers in rural areas need more state support from lawmakers.

"We are not getting a fair shake out here," Swanson said. "We are over-regulated, we're under-funded. And who's getting hurt the most is not only our residents, our vulnerable adults, our grandparents, our parents, but also our staff. I'm not able to pay our staff what they deserve. And I'll be the first one to say that."

The one guy who did talk partisanship, actually, was on Dayton's tax the rich side.

"The person that's on a $9-an-hour job out here, cannot pay any big tax bill," says Bud Hayes. "But the guy that's making $600- $700,000 dollars a year can afford it. And you can only get it from those that's got it."

MPR story reported: "Dahms said he didn't think there was any chance Republicans would change their 'no tax increase' stance. He said his big worry is that if taxes are raised, it's a fix that won't last very long because if legislators approve the Dayton plan, in two years they'll be looking at more tax increases. He fears the next round of tax increases would reach into the middle-income earners."

Full MPR story

I haven't really heard Republicans defend their all cuts budget to outstate areas that will be hit very hard, but this worry that the tax increases will filter down to middle class seems, lets just say, far fetched, especially a middle class tax increase coming from a Democratic governor.

The demographics of this district show a median income of $38,917, and at near virtual tie for Obama and McCain at 48 percent each in the 2008 election.

If I were a newly elected Republican in places like Tracy, I'd be very wary about endorsing an all cuts budget.

We gatekeep: No personal attacks.

2011-04-19T17:33:00.000-05:00

The Free Press online offers readers a chance to give their two cents on stories published in The Free Press and there is no shortage of opinion, rancor and vitriol.

Of course, as a community newspaper and arbiter of civil discourse, it's our job to provide guidelines for the discussion. We do that by gatekeeping the comments.

We review each comment that is sent in and posted. We publish some and reject others.

The main reason we reject comments: they make personal attacks on other commentors or people in the community. Our brand is promoting civil discourse and allowing personal attacks does not further that brand.

But it's also just the darn right thing to do. Our parents always taught us not to fight with our siblings or anyone else, and if we did happen to get into a fight, to fight fair.

Fighting with personal attacks, attacking someone's character, intelligence or upbringing, is not fighting fair.

Whether someone is challenging an idea or a person is sometimes a judgment call: If someone says, "Bill, your lack of reasoning just astounds me." Is that an insult, or and observation?

It's a judgment call.

We, absolutely do not, ever, ever, never, never reject a comment because we don't agree with its point of view.

Doesn't happen folks. You can take that to the bank.

It would make no sense for us to do that. Free Press readership, as well as online viewership, is very diverse politically.

We want to welcome ideas of all political stripes. I think we do a good job of that.

We are more selective about allowing comments that involve a crime, especially, if that trial has not yet happened.

Sometimes, we'll get a commentor writing in something like "I'm glad they caught that dirt bag, he ripped me off blind."

This is obviously inflammatory, and we believe is not a good idea to publish while the person has not yet been judged guilty.

Market uncertainty from political threats

2011-04-13T09:14:00.000-05:00

Here's the scariest story of the last 24 hours.

From Reuters "Republicans may push debt talk to the 11th hour"

People who need to withdraw fund from their mutual funds for say, something like paying next falls college tuition might be well-advised to take it out soon, before more political theater cuts into their investment earnings.

If you're thinking of taking out a home improvement loan or buying or refinancing a house, seems there would be risk waiting until May.

And because financial markets are much better at anticipating risk, some have probably already put the "political mayhem" discount in their trading. DJIA was down 100 points the day this story broke.

Imagine that.

Here's the essential parts of this news story from Reuters:

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, fired the opening shots in what is expected to be a bitter fight with the White House over increasing the U.S. borrowing limit to enable the country to keep paying its debts.

Prolonging negotiations past mid-May when Washington will hit its debt limit could give Republicans more leverage to secure big spending cuts, but it could worry investors as the country runs up against a possible default. The Republicans said they would act before that happened.

Experts warn the country could eventually face a Greek-style debt crisis, and the International Monetary Fund urged the United States on Tuesday to outline credible measures to reduce deficits.

The government will run up against its current debt limit of $14.3 trillion by May 16, according to the Treasury Department. Without an increase, the country would default on its debt, roiling bond markets and pushing up interest rates for businesses and individuals.
Republicans say they plan to push the vote to between Memorial Day and July 4.

Here's what another source in Reuters said:

"I think that's the wrong thing to do," said Lou Brien, a market strategist with DRW Trading Group in Chicago. "It risks the perception of default, and I think right now the market is thinking that there will be more adults than that, but we will see how that plays out."

Mary Miller, Treasury's assistant secretary for financial markets, said it would be "highly disruptive" if Congress did not raise the debt limit before the current ceiling was reached in mid-May.

Hang on to your pocketbooks and mutual funds people.

I wouldn't be surprised to see continual selling in markets, creep in interest rates until there is some sign of compromise on this debt agreement.

Republican ace from the past has intriguing budget ideas

2011-04-12T08:42:00.000-05:00

David Stockman was the Republican golden boy in 1980 when Ronald Reagan swept into office in a historic landslide election.

A 30-something Michigan congressman, he became Reagan's budget director and set in motion a whole revolution in the way we thought about federal spending, tax policy, regular welfare and corporate welfare.

He was on CNN last night on Eliot Spitzer's show and had a number of intriguing ideas on today's budget deficit.

First, he says, Obama and Congressional Republicans are absolutely not even close to taking this debt situation seriously. He says we've got all this new debt to issue, but big buyers of the past Japan and China are not buying it. Japan, for obvious reasons--their nuclear problems, and China because, they've just recorded their first trade deficit in five years.

And the biggest bond house is actually short the Treasury bonds, meaning it's in line to sell them, not buy them.

Stockman says conservative House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's is not even close to what's needed, with taxes 17 percent of GDP, a level he says hasn't been achieved since the 1930s.

So, to balance the budget and get the debt down, Stockman recommends revenue increases as well as budget cuts. He recommends tax rates go back to what they were under his old boss, even higher than what is being suggested by Obama.

All programs should be means tested. If your a billionaire, you probably shouldn't get Social Security.

He also does not advise trying to close corporate loopholes. He said the billion dollar lobbies will absolutely defeat any kind of such proposal.

He recommends, again surprisingly, a "churn" tax on Wall Street, a fee for every stock transaction. This will not only raise a lot of revenue, but discourage rampant speculation that is not healthy.

Stockman, of course, came clean with all the Washington budget shenanigans, including some agreed to by his old boss, in the famous Atlantic Monthly article, I believe it was called, "the education of David Stockman."

Fascinating guy who more people should be listening to.

Here's the interview on CNN

Interesting development on Glenn Beck

2011-04-08T17:40:00.001-05:00

Here's a story that was in the print edition of The Free Press.

It's surprising to me. Wow, advertiser boycott. That indicates Beck was really, really making people mad.

Advertisers will usually put up with a lot of stuff. This suggests serious issues for Beck's career.

Fox News drops Glenn Beck show

Advertiser boycott, sinking ratings do show in

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Glenn Beck later this year will end his Fox News Channel talk show, which has sunk in the ratings and has suffered from an advertiser boycott.

Fox and Beck’s company, Mercury Radio Arts, said Wednesday they will stay in business creating other projects for Fox television and digital, starting with some documentaries Beck is preparing.

Beck was a quick burn on Fox News Channel. Almost immediately after joining the network in January 2009, he doubled the ratings at his afternoon time slot.

Fans found his conservative populism entertaining, while Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert described Beck’s “crank up the crazy and rip off the knob” moments.

He was popular with Tea Party activists and drew thousands of people to the National Mall in Washington last August for a “restoring honor” rally.

Yet some of his statements were getting him in trouble, and critics appealed to advertisers to boycott his show last summer after Beck said President Barack Obama had “a deep-seated hatred for white people.”

Beck said that he went to Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman and CEO, in January to discuss ways they could continue to work together without the daily show.

“Half of the headlines say he’s been canceled,” Ailes said. “ The other half say he quit. We’re pretty happy with both of them.”

Beck said he noted on his show Tuesday that “ how many times can I tell the (George) Soros story,” referring the liberal donor that Beck has made a target of attacks.

“ We felt Glenn brought additional information, a unique perspective, a certain amount of passion and insight to the channel and he did,” Ailes said. “But that story of what’s going on and why America is in trouble today, I think he told that story as well as could be told. Whether you can just keep telling that story or not ... we’re not so sure.”

Beck, who outlined on Wednesday’s show his reasons for believing that “ we’re heading into deep and treacherous waters,” told his viewers at the end of the show that his Fox talk show would conclude.

“I will continue to tell the story and I will be showing other ways for us to connect,” he said.

More than 400 Fox advertisers told the company they did not want their commercials on Beck’s show. Beck’s advertisers were dominated by financial services firms, many touting gold as an investment.

Ailes dismissed the financial impact of the boycott but expressed some frustration with it.

“Advertisers who get weak-kneed because some idiot on a blog site writes to them and says we need to stifle speech, I get a little frustrated by that,” he said.

One of Beck’s most prominent critics — David Brock, founder of the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America — said that “ the only surprise is that it took Fox News months to reach this decision.”

Play by play on government shutdown

2011-04-08T11:13:00.002-05:00

Sen. Harry Reid, Democrat, takes off the gloves

From AP at 12:04 p.m. Friday

"They are willing to throw  women under the bus, even if it means they'll shut down the  government," he said.

"Republican leaders in the House have only a  few hours left to look in the mirror, snap out of it and realize how  positively shameful that would be."

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R, seems conciliatory:

"I assure you, these are not  unresolvable issues," added Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of  Kentucky. 

Government shutdown: who will be responsible

2011-04-07T08:58:00.000-05:00

Sorting through the dozens of stories on the politics of the impending federal government shutdown, two statements stick out in my mind.

First: Republican Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana, saying he favors shutting government down if Democrats, who hold half the power, don't agree to House demands.

From ABC news website:

On ABC’s “Top Line” today, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told us that if the only alternative is continuing spending at unsustainable levels, “then I say shut it down.”

“Nobody wants to shut down the federal government. But if we don't take decisive efforts to change the fiscal direction of this national government, we're going to shut down the future for our children and grandchildren, and that would be decidedly worse,” Pence said.

No. 2: House Speaker John Boehner telling CNN there's a real cost to shutdown. It costs more than keeping the government running, he said. Contracts have to be interrupted, services stopped.

Government workers still get paid.

Compromise argument:

Senate Democrats and Obama say they're the ones compromising. When they agreed to $10 billion in cuts and House Republicans put up $60 billion. Splitting the different would put the number at $35 billion, and so far, the latest has Democrats offering is like $33 billion to $40 billion.

Seems like meeting pretty much in the middle to me.

Rep. Michele Bachmann and others say though that the $60 billion is a compromise because they started at $100 billion. So that means they came down $40 billion. But Obama counters with an argument that has similar weight (not much), that he's giving up $74 billion already from his starting point in budget.

Finally, Democrats charge Republicans "keep moving the middle."

Well, it kind of seems like that's the case to me, but I haven't heard an argument from Republicans about why that isn't valid.

Boehner has been said to be advising his party in caucus that they do not want a government shutdown. He was there for the 1995 shutdown and remembers how the country blamed Republicans for several years.

Government shuts out citizens

2011-04-06T13:54:00.001-05:00

It's no secret The Free Press and yours truly objected to what we and our attorney considered a clear violation of the state's data practices act when Blue Earth County did not release the names of county administrator candidates once they became finalists. (Our story).

The county and their human resources person didn't see it that way.

The statute is 13.43. Here's what it says:

Subd. 3.Applicant data.

Except for applicants described in subdivision 5, (which refers to undercover law enforcement) the following personnel data on current and former applicants for employment by a government entity is public: veteran status; relevant test scores; rank on eligible list; job history; education and training; and work availability. Names of applicants shall be private data except when certified as eligible for appointment to a vacancy or when applicants are considered by the appointing authority to be finalists for a position in public employment. For purposes of this subdivision, "finalist" means an individual who is selected to be interviewed by the appointing authority prior to selection.

I highlighted the relevant section.

The Free Press confirmed the candidates had been notified of their status Friday, and in one case, apparently, even Thursday.

But the county wouldn't give us the names Friday, saying the county board had to certify them as finalists.

There's nothing in the law that requires the County Board do that. In fact, the logic of that argument is flawed.

If County Boards had to "certify" finalists, they would never call anyone a finalist, and thus keep everything secret until they appointed somebody.

The Legislature and judges saw the problem with that reasoning. That's why they required the other test: as soon as the applicants are "selected to be interviewed."

The issue is near and dear to our heart because it was our case several years ago against the City of North Mankato that we won, that set up the "finalist" standard.

Stay tuned on this one. It's not over yet.

Republican chairman on leadership request: "illegal"

2011-03-28T21:15:00.001-05:00

In another very surprising development, Rep. Bob Gunther told The Free Press in a story published Saturday that he was kind of forced by Republican leadership to submit his budget, which took $60 million from an Iron Range taconite fund that was collected instead of property taxes.

Gunther said the move was probably "illegal." This was raising Republican eyesbrows and ire, no doubt.

Excerpt from our story:

As head of the Jobs and Economic Development Committee, the Fairmont Republican put together the budget bill that slashed several jobs and housing programs by 30 percent and took $60 million from an Iron Range fund, moving it to state coffers.

“Very upset,” Gunther said of the reaction by Iron Range lawmakers. “And they should be, and it’s probably going to be deemed illegal. What we did to them, I think it’s an illegal thing. It’s their property taxes.”

Read the full story.

Dayton lays out ground rules for negotiation.

Gov. Mark Dayton sent a letter to Republican House Speaker Kurt Zellers that laid out terms for negotiating a final budget deal that called for both to, above all, use the same objective numbers from the management and budget office.

In recent budget bills, Republicans have gone to using private consultants who work for a fee, and rejected the management and budget numbers on fiscal notes for bill put together by them, a standard practice.

In the letter, of which I received a copy of Monday, Dayton says even Pawlenty used the nonpartisan, objective management and budget office. In fact, Mr. Showalter, who heads the office, worked for Pawlenty as well.

He said he doesn't even look at the analysis his assistants do. They put together their numbers with the aid of the agencies, those who should know the ins and outs.

Of course, the critics are saying Republicans can't balance the budget without revenue, and therefore are going elsewhere to "make up the numbers."

I can't say that's true because I haven't analyzed the numbers, but it seems if previous Democrat and Republican administrations have used management and budget office crew, there is no need to change up the facts now.

Tea Party: What taxes they should be against

2011-03-16T16:57:00.000-05:00

Seems like the Tea Party should come up with some policy goals that would give people a chance to understand more clearly what they're about.

We've heard they're about "Tax Enough Already," but that doesn't get very specific for policymakers except to lower any and all taxes, or at the very least, keep them the same.

Going back to the historic event for which they are named, we can get some guidance as to what taxes they should be against, if they want to be true to the historic Boston Tea Party.

The Boston Tea Party was largely about what colonists considered an unfair tax on tea, and taxation without representation. They believed they shouldn't be taxed by a body, British Parliament, where they had no representation.

But today, these taxes without representation take subtle forms.

So if you're against taxation without representation, here's a few modern day taxes you should be against.

The property tax is the biggest one. Businesses, for example, cannot vote in proportion to the property they own. Assuming they live in the jurisdiction that taxes them, business owners paying $100,000 in property taxes have the same number of votes those with no property - 1.

If they don't live in the jurisdiction where they have a business, they have even less representation. They can't vote to remove members of the city council or county board who are responsible for levying the property tax. They have no ability to be represented in the body that levies the tax.

On the flip side, the tax with the most representation is the sales tax. For most goods, you can choose to pay it or not by your decision to purchase the product on which the tax is assessed.

So Tea Parties true to their historic principles of no taxation without representation should be against properties taxes and for sales taxes.

What does TEA stand for?

2011-03-14T21:55:00.001-05:00

I'm the first guy to favor average citizens getting involved in their government.

And, if nothing else, the Tea Party followers cannot be blamed for sitting on the sidelines.

But I've never seen such a loosely knit organization get so much media attention, mostly national media attention.

I might be missing something, but I've not come across a Tea Party national leader or candidate, or for that matter, a Tea Party party platform.

So, I scratch my head sometimes trying to figure out just who the Tea Party might be.

While some Republicans elected to Congress are said to be "Tea Party favorites" I really don't know what that means since there really is no official "Tea Party" with membership and fundraising mailing lists.

It could be the most influential non-party there ever was. Maybe it's just waiting for a leader or to be molded into another party, the Republican Party being the obvious, but not only, choice.

In fact, a lot of Tea Party ideas, if there is such a thing as a group idea, seem more libertarian.

So what does T.E.A. stand for.

We've heard the "taxed enough already." That's as good a brand as any.

But what will the future hold. Will the Tea Party realize the value in joining one of the other parties?

Will T.E.A. stand for Tendency to Eventually Acquiesce?

How about Too Excitable for Assimilation?

Or will it be Tragic Ending All-around?

Or maybe Tough Enforcement and Accountability.

Or the Tea Party may continue on as a quasi political party that one can describe like a Supreme Court justice once described pornography: We can't describe it or even define it, but we can recognize it when we see it.

By the way, this is not to equate the Tea Party to pornography, we're just using a little journalistic license here.

Tea Party alert: laws with impact, under the radar

2011-03-07T21:22:00.002-06:00

Here's a roundup of things I found that lawmakers are going forward with that are affecting people in serious ways but don't seem to be getting much publicity.

Tea Party fans might like this one. HF 88 eliminates a mandate by the state to make schools spend $3 per pupil on counselors, no matter the need.

Proponents say it's one mandate schools continually asked to be let out of. Opponents of the measure say it will make counselors even less available to kids in school who have various troubles. They note Minnesota is 49th nationwide in ratio of counselors to pupils.

But this plan passed the House with members of both parties. It must find a sponsor in the Senate.

It sounds like it could be dangerous and snipping more holes in the safety net. At the same time, schools and their taxpayers have usually favored local control. This doesn't prevent schools from funding counselors on their own, just takes that state mandate away.

It's important to note the bill did not cut the $30 Safe Schools levy, it just removed the $3 mandate on counseling services.

Here's the 75-54 vote.When you get here, you need to scroll down just a bit to see the vote on HF88. They don't have it up on the easy site yet.

Mankato area Democrats voted against. Republicans mostly vote in favor.

Tracking your interests: state deficit, oil prices, state workers

2011-03-01T11:47:00.001-06:00

Good news: State's deficit is only $5 billion for year ended June 30, 2013.

That came yesterday in new state revenue forecast. Our local story mentioned legislators who seemed to be feeling a bit more optimistic yet noting $5 billion is still a big number.

FP editorial take for Wednesday edition: Political leaders: Be optimistic. It will be easier to compromise now, 20 percent easier in fact. But we believe the "mandate" if there was one from the last election is to "compromise, work together, to solve the problem."

It's hard to argue it wasn't some of that. The guy who advocated tax the rich got the most votes. It's a stretch of logic to say a lot of people think it should be all cuts.

State economist Tom Stinson makes relevant point about why we improved our situation. Income taxes made up by half of it, about $500 million, sales tax was ahead by $285 billion. He cites Obama/Republican tax extension and unemployment benefit extension.

Also. Corporate profits are up.

Again, I like Doug Grow's story from MinnPost on the issue as the best Minnesota story.

Oil prices threaten

Oil prices seem likely to skyrocket this year, which Stinson says could hurt our revenue projection. The more we spend on gasoline, the less we spend on small town cafe's going out to eat, etc. We hit KFC instead of Olive Garden.

Only thing that could temper oil prices: We learned to cut back consumption in 2008. Can we do it again, as consumers?

Also, the willingness of U.S. and Europe to sort of secure Libya so immediately surprised me. This is not a negotiation. That may bring some stability to the oil market.

But as this commentary from Tom Reilly, SCS Commodities, (click on "energy" tab below video screen) at the CME reports, that tensions in the Middle East, which he says won't end any time soon, oil futures will continue their march to 100 a barrell, and possibly $110 by Memorial Day translating to $4 per gallon prices at the pump.

State worker risk

Another important story for the Mankato economy is that a recent Free Press story on state workers show Nicollet and Blue Earth County has a large number of state workers, 3,372 in all, and Nicollet County has the highest number of state workers per capita in the state.

Any drastic cuts to those numbers, will clearly influence consumer spending at the local level.

Who's right? Who's lying and Who's fibbing?

2011-02-25T16:43:00.000-06:00

Two documents I came across today tell two very different stories of the state budget.

A letter from Senate Republicans to Gov. Mark Dayton outlying their "perfectly clear" opposition to taxes to helping balance the budget states his budget would be a 22 percent increase.

A Minnesota Taxpayers Association newsletter describes it as 4.5 percent increase: "The Governor’s budget for FY2012-13 proposes to spend $37.1 billion from the state’s General Fund: growing spending by about 4.5% from the last biennium if one adjusts for the effects of the K-12 education shift and the federal stimulus
dollars"

So who's right?

Well, the MTA says it is a "non-partisan, non-profit corporation founded in 1926 to advance economy and efficiency in government."

And the Senate Republicans, well, let's just say they're not non-partisan, or possibly not non-profit either.

Tea Party idea voted down: unruly Rules Committee

2011-02-23T10:02:00.012-06:00

Conventional wisdom would suggest a Republican majority in the Minnesota House of Representatives would embrace some of the Tea Party-influenced Pledge to America.

One of those pledges called for posting proposed legislation on the Internet three days before it would be voted on so people could "read the bill."

But an interesting exchange in the House Rules Committee Jan. 24 had all Republicans of the committee voting against a proposal by a Democrat for posting bills online for three days, per the directive of the Pledge to America.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom, DFL, Brooklyn Center, proposed the amendment to the permanent rules of the House.

I supposed one could write this off to playing politics, but a vote is a vote. It's on the record. Why do I feel we haven't heard the last of this vote and this exchange. Seems ripe for campaign literature at some point.

It will be interesting to see how state Republicans would defend it, but a legitimate reason might be the Minnesota Republican Party has no real allegiance to the party in control of Congress.

Here's the exchange between Hilstrom and House Majority Leader Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, and the House Rules Committee chairman.

Said Hilstrom: "There will be no more hiding legislative language from the minority party from opponents and from the public. Given this is such a popular agenda. I believe that it’s proper to be in our rules as well. We do not want to hide it from the public or the minority, and so, Mr. Chair, I would ask for a roll call.”

Dean asked for discussion. A deafening silence.

He asked for Discussion again. Nothing.

Dean, speaking against the amendement said: “I would echo representatives Hilstrom’s intent on this. I would say that is an excellent idea for our U.S. Congress, for 435 members, and for the predicament they find themselves in."

“However, we are at 134 members, we have a Minnesota way of doing things. We also have something we need to do in this state that they don’t have to do that I wish they had to do which is balance their budget.”

“And that requires us to do a lot of heavy lifting in the last 48 hours of session in many instances, so I would speak against the Hilstrom amendment, and if there’s no further discussion I would ask the clerk take the roll.”

The amendment was defeated 11-14 on a party line vote. Rod Hamilton, R-Mountain Lake, is the only Mankato area legislator on the Rules Committee.

Hilstrom's comments starts at 22 minutes, 30 seconds into the audio recording and the exchange goes for about two minutes.

Here are the meeting minutes. Scroll down to the vote on Amendment 20. All "Ayes" or yes votes favored putting bills online as in Pledge to America. Nays voted against putting bills online. All Democrats voted yes, and all Republicans voted no.

Tracking your interests: health, guns, floods

2011-02-17T17:33:00.003-06:00

We're considering a kind of news glean and informer type column for our readers, summing up the days news and telling them what it means to them.

Here's a sample see what you think:

Feds approve Minnesota Medicaid early opt-in request.

Federal officials have approved Gov. Mark Dayton's request to access federal money to expand a health program for the poor beginning March 1.

Dayton signed the order his first week in office and the announcement of the approval came Thursday.

The program will likely cover 443 lower-income adults in Blue Earth County who lost their state health care last year in budget cutting moves. We reported that story Nov.22.

The Associated Press reported: "The move is expected to provide broader coverage for up to 95,000 people, most of whom are now part of two state-funded health care programs.

Notices to those affected have started going out and public workers are getting transition guides.

Republican leaders are critical of the change, saying it locks Minnesota into matching dollars it can't afford to put up. Dayton has said he would veto legislation reversing his executive order."

NYT: Guns getting to the mentally ill

There's a very compelling, well-researched story in The New York Times headlined "States struggle to disarm people who've lost the right to own guns" that details flaws in federal and state systems for background checks.

It's particularly relevant for people in Mankato and Minnesota because local Rep. Tony Cornish, Good Thudner, and other Reupblicans on the Public Safety Committee passed a bill to do away with Minnesota background checks even though police unions and police chiefs associations are dead set against the bill.

A Bloomington Police officer testified at Cornish's committee that the federal checks missed 37 people in Bloomington alone who were not legally qualified to carry guns because of mental health or other issues. State checks were needed, he said.

The vote was 10-7 along party lines. Here's the recorded vote and the meeting minutes. Audio available also to listen to the whole meeting.

The bill (HF161) was referred to the House Civil law committee.

Flood forecast has people on alert

There is about a 21 percent chance of major flooding on the Minnesota River at Mankato between Feb.22 and May 23, according to the latest forecast.

There's an 80 percent chance of moderate flooding (26 feet to 30 feet). The Mankato flood walls protect the city up to 32 feet. The chance of that same flooding was just 60 percent on Jan. 28.

Assocationed Press reported: "The new forecasts raised the odds for major flooding at some communities on the Minnesota, Mississippi and St. Croix rivers in Minnesota. On the upper Minnesota River, the risk at Montevideo has risen to 90 percent, up from between 60 and 70 percent earlier. On the Mississippi, the threat at St. Paul is now 95 to 98 percent, up from 90 percent. And on the St. Croix, the risk at Stillwater is now 75 percent, up from 60 to 70 percent."

"State emergency management director Kris Eide said two-thirds of Minnesotans may be affected to at least a small degree, such as by leaking roofs and basements. She urged Minnesotans to prepare now to protect their families, homes and communities, and stressed that people should consider buying flood insurance."

That's an unusual prediction, and locals in New Ulm and elsewhere are preparing ahead of time. The Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothan will be in St. Peter Friday as part of a flood awareness tour.

River readings, levels, flooding potential can be found on this map on The Free Press website homepage every day under "Weather."

Dayton budget and your property taxes

2011-02-15T16:21:00.001-06:00

Gov. Mark Dayton unveiled a budget today that raises $3.5 billion in new taxes, mostly on the upper income and wealthy, cuts $775 million in health care -- nursing homes and assisted living payments take a hit -- and kind of surprisingly, doesn't call for more cuts in local government aid.

The folks from the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities I met with last week are probably happy about that.

Lobbyist Tim Flaherty, Mankato Mayor Eric Anderson and Mankato City Manager Pat Hentges met with me arguing that local government aid is about 25 percent below where it used to be four or five years ago. Mankato used to get close to $9 million, now it will be getting near $6.3 million.

Dayton's budget message seemed to emphasize he was not going to put up with property tax increases. The Minnesota Department of Revenue has a study that shows for every $1 cut in local government aid, property taxes go up 67 cents.

There is now becoming a wide disparity in how much property tax a $2 million commercial building pays in Eagan versus Mankato.

Former Republican Rep. Dan Dorman of Albert Lea also was traveling with the group. He is now an economic developer in Albert Lea.

Dorman says the Pawlenty era cuts to LGA were the worst thing he ever voted for just because they hurt outstate Minnesota so badly. When he tried to remedy the situation a few years into Pawlenty's term with the famous "Dorman Amendment" taking equal amounts of property tax relief from suburban as well as outstate areas, he lost, with many of his fellow Republicans voting against him.

The Dorman Amendment wouldn't have saved outstate from cuts, it simply would have made all cities, rural and urban, pay their fair share.

Many of those who killed this fair bill were rural and outstate Republicans who were upbraided by this newspaper for their anti-constituent vote.

So far, it appears Dayton is wanting to curtail more cuts to LGA and help keep property taxes stable. It may not play out that way exactly, but outstate cities certainly have a friend in the governor's mansion where a few years ago they had only an enemy.

The LGA lobbying effort this year will be focused on rural legislators.As Flaherty pointed out, they only need a few to vote against the majority, a majority that no longer holds the power of the governor's office.

Local money, jobs at risk

2011-02-14T14:39:00.000-06:00

As editor of a major daily newspaper in Minnesota, I am often asked to meet with interest groups on matters at the Legislature these groups feel will impact my local readers.

Last Thursday I met with the leaders of the two largest state employee unions, AFSCME and Minnesota Assocation of Professional Employees. On Friday, I met with representatives from Flaherty and Hood, the lobbying firm that represents outstate Minnesota cities in the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. Those folks were accompanied by Mankato Mayor Eric Anderson and Mankato city manager Pat Hentges.

There is some urgency with these groups in that they are under fire from Republican lawmakers in the Minnesota Legislature on two points. Proposals to freeze state employee wages made it as far as the House Senate Conference committee bill on the plan to cut $900 million from state spending.

Gov. Dayton vetoed that bill the day I spoke to the unions. There remains a plan to cut 15 percent of the state workforce. It's a bill authored by Edina Rep. Keith Downey, HF 4, (Here's a House Research summary), that is now in the State Government Finance Committee.

Some quick points about the case they made.

Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME, noted Blue Earth County had the highest number of state government workers per capita than any other county except Ramsey.

There are about 550 AFSCME members at MSU and South Central College and about 600 total in Blue Earth County. MAPE has 578 members locally.

The unions have taken zero wage increases in four out of the last eight years.

When the state employee retirement pension funds got into trouble a few years, ago, the unions supported higher contributions from their members.

AFSCME retirement benefits are not "gold plated" with the average being $13,000 a year.

When lawmakers don't listen to police

2011-02-09T13:50:00.002-06:00

Sgt. Mark Elliott of the Bloomington Police Department denied 37 dangerous individuals a permit to buy a gun in Minnesota last year.

He told members of the Minnesota House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee all were tracked through Minnesota's background check law, and did not show up in the federal database on crime that would deny them a permit.

Yet, the committee voted 10-7, with all Republicans voting to dismantle Minnesota's background check law and rely only on the federal system. The seven Democrats on the committee seemed shocked and in a state of disbelief that this committee would turn back Minnesota's law after this testimony.

The police and peace officers unions favored keeping it, so did the Minnesota chiefs of police.

Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R, Mazeppa, sponsored the repeal bill, ostensibly to remove an unfunded mandate, that he notes costs a sheriff's department 1/2 hour to 1 hour per week. City and county associations said the could not support it even though they oppose unfunded mandates because their local law enforcement officials would likely lose local control over the threat in their neighborhoods.

The thing that taxpayers and citizens should be most concerned about in this activity is not whether you agree we should do background checks or not, but politics (not sound information and facts) appear to be driving many of these very serious public safety decisions.

The bill, HF161, was referred to the House Civil Law committee, but I expect it will be rammed through that committee as well on a party line vote.

Here's a House Research summary of the bill, Public Safety Committee meeting minutes and the roll call vote of the committee. All "ayes" are Republicans, all "nays" are Democrats.

Sgt. Elliott's testimony begins at the 53 minutes 30 second mark of the audio. It gets better from there.

Here's a link to the audio tape of the meeting.

"Go ahead and sue"

2011-02-07T11:27:00.001-06:00

I got my annual lesson on legal risks of publishing a newspaper at the Minnesota Newspaper Convention seminar about 10 days ago.

Our association's Legal Update is lead by longtime MNA attorney and media law expert Mark Anfinson. It's always kind of interesting to know what you can and cannot be sued for.

The Readers' Digest version.

Protection via "Decency"

Newspapers or other "internet hosters" cannot be sued for outrageous and libelous things internet posters and anonymous commenters put on a newspaper website. We provide the site and can edit and screen comments, but the liability still falls to the poster.

This protection comes to newspapers or any other corporate entity that hosts a website through Communications Decency Act of 1996, which protects us from the nasty things our posters and customers want to say about anybody.

Those posters can be sued but in reality they are usually not sued because they have no assets. There is apparently a case, however, that is going forward where a developer is suing a blogger by the name of "Johnny Northside" in Minneapolis.

Might be a test case to see if someone can put a little fear into unrelenting and irresponsible bloggers.

"You can't say that"

Libelous statements in the context of a public meeting are still protected.

In other words, if a citizen attends a public meeting and tells the City Council they should investigate their police chief because it is their belief he is dealing drugs (real case here), he is protected from a libel action as is the newspaper reporting this event.

There are various defenses against libel in a public meeting, the thought being public debate and discussion will be hampered if the public is fearful what they say at a public meeting can be used against them. It also protects politicians from things they say as well.

However, if the newspaper goes outside the meeting and does more reporting, getting other information, the risk for libel becomes greater. A court will likely view the entire store as a whole, and make a judgment on libel from the entire context.

In this case, it's more risky to do more reporting. Now, most good newspapers will do more reporting, and usually giving the accused a chance to say something is not true helps.

Coleman-Franken vote case to be argued March 1

In a case that may surprise you, an odd twist to the Coleman-Franken recount issue will be argued March 1 in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

KSTP-TV is arguing some 13,000 rejected, but unopened absentee ballots from the 2008 Franken-Coleman race should be treated as public data under the law and should be opened. They don't identify voters.

Presumably, KSTP would do a story on how the rejected ballots would have affected the outcome of the Senate race. If there were something in those envelopes that suggested election fraud or more of them should have been rejected etc., it's remotely possible the U.S. Senate, could, in a long shot, remove Franken, as the Senate, via the law, has the final say on seating a member.

Long shot, not likely, and maybe much ado about nothing. But stay tuned.

Minnesota's credit is excellent for bonding

2011-02-01T14:38:00.000-06:00

It's nonsense for legislators opposed to a bonding bill this year to be suggesting our credit rating will somehow be damaged by approving bonding projects.

See this report on our credit. It shows that Minnesota not only continues to get the highest credit rating possible, but interests rates are historically low.

We'll already be saving $20 million in interest costs over the next 20 years on the bonds we recently issued.

The credit markets are also demanding municipal bonds because they are safe and secure. More demand, means even lower interest rates.

Wednesday's editorial details the rationale for doing a bonding bill this year and finally including the Mankato performing arts center project.

We've paid for more of our downtown projects out of our own money than any other city. In fact, even if we get our $14 million this year, we'll still be $66 million behind Rochester, St. Cloud, Crookston, Duluth, you name it.

What journalists don't know can hurt you

2011-01-28T13:00:00.001-06:00

I have friends who often joke that I'm just "smart enough to be dangerous."

They know, of course, that I have a master's degree in economics, a sort of odd or at least unusual combination with an undergraduate degree in journalism.

Of course, many economists are just smart enough to be dangerous, and most of them get on CNN or Fox because they have something newsworthy to say coming from a discipline that often is not exciting. A report on the GDP, for example, will not be able to compete with American idol.

Still, there are certain economists who offer intriguing ideas or are interesting people at the very least.

Louis Johnston, associate professor of economics at St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict in Collegeville, fits the bill.

He spoke to a roomful of journalists at the Minnesota Newspaper Association convention Friday in Minneapolis.

While he was obliged to clarify some of the mysteries of economics to those whose job is to be short and simple in their writing, he had a number of interesting things to say about economic life in Minnesota.

He is currently involved in researching the history of the state's economy.

Some surprising facts: Per capita income in Minnesota has been rising and rising faster than any other states that are said to be in competition with Minnesota for business and jobs. Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota don't beat us in either overall per capita income or the trendline since the 1970s.

Another surprising fact: even when you take into account, Minnesota's relatively higher taxes, we still beat all the other states. We also beat Texas. Only two other states have shown continued per capita income growth over the years: Virginia and New Hampshire.

Johnston explains those: Virginia includes Washington D.C, and southern New Hampshire has become a suburb of Boston.

Johnston is working on research that suggests the reason Minnesota has had higher per capita income growth since the 1970s is that there was a bipartisan political coalition that agreed to invest in infrastructure, education and transportation.

Political leaders actually set up state programs to fund water and sewer projects in every city in Minnesota that didn't have them or didn't have adequate systems. That allowed businesses to locate in any town in the state. The infrastructure was already there.

Of course, now, that infrastructure must be maintained, and the funds for it are decreasing. That could come back to haunt us. Without those infrastructure investments, Johnston says, it may be difficult to maintain the state's manufacturing base.

Legislative committee menu: chides on the side

2011-01-25T17:24:00.003-06:00

Watching two House of Representatives committee hearings the last couple days showed me a Legislature that is going to have its moments of confrontation and personality conflicts.

You can watch many of the important committee hearings online as they happen or later if you don't have the time. Since I wasn't doing anything the other night, I tuned in. (At this point you're thinking I don't have enough to do, and I wouldn't blame you if you did, but in the name of promoting public affairs journalism, I ventured into the hearing room abyss.)

First up, the important Ways and Means Committee in the House that was moving rather quickly on a bill to reduce state spending by $1 billion, about $200 million before June 30 and another $800 million over the next two years.

The Republicans who control the committee moved forward explaining the cuts and a state employee wage freeze that would reduce wages to state employees by $63 million compared to what they would have received. This, by the way, comes on top of another proposal moving through that would actually cut the state work force by 15 percent.

Rep. Bob Gunther, R, Fairmont, and chairman of the House jobs committee had the unpleasant duty of explaining to Democrats on the committee how freezing wages actually saves jobs. It's a reasonable position, argument being if you don't stop wage spending, in the end you'll have to cut jobs to save money.

Iron ranger Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL, had first crack at Gunther, asking if he, Gunther, is now the main negotiator for the state of Minnesota with regard to its unions.

If so, quipped Rukavina, Gunther should get a bump in pay.

Gunther remained polite.

Interestingly enough, Rukavina was pointing out that there may be legal consequences for freezing pay of collective bargaining units instead of letting them bargain for the wage freeze. Not really sure how that helps state employees, but it was an argument nonetheless.

Actually, Rep. Tony Cornish, R, Good Thunder, abstained and the final party line vote, telling me afterward he was concerned about the legal implications of a union contract and that the bill could have legal troubles that way. Cornish didn't chime in about these concerns at the hearing, but he seems knowledgeable given he was a former union negotiator when he was with the DNR.

Rukavina continued with his sucker punches. He wondered if this bill would conflict with the other bill that would actually cut state jobs, and as Jobs committee chairman, would Gunther fight his Republican opponents on that bill.

The gist of Rukavina's statement was something to the effect: "Cause if you do, I want to see that fight."

Gunther said he had no intention of holding up another Republican's bill.

Most of the other Democrats argued that bill should get more of a public hearing. Ways and Means Chair Rep. Mary Liz Holberg said she just thinks they need to move quickly. The more time they have, the more time they have to come up with other solutions.

All in all, the hearing gets a 7 or 8 for civility on my scale of 10 being very civil. I cut a few points regards a subtle but poignant sarcastic attitude on the part of a few member and a few chides on the side.

Legislature moving fast on cuts

2011-01-24T16:49:00.002-06:00

The Minnesota House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee moved quickly again Monday to forward a bill to impose some $1 billion in cuts to the state budget.

The pace of all this does seem unusually fast. Not much time for committee testimony. I guess that can be good because it gets us to the final negotiations with the governor earlier in the process. Time will tell.

The plans was apparently modified a bit to make some $400 million in cuts to local government aid temporary, and levels of funding would spring back to higher levels in 2013 unless lawmakers made the cuts permanent at that time.

Rep. Tony Cornish, R, Good Thunder, abstained from voting on the bill which passed the committee on what appeared to be a party line vote of 18-13. The bill is headed to the House floor for a vote.

Cornish told me he abstained because as a former union negotiator he was concerned the bill might have legal issues if it portends to cut raises for people in the future that were already negotiated.

The bill cuts $181 million in current biennium and calls for $819 million more in next two year budget cycle that starts July 1.

The bill would extend temporary cuts made last year including $566 million to property tax relief, 185 million to higher education and $72 million from health and human services. The bill also freezes wages to state workers and asks Gov. Mark Dayton to hold back about $200 million in unspent funds in the current biennium.

Rep.Kathy Brynaert spoke against the bill saying there has not been enough time for colleges in her district to determine how the cuts to colleges would impact them. She called the proposal serious and noted MSU already cut 100 staff, $6.4 million in spending as well as adjunct and grad assistants at a time teaching loads are heavier due to budget cuts.

She said several students who she speaks with regularly say they don't know how they will finish in four years because of budget cuts have changed availability of some classes.

Democrats on the committee say it raises tuition and property taxes without much public input.

Here's the story from the Legislative news service on the committee hearing with links to a video of the meeting.

Here's the video of the hearing. It's 1 hour 30 plus minutes

Budget watchdog: health reform was fiscally responsible: Repeal could hurt finances

2011-01-18T16:55:00.001-06:00

The conservative budget watchdog group Concord Coalition is concerned the health care repeal efforts will be removing unpopular provisions, keeping popular ones and thereby creating more fiscal problems.

Read what they have to say:

"The law that was passed last year had the fiscally responsible goals of controlling long-term health care costs and of seeking to pay for its new benefits, particularly expanded coverage. Those goals should not be abandoned in any attempt to repeal, replace or amend the legislation.

Furthermore, simply repealing unpopular elements of the law while keeping the popular ones would likely leave fiscal policy in even worse shape.

Even if the law provides the promised amount of deficit reduction, it would hardly make a dent in total projected deficits over the coming decades. Much more work would remain to achieve a sustainable fiscal policy."

Here's the full issue brief.

Mankato event in New York Times

2011-01-15T10:17:00.000-06:00

The "Congress on Your Corner" event held by Rep. Tim Walz, D, 1st District, at Mocol's Super Market in Mankato Friday made The New York Times.

You can read the article here.

I was alerted to this rather unusual situation as The Times, I'm sure, does not have a Mankato correspondent, by our photographer John Cross, who was at the event, with five or six television station reporters and local reporters like KTOE's Pete Steiner.

Cross said he was trying to get a good photograph in a rather cramped spice aisle at Mocol's and he asked a young lady if she could move aside. She willingly obliged, but he later determined she was The New York Times reporter.

Steiner also told me as he chuckled that he didn't recognize this new reporter as one who shows up at the typical Mankato events, and extended a friendly greeting, somewhat taken aback when she told him she was there for The New York Times.

Cross's photo was distributed on the national wire as their appeared to be great interest in these events across that country that several Members of Congress held in honor of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D, Ariz., who is recovering from last Saturday's shooting.

The times saw fit to dispatch correspondents in Las Vegas, Connecticut and Mankato.

New House rules path to higher deficit

2011-01-13T18:00:00.002-06:00

I don't often just republish what another group or person has written on a subject, but I'm going to make an exception.

The Concord Coalition is a longtime nonpartisan budget watchdog group with both Democrats and Republicans as its founding members. It's analysis is always right on, in my opinion, very detailed and backed up with sources they're willing to share.

Here's what that group is saying about new rules adopted by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in Washington. D.C.

Reading this stuff, I cannot imagine how this will not create, and probably should create, tremendous disagreement between the tea party and the Republican Party.

If we asked voters if this was part of their "message" in congressional elections last fall -- to implement rules like this -- I don't believe they would say "yes."

Here's what the Concord Coalition had to say on Jan. 11, 2011.

"New House Rules Will Clear Path for New Deficits"

Last week the House adopted budget enforcement rules that restrict spending but exempt tax cuts. Included are rules that weaken PAYGO by excluding revenues, allow reconciliation to be used for deficit-financed tax cuts, permit the chairman of the Budget Committee to unilaterally impose budget allocations, and establish spending reduction accounts in appropriations bills.

Spending restraint is certainly important. But the House approach of ignoring the budgetary effects of tax cuts is fiscally irresponsible and abandons the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) principles that were successful in the 1990s. Several fiscal commissions have recommended a wide range of options for reducing budget deficits, saying that everything should be on the table. The House should heed this advice and pay for any proposal that would significantly add to deficits over the long term.

Read more with New House Rules Clear Path for New Deficits

Palin comments on crosshairs and Giffords shooting

2011-01-12T09:27:00.002-06:00

Sarah Palin has put up a video on her Facebook page giving a 7 minute statement partly defending her use of cross hairs of a gun on Gabrielle Giffords Congressional district as one where people should "reload" on the healthcare debate.

Several stories in major news outlets are detailing the statement and going more in-depth.

The Washington Post story had some relevant links, including the video, to previous stories if you want to follow the evolution of the coverage on this, which appears to be growing, and in my opinion, in a negative way for Palin. Her polls must be showing as much as there is great risk to her political future the more she responds to this.

Typically, p.r. types will tell public officials to stay away from a controversy and avoid being implicated by involvement in the discussion, but if the polls start showing its very negative, the strategy has to be to try to combat that.

Cross hair map below. At one point, an aid to Palin said they were not intending it be cross hairs at all, but that seemed to be refuted by Palin who earlier described the markers as "bull's-eyes"

There were apparently 10,000 comments on her Facebook page, not all of them positive.

Most interesting is the risk former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty took in implicitly criticizing the Palin cross hair map, which he says wouldn't be his "style," and he wouldn't have done it. His statement is here in the New York Times political blog.

His statement to them "“It’s not a device I would have chosen to do. Everybody has got their own style or different approaches,” Mr. Pawlenty said. “But I don’t want to have anyone infer that there’s evidence in this case that it caused or was a contributing factor. We don’t know that.”

In the most Minnesota nice way possible, he took a chance at gaining some ground on Palin politically. He could have defended her to the max, and he did defend here, but in a sort of damning with faint praise sort of way.

In the end, it doesn't really matter if there is a connection or not, if there is, it's even worse for Palin, but the fact that she has been part of the debate, no matter how much she tries to distance herself will be part of the narrative that develops.

And as much as the mainstream media has been very responsible and clear in not connecting her to the killer, people will think what they want to think, and they won't always listen to the mainstream media.

Please, don't make me "read the bill"

2011-01-11T17:58:00.001-06:00

The old "read the bill" catchphrase seems to be rearing its head again.

There is a movement afoot to put full copies of Congressional bills online three days before they are acted upon.

The ideas will seemingly help average citizens see what their representative are voting on. It evolved from a lot of anger aimed at the passage of the health care reform bill, that was 2,000 or 3,000 pages long, and news reports, that members of Congress hadn't read the bill.

Putting full text of a bill online might be helpful for lawyers and lobbyists who will know important phrases and subparagraphs to pay attention to, but it will not help average citizens trying to understand what their members are voting on.

I know. I've tried to read legislative bills. They're a mess of complication and confusion. You'll find yourself looking up words,and their legal meaning.

You'll find yourself going back and forth through hundreds of pages trying to find "subdivision c" of Section 4351, subsection (d) as it relates to Section 4352, subsection (f), paragraph (i).

Trust me. You don't want to read the bills these guys put together. In fact, in my view, putting the full bills on line before they are voted on, gives the lobbyists the advantage over regular people.

What Congress should require is a clear summary, written in plain English, to be posted before the bill is finalized.

That actually is available in most cases, if you go to the Library of Congress website http://thomas.loc.gov. You can search by bill number of common title or key word, and find the status and usually a nice summary written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Actually, the Thomas website already has full text of bills, and earlier versions and later versions, online already. A separate website would in my mind be duplicative.

It takes tons of time and expertise to get anything out of the legalese in these bills. We "hire" members of Congress and their staff to understand this stuff for us and communicate it in a way we understand.

That's there job. Not mine.

And if I'm in the dark, they'll hear about it.

But please, don't make me read the bill.

Arizona shooting: Adding to our violent history

2011-01-10T18:32:00.002-06:00

The politics of blame converged with the politics of hate as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords fought for her life in an Arizona hospital bed Monday.

She surviving being shot in the head by a gunman who pretty much walked right up to her at an event quaintly described as "Congress on the Corner." The bullet passed through her brain. It's a miracle she's alive.

The gunman appears mentally ill by all accounts.

The politics of blame came calling through the thousand voices connecting the gunman's inspiration to the right wing, Sarah Palin and others who they say use violent metaphors and foment and idea that government is the enemy. The issues were raised, the connections made, maybe implicitly, as these newspeople reported, over and over again, there was no evidence the gunman even knew who Sarah Palin was.

But others, the Tuscon sheriff included, described the incident as almost an "inevitable" product of our politics of hate.

Many weighed in on that.

The New York Times conceded that there was no causal link between the politics of hate, Sarah Palin and the gunman, but described the incident as a product of an environment, possibly created by Palin and others.

The Times wrote of the gunman: "But he is very much a part of a widespread squall of fear, anger and intolerance that has produced violent threats against scores of politicians and infected the political mainstream with violent imagery. With easy and legal access to semiautomatic weapons like the one used in the parking lot, those already teetering on the edge of sanity can turn a threat into a nightmare"

The Washington Post seemed more reluctant to offer a cause and affect, but had interesting points nonetheless.

From the Post: "The temptation will be, as Arizona and the nation mourn the dead and hope for the recovery of the wounded, to infuse the terrible attack with broader political meaning - to blame the actions of the alleged 22-year-old gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, on a vitriolic political culture laced with violent metaphors and ugly attacks on opponents."

"Maybe. But metaphors don't kill people - guns kill people"

The Post went on to call for reinstating the assault weapons ban that expired under President George W. Bush that would have outlawed the weapon and clip used. Gunman still could have used a smaller clip, which the Post reasons, may have at least "reduced the carnage."

It's troubling to me that we have been reduced to seeing the bright side of an incident as "reducing the carnage."

A column by law professor Glenn Reynolds in The Wall Street Journal blasts the media for making, it seems, any reference whatsoever to Palin, and such implicit blame continues the politics of "blood libel" that the left is decrying.

Says Reynolds "When Democrats use language like this—or even harsher language like Mr. Obama's famous remark, in Philadelphia during the 2008 campaign, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun"—it's just evidence of high spirits, apparently. But if Republicans do it, it somehow creates a climate of hate."

When I was a freshman in college, I was required to read a book called "Violence in America" that detailed the many violent episodes in American history, and put forth the thesis that violence is essentially part of our history and has a lot to do with how we govern ourselves today.

It seems we write another chapter in that book with every Oklahoma City bombing, every Virginia Tech shooting and every Arizona assassination attempt.

I'm not sure there's any one person or group to blame, if not all of us, in a way.

Will political leaders think twice about how they describe their opponents or their opposition to the government after the near murder of one of their own?. I hope so.

But it's too bad these tragedies have to be the cause of that kind of reflection.

Cut tax "earmark" deal in Minnesota

2011-01-07T15:19:00.001-06:00

A preview of Sunday's editorial takes a common sense approach to cutting the special tax breaks for businesses out of the Minnesota budget for savings of $2.1 billion.

Some preview excerpts. (there's a reward at the end if you take your spinach and read through this stuff!)

Over the years, Minnesota’s tax code has exploded with special deals

These so called “tax expenditures” represent unfair tax breaks for one business over its competitors. If your business is dog grooming, you pay a sales tax. If your business is grooming one’s legal issues as a lawyer, you pay no sales tax. If you sell someone a computer, you pay sales tax. If you provide computer “services” you pay none.

These kind of inequities go on and on when one considers the latest “tax expenditure” budget report from the state of Minnesota. In just the area of business services purchased by businesses alone, there are $2.1 billion of these tax deals, about a third of the current deficit.

Add another $400 million to state coffers if these tax deals were removed for consumer purchases of business services.

From day one of the sales tax in Minnesota, it's been unfair.

Some services were taxed with the establishment of the Minnesota sales tax in 1967, including gas and electric service and local telephone service, and preparing and serving meals. The sales tax was expanded in 1987 to include parking services and laundry service and building cleaning services.

Yet, apparently those businesses with good lobbyists kept their tax exemptions.

It’s a system that started out as unfair and remains today as unfair as ever. Removing these exemptions cannot be described as raising taxes. It’s more like collecting debts owed from taxes that should have been paid years ago.

Officials say these deals are “for public policy goals, such as funding or encouraging specified activities or providing financial assistance to persons, businesses, or groups in particular situations.”

Sounds like government intrusion into the marketplace to us.

Send lawyers, guns and money (OK, that's not in there, but I couldn't resist).Here's a great youtube version of the song by Hank Williams.

Have a good weekend.

Sorry Mr. Boehner, you can't have it both ways

2011-01-06T17:16:00.003-06:00

New House Speaker John Boehner, R, Ohio, has rejected estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that his plan to kill the affordable health care act would increase the deficit $230 billion in the next nine years.(CBO summary report)

He told the Washington Post in a comprehensive and very fair story "Well, I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health-care law will increase the deficit," he replied. "CBO is entitled to their opinion, but they're locked within constraints of the 1974 Budget Act."

For years, Boehner has used CBO estimates (as does every else because they're legitimate) for his own arguments on the affordable health care bill's initial costs. When CBO reported those costs as too high or raising the deficit, the Obama administration went back and changed things about the law, after which CBO changed its costs estimates.

Everyone, including Boehner, seemed to accept those estimates.

In addition, Boehner and the Republican leadership appear to be doing the same things they decried in the crafting of the affordable health care bill. They are not going to allow any hearings or allow any amendments to their bill to repeal the act. They're basically going to cut off discussion, a curious thing to do in a body of Congress.

That's just hard to defend. Here's what Boehner told the Post. "I promised a more open process. I didn't promise that every single bill was going to be an open bill."

Yikes. That's pretty damning.

I'm not sure I would advise Mr. Boehner to do many of the things he criticized when he was out of power. And if we're going to pick and choose when we believe the CBO, we may as well guess at the numbers.

If the federal government were a bank, it would be shut down

2011-01-04T15:41:00.002-06:00

I came across a press release from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and was quite stunned by its veracity.

Here's the lead sentence.

"The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) cannot render an opinion on the 2010 consolidated financial statements of the federal government, because of widespread material internal control weaknesses, significant uncertainties, and other limitations."

It basically says the federal government doesn't have enough internal and external financial controls for an auditing agency like the GAO to even given an opinion (much less a good or bad opinion) about the accuracy of its financial statements.

In other words, if the federal government were a bank, it would likely be shut down. There's not an accounting way to tell if the financial statements are accurate or tell us anything.

Here's the statement.

Read and be amazed. Or scared. Eikes!

Cal Thomas misleads on "death panels"

2011-01-03T17:32:00.002-06:00

The Cal Thomas column in today's (Tues. Jan. 4) Free Press in unfortunately misleading and should be considered warily by readers as an opinion based on facts.

Thomas fails to mention one or two key facts about the new provision in Medicare rules that allows Medicare to pay for end of life counseling between a physician and patient.

Here's the column in the Washington Examiner.

He doesn't mention anywhere that this discussion is totally voluntary, and the government does not mandate this discussion, though Thomas' column would have you believe so.

In my opinion, Cal Thomas is intellectually dishonest in this argument. I have no problem with him arguing this policy will evolve into his so called "death panel" ( a very inaccurate term for the policy), but to leave out pertinent facts to help readers decide if your opinion is sound is pretty much unconscionable as a columnist.

So, as editor, why do I allow his misleading and unconscionable column to be printed?

Well, I guess that's just my belief that most people will be able to tell misleading when they read it and give him less credibility in the free marketplace of ideas.

I do reserve the right however, at some point, to stop paying for his misleading columns should they become too numerous. Fortunately, he doesn't always act this way. I have even been known to agree with him at times.

So we'll cut him some slack for now.

"Death Panels" debunked: Bachmann voted for them in 2008

2010-12-29T14:49:00.003-06:00

The old "death panel" distortions raised their ugly heads again when President Obama through legal administrative procedure recently included end-of-life planning between doctor and patient as a service that could be covered under Medicare preventive care.

The term "death panel" is a distortion. Media shouldn't even use it just like we would not use the term priest to describe a Lutheran pastor. Death panel is just not accurate. People on both sides of the political aisle have agreed this is a "hyperbolic" term, the most recent was John McCain's advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer speaking on the issue on CNN a few nights ago.

Though she called it hyperbolic she still argues that the provision puts government in control of one's end of life decision or discussion. One can debate that I suppose, but barely. There is no specific language that says government is involved at all, -- it's between doctor and patient -- and even then its totally voluntary.

But as correctly pointed out by numerous sources, the so called "death panel" provision for end of life counseling was put in Legislation passed by Democrats and Republicans in Congress in 2008 and put in place by the Bush Administration after that.

Bush vetoed the 2008 bill but mainly because it removed his planned 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors. He was overridden by large margins of both Democrats and Republicans in the House by a vote of 383-41 and in the Senate by 70-26.

The Bush administration later incorporated the end of life provisions into its Medicare regulations and rules.

Here is the exact language from the Congressional bill tracking system.
"(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the House on June 24, 2008. The summary of that version is repeated here.)
Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 - Title I: Medicare - Subtitle A: Beneficiary Improvements - Part 1: Prevention, Mental Health, and Marketing - (Sec. 101) Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA), as amended by the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, to cover additional preventive services."

Here is the specific provision.

"Includes body mass index and end-of-life planning among initial preventive physical examinations."

Link to entire bill summary for skeptics.

Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of it. It might surprise you. Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of the people continually using the hyperbolic term "death panels" and expressing her vehemence against them during the health care reform debate voted with all other state Republicans as well as Democrats to override the Bush veto, and approve the Legislation with end of life voluntary planning.

Here's the House vote
Here's the Senate vote

Tax cuts and the deficit: This doesn't make economic sense does it?

2010-12-28T17:37:00.000-06:00

Congress passed a year-end tax cut deal that will give lots of folks, everyone nearly, a nice tax cut, but it will increase our federal deficit by 27 percent next year and 50 percent in 10 years.

Which leads me to ask: Does that make sense?

Yes and no. It makes sense because it's an attempt to stimulate consumer demand. If we have a few more bucks in our paycheck, we might go out to eat more, or just buy some more stuff. That's what Congress is hoping.

But what about the debt. Shouldn't we be paying that down? In our own minds we've got to say yes, for all the usual reasons: the Chinese will start to control our debt, and maybe us someday. The investors in U.S. stocks will see this craziness for what it is and your 401(k) will become a 201(k).

Seems risky at best.

But someone smarter than me about world markets and the economy once told me the markets never lie. So, if the stock market still seems to be doing well, and credit markets and other investments are also doing well after the news of debt expansion hits, then there maybe aren't a lot of people with lots of money too worried.

But of course, markets get new information and new feelings every day, so stay tuned.

But that's my 30 second analysis, always subject to change and sometimes even wildly off-base.

That's why we've given you a chance to weigh in on the subject and be a star of The Free Press opinion page. Go here to give us your two cents, or $850 billion worth.

I agree with conservative Phil Krinkie and others

2010-12-27T17:52:00.000-06:00

Businesses don't create jobs because of tax cuts, and they don't leave the state because taxes are too high.

Thank you, Phil Krinkie, for being a conservative willing to say that. Krinkie, as you may remember, was a longtime conservative member of the Minnesota House, and chairman of the Tax Committee.

He made the comment to MinnPost's Eric Black in a very interesting story on Tim Pawlenty's tenure as governor. It's very much worth reading.

The job creation argument has been the stuff of political rhetoric, says Krinkie. This comes from someone who worked years with dozens of business leaders, one of whom told him he kept his business in the state because his kids were in high school and it had nothing to do with taxes.

Over and over again, this year, we had those running for office saying any tax increase on the wealthy or business would be a "job killer." It's one of the most unproven statements I've ever seen the media let people get away with.

Another longtime businessman, Myles Spicer of Minnetonka, who also wrote a great essay for MinnPost titled "What Small Business Really Wants." And, according to Spicer, it's not a tax cut, really.

Spicer established and owned several successful ad agencies in the Twin Cities and been in business for 40 years.

There is not one study I have seen that shows small businesses cut jobs when their taxes go up or add them when their taxes go down.

But Spicer offers a study of what doesn't happen.

His words:

"A sanctimonious — and detrimental — claim
The most egregious of their useless proposals revolve around the current the tax debate — whether to include the top 2 percent in reversing the Bush tax cuts. The sanctimonious claim is "this would hurt small business" — and this suggestion is incredibly wrong and even detrimental.

It is wrong for many reasons, mostly because it is fiction. It would not affect the huge majority of small businesses, to begin with. In a very cogent recent study, Scott Shane, the A. Malachi Mixon III Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Case Western Reserve University, plotted the average of all industries and businesses classified as "small business," with the average revenues at a little over $1.5 million annually, and the average income (on which taxes are paid) is about $100,500. This is far from the $250K target for increasing taxes on the wealthy (or small businesses). Moreover, almost all such businesses are classified as Sub-S corporations, and as such they pay no taxes at all (profits are prorated and passed through to the shareholders, of which there could be several or more, further diminishing the likelihood of $250K taxation)."

His credentials in his own words.

"After serving in the U.S. Air Force for three years of active duty, I was honorably discharged in 1957. A friend of mine owned a small Twin City ad agency, and having gone to flight school, he advised me that his largest account sold communications equipment to the Air Force. He asked me to join him. A few years later I became a partner in my own agency, and owned several more Minnesota agencies over the decades. From that day on I have been entrepreneurial, my own boss, and a quintessential small businessman. Additionally, I have owned small businesses in the aforementioned advertising, Twin Cities real estate, health care — and at 77 still own and operate my own successful local businesses today. That gives me well over half a century of expertise to share with you, and the right to point out that most of the proposals today are irrelevant, or worse, and the right proposals are being ignored."

Some facts that are getting lost

2010-12-20T17:21:00.000-06:00

News reports I've read would lead the typical reader to believe the recently approved so called Obama-Republican tax deal would had $850 billion to the deficit.

Most people would read that as $850 billion onto the current 2010 fiscal year deficit of $1.4 trillion. So adding $850 billion to current $1.4 trillion, looks like it increases the CURRENT federal deficit by more than 50 percent.

Actually, the projection for the deal adding to the deficit is for the period 2011 to 2020, as this CBO document shows. Go all the way to the bottom and see the recently passed legislation adds about $857.8 billion to the deficit.

So, it's only adding to the debt by about $374 billion next year, only about a 27 percent increase, not the 50 percent the "not exactly" media would have you believe.

Feel better? Well maybe.

The stimulus IS working. Hello!

2010-12-09T15:32:00.000-06:00

Whenever I want to get the straight stuff on a political controversy, I ask a small business person.

They'll be straight with you. They stay in business being straight with customers, unlike bigger businesses that have tens of thousands of customers and can afford to lose a few along the way when being straight is sometimes optional to save face or whatever.

So, I found it quite refreshing that a small business person would say the Obama stimulus plan is working.

A Free Press story on Nov. 28 carried a story about the energy tax credit.

Here's what Dale Brenke of Schmidt Siding and Windows in Mankato had to say about the Stimulus

“ There’s a lot of political controversy about the federal stimulus program that is providing this tax credit,” Brenke says, “ but it has saved thousands of jobs in this sector in Minnesota.”

Two years ago, eight Schmidt Siding and Windows employees were laid off during slow times for specialized remodelers, Brenke says. But since the tax credit program, all those employees have been recalled.

“ We’re just one business,” Brenke says. He cites lumberyards in the area, plus other contractors and remodelers in town. The number of jobs saved or added just keeps growing, he says.

In addition, the companies in Minnesota that make windows and doors are also feeling a huge boost because of the federal energy efficiency tax credit program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act better known as the Stimulus Act. Among those companies is Lindsay Window in North Mankato, Brenke says.

“ This act has helped a whole host of energy efficiency businesses in Mankato, and across the state,” he says

Thank you Dale!

I'll write this story as many times as Foxnews says the stimulus didn't do anything.

Now some will argue that the stimulus didn't "create" any jobs. But the Obama administration has consistently used the terms "saved" or "created" so even in the above case, if it didn't create any jobs for Schmidt, it indeed did save jobs.

Eight people who didn't have jobs, got them back. I'm guessing they don't care if you describe them as "created" or "saved."

The bottom line: they were earning money again, off unemployment and boosting the economy.

The stimulus worked.

Emmer concedes: the buzz, the take

2010-12-08T19:09:00.000-06:00

I, like two thirds of Minnesotans, thought it was time for Tom Emmer to concede.

He obliged us Wednesday. Like other media observers, I thought he went out with a lot of class. He made the concession from his home in Delano with family and friends around.

It was a close election, no doubt. And here's hoping that both sides are finally realizing people want both sides to cooperate and solve problems. An election is almost never a mandate in Minnesota.

The Republican Party needs some patching up, and as I mentioned in a previous post, some healing or fixing of the public and media relations machine.

Although Dayton may have underwhelmed a lot of people, even those who voted for him, he'll likely bring a real different set of tools with him. It's been a while since he's been an executive, but he seemed capable of that at the one debate I hosted with him.

He's thoughtful, and seems to have a real plan in place for compromising with Republican Legislature.

There will be new relationships all around, and that should be good for taxpayers. Sometimes old relationships carry with them old baggage that the two sides just can't let go of.

Good Republicans: please get a tourniquet

2010-12-07T13:59:00.000-06:00

To the good people of the Minnesota Republican Party, and there are many, please suggest a more strategic public relations plan to your party's leaders.

Oy Vey.

First a poll comes out showing two-thirds of the people think your contesting and protesting gubernatorial candidate should concede, and at almost the same time the party proceeds to heap on the bad publicity by ousting members of the party for voting for the last of the great "Independent" Republicans Tom Horner for governor.

I've never seen an organization bury the needle so quickly on a pile of good will they just garnered for state reps and senators in the recent election.

A look at the people they ousted looks like a who's who of the Minnesota Republican Party, the one that actually came up with solutions to the state's problems a few years back.

Among the ousted: Former governors Al Quie and Arne Carlson (historically two of the best Republican governors.) Sen. Dave Durenberger, one of Minnesota's most intelligent senators who still is making an impact on health care policies.

Bill Schreiber, longtime leader of House Republicans and a staunch, staunch supporter of small business know how. Schreiber was the kind of guy who didn't play politics as much as get something done for small business in Minnesota.

I'm surprised they weren't stomping on former Republican Gov. Elmer Anderson's grave for being too level headed and compromising.

Here's what some of them told the Star Tribune after their public flogging.

"I was never Republican enough for them, anyway," said Lynne Osterman, a former Republican House member turned lobbyist, in reacting to the ban. "I find it ironic, and somewhat telling, frankly," she said, "[that] ... for all their ballyhooing about freedom, protecting rights for our country, blah, blah, blah ... [they] would see fit to vilify fellow citizens for exercising their rights."

Said Durenberger: "I'm still a Republican, but it doesn't feel like a very welcoming party ... my reaction was to smile."

Current Republicans defended the action - kind of. Again, more from Star Tribune.

Mike Boguszewski, a Republican House district chair from Roseville, said he voted for the Saturday resolution "after a lot of consideration." Boguszewski said the issue "went beyond" allowing Republicans to freely support the candidate of their choice.

He said the active support for an opposition party's candidate, "just takes it to a level beyond disagreement about policies ... very simply, [their] actions bring consequences."

Phil Krinkie, a former Republican legislator and president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, said he was "a little surprised to see that they actually took this step to bring it to a vote." But he added: "It's a public rebuke, and that's all it is."

Krinkie criticized Carlson, who in 2008 supported President Obama, a Democrat. "At what point," asked Krinkie, "do you [in effect] turn in your membership card?"

Pat Anderson, the former state auditor who ran unsuccessfully for the office last month as a Republican, downplayed the significance of the resolution and said Democrats and Republicans have had similar feuds for decades. "I don't think you have a bloodletting going on," she said.

Schreiber, the former Republican legislator who was among those banned, said Republican party leaders "would be more productive in focusing on issues, rather than people."
However, he said, "Am I going to lose any sleep over it? No."

I can't find a positive P.R. message in all of this. The P.R. messages that go out are:

New Republicans are disrespecting their elders, many of whom deserve respect:

Don't disagree with our dogma or you'll pay a price.

This is not the party of discussion. This is the party of repression.

Feedback on recount going very negative

2010-12-06T16:44:00.000-06:00

People of Minnesota are reading blogs, looking up examples of challenged ballots, and are outraged, from what I've seen.

This is a Republican/Emmer public relations nightmare waiting to happen. While reasonable people know you can hire lawyers to challenge anything, they don't believe its the right thing to do at this point. Numerous people, even some Republicans, have said, he can't win. He kind of even conceded that himself in the Friday press conference.

Comments I've seen from online readers are very angry once they see the challenged ballots. The ballots are not even close to being unclear. That's what people don't get. And when they see any write-in candidate ballot was challenged because according to challengers it could "identify the voter."

People are just not buying it.

There are more examples of this at StarTribune Hotdish politics regards to Waseca County's 114 challenged votes, 111 by Emmer.

The longer the case goes on, the more examples of challenges ballots will emerge. It will just make people more angry.

We know there are not enough challenges to win. Now the Emmer camp is saying they want to review county databases and counties say they won't be able to have those ready before Dec. 15. I guess you can do that, they have a legal right, but that would likely indeed delay the seating of the next governor.

There is huge political risk here for bad publicity and a loss of social capital that the Emmer team doesn't seem to be feeling.

Here's the full list of challenged ballots by county, by precinct.

Hat tip to Max Hailperin for providing the link.

Recount fact and opinion

2010-12-04T15:19:00.000-06:00

The gubernatorial recount continued Friday and into Saturday with highlights being an angry judge scolding his former chief judge, lots of frivolous ballots and a press conference that seemed designed to garner a least a little positive publicity for Republican Tom Emmer.

The relevant facts are thus:

After all 2.1 million ballots had been recounted, Emmer gained 107 votes.

The canvassing board will rule on about 1,000 challenged ballots, four fifths of them from the Emmer campaign

Even if every challenged ballot fell Emmer's way, it wouldn't be enough to make up 8,700 votes.

Local officials called 2,880 challenges by the parties "frivolous," 99 percent were challenges from the Emmer campaign.

Judge Paul Anderson gave a stern warning to the Emmer team and the former Supreme Court Chief Judge Eric Magnuson, who is representing Emmer, pointing out that bringing frivolous court actions whatever the topic is behavior for which attorneys can be punished.

Anderson went on to say Magnuson was more or less violating his own rulings and court directives from the 2008 recount years ago and that Magnuson might also be violating code of professional conduct for attorneys.

(It's interesting to note that Magnuson, now working with Emmer and presumably Pawlenty, was called "unwise" by Pawlenty and "activist" by Emmer last year when he ruled Pawlenty's unallotment decision was illegal.)

They must consider him to have "wised up" and be "less activist" now.

Anderson also made references to the Emmer campaign "disenfranchising" voters. Ramsey County Judge Gregg Johnson, another member of the Canvassing Board, used words like "ludicrous."

It was a rather remarkable event.

I've met Judge Paul Anderson a time or two and I was always impressed with him as someone who saw value in the judicial process and wanted to educate the public as much as possible about this important branch of government.

He never struck me as a political or partisan individual.

In his news conference Friday Emmer seemed to be addressing the number of frivolous votes Emmer volunteers in various counties were making, far above those being challenged by the Dayton campaign.

Emmer and the Republican Party claim those volunteers were "overzealous" and after they look at the frivolous votes, they might be willing to withdraw them. The Canvassing Board is going to allow this.

Over and over again, the news media asked Emmer how he thought any challenge could possibly provide him almost 9,000 vote turnaround.

He made allusions to the same-day registration system, and the reconciliation process where votes must match the number of voters. But those appear to be longshots in any case. The matching voter remedy if there was one, would take votes away randomly, from both voters.

Emmer also suggested he wants to see that Supreme Courts ruling on denying his initial challenge to have the votes reconciled one way. Then he would be able to explain his next legal course if action if any.

All in all, I don't see the Emmer campaign getting much upside from all of this. They clearly angered at least one of the judges in this, when average citizens see the ballots that were challenged all over the state by the Emmer campaign (many not even close to being unclear who people were voting for and in some cases, a write vote was suggested as a way that a voter would be indentified), most people will not be happy taxpayer money was spent on these frivolous challenges.

Emmer did continue to reiterate his intention is not to delay the seating of the new government.

My experience in public relations is the more you insist you're not trying to do something, the less people believe you.

Stay tuned.

Challenges ballots and frivolous: take a look

2010-12-02T15:44:00.000-06:00

At the Star Tribune website citizens can check out copies of ballots that were challenged by GOP recount volunteers and deemed frivolous by election officials, and make their own decisions, much as the State Canvassing Board will do next week.

I couldn't find one that wasn't pretty darn clear that they all were intending to vote for Dayton.

There are nine ballot examples at the above link.

Apparently, copies of these ballots are not available to the press and the general public unless you get them from the campaigns, who are allowed to make copies.

That's apparently where the StarTribune got them. We asked for local challenged ballots, and that's what we were told. We'd have to get them from the campaigns. We might have to work on that access issue in the future.

Apparently, the news media is also not privy to the number of challenged votes until, I presume, the canvassing board looks at them, but the Dayton campaign told the Strib that Emmer campaign has challenged 2,700 ballots and 98 percent of them have been deemed frivolous.

They told the Strib 39 Dayton campaign challenges were frivolous.

Is the city of Mankato Scrooge?

2010-12-01T10:00:00.000-06:00

The online story comments are buzzing and Free Press Facebook fans are humming on the story about how some municipalities are downsizing holiday Christmas decorations.

Mark Fischenich's Nov. 30 story on downtown Christmas decorations of the past seemed to strike a nostalgic chord with a lot of readers.

Some dozen plus readers commented on the story, but most were on the side of holiday decorations and against a seemingly penny pinching Scrooge of a city.

Here's a sample: (real names are not required)

From Jared Taylor: "The City of Mankato is too broke to string up Christmas lights, we have NO Sunday afternoon B.E.C. Library hours anymore; but apparently we can afford a $40 million coming levy for more spending into the Loss-Leader Civic Center. Thanks City of Mankato, Merry Christmas"

From Jason: "It's no wonder why North Mankato doesn't want to combine with Mankato. Mankato continues to go down hill and North Mankato doesn't want to get dragged along for the ride. What a shame that Mankato can't cough up enough money for Christmas lights---and they want to be a Christmas retail hub?"

From Merri Jo "I really miss those decorations, not to mention the old downtown. Just this weekend my sister and I talked about mom taking us DOWNTOWN to see them lit each year. Yes, it is very sad that Mankato no longer decorates"

From La Vone A. "Boy this is really sad. You need to come to Owatonna after the decorations here where caught up in the flood we had in Sept they are back up on the poles. Workers had to come in and clean the banners, replace the lights and what ever else had to be done. We are not a big town like Mankato but we still have the spirit and have come together to celebrate. I too remember Mankato and how nice it looked and enjoyed it. I guess I will stay in Owatonna and enjoy the holidays here"

The story mentioned how North Mankato still invests in its Christmas decorations.

To that Frank Jones commented: North Mankato 1, Mankato 0

Finally, an opposing view from Jody: "I applaud the City of Mankato. They have moved into a need vs want attitude. Christmas lights are wonderful and I enjoy them immensely, but they are expensive to purchase, put up, take down, and the electricity needed to operate them. They are only visible to the general population during the evening hours for one month. I think that classifies as a want. Perhaps the critics would like to start raising money to fund this the same as the fireworks"

I must say cutting Christmas decorations seems like it would not be the first thing one would look at. They offer great benefit in publicity etc, for relatively little cost.

If people went through the Mankato budget, they could probably find something less popular to cut and come out all right.

There's merit in the idea of private businesses kicking in as sort of a user fee. Or maybe the city could just assess a $1 or $2 or whatever it is fee on a businesses utility bills.

Anyway, the story seems to be getting a lot of traction.

Emmer racking up kudos

2010-11-29T11:18:00.000-06:00

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer is racking up kudos from Mankato to Minneapolis.

On Saturday, The Free Press gave Emmer a thumbs up for basically saying he was going to be reasonable when it came to challenging the recount. He said he would make sure nothing extraordinary was happening and then if the margin is still fairly large, 8,700 votes or thereabouts, he would be done.

He went on to say that he wasn't going to put everyone through a futile effort.

Emmer also got a good 700- to 800 words of praise from Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman, who had much good to say about Emmer's sportsmanship. Many of Coleman's readers were at the very least surprised, and possibly some shocked, as he is not want to heap a lot of praise on many Republicans.

Coleman said Emmer "deserves great appreciation" and that kind of "leadership" is "rare."

Emmer has in the past been described a the bulldog of the Republican Party, especially when he was in the Legislature. But a long campaign for governor, hearing and seeing the hopes, wants and desires of average Minnesotans, may tend to have a calming effect on any candidate.

When I hosted the gubernatorial debate in Mankato, I thought one of the best and most sincere statements Emmer made came when he was asked to pick a former governor he respected. He said something to the effect that he respects anyone and everyone who has put themselves through a campaign and made sacrifices simply because they believe they can make the state better for future generations.

Emmer's recounts statement has hints of those beliefs. Good for him.

Talk about a death panel!

2010-11-26T15:06:00.000-06:00

Here's some info on the fact sheet for a government health care program.

Let's see if you can guess where it comes from and which political party approved this.

This was a letter sent to people who are enrolled in a government-sponsored health program based on need and eligibility

"Why am I getting this letter?"

"The way you get your health care services is changing. Starting June 1, only certain hospitals will give
you services."

"What does this change mean for me?

• Services you are currently getting may not be covered.
• You may need to go to a different doctor or clinic.
• Services by this group of doctors is limited and there may not be one in your county.
• If you do not choose a group the government has required, your coverage is limited to prescription drugs.

You may have to pay for other medical services including the doctor visit to get a prescription."

So, in essence, you won't get to choose your own doctor

Some services might no longer be covered.

There may not be a approved doctor in your county, so you'll have to travel.

And if you don't like the government's choice of doctors, you're out of luck.

I point this out only because these were almost identical to the fears raised with the national health care reform put out by Democrats last year.

I've always believed when the so called "death panel" talk came out as Congress was debating the health care reform bill, that it was pure and unmitigated B.S. from the start. We won't go into that here.

But what most people don't realize is that there are instances happening at state and federal level that will restrict what doctor you can see and de facto put government and insurance companies in control of your medical care.

Like the example above: They are the actual rules for the General Assistance Medical Care program approved by Republicans and Democrats in Minnesota. To be fair, Democrats had proposed a program that would cover more and cost more. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed that in lieu of the a program that cost less and covered less.

However you see the issue, clearly, when government pays your medical bill, they're going to have something to say about the care, which doctors you see.

This should be a reality check for all of us.

Fireworks at the Supreme Court and other incendiary reports

2010-11-23T15:09:00.001-06:00

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled quickly and decisively 5-zip against the first, and so far only, challenge by the Tom Emmer campaign to the gubernatorial election results.

A MinnPost report by Jay Weiner again is the credible and interesting report I am relying on. He even offers a little "dark and stormy night" drama in this one. Hey, it's one way to make public affairs reporting interesting!

What I found interesting about the ruling was that it was issued without an opinion, so as "not to impede the orderly election process." The court seemed to be hinting that another challenge might have to really provide earth shattering new information, or the court, mostly Pawlenty-appointed, would reject that as well. Just my guess, though.

In my opinion, any further challenge without such significant backing will come off as frivolous to the judges, and when judges think you're wasting their time, the don't get mad, they get even, or they get mad and even.

I've seen many a judge use the rule that "their impartiality ends where your frivolity begins."

News reports called the ruling from Pawlenty-appointees "terse." Maybe it's payback for Emmer who called them "activist" last year after they ruled Pawlenty's unallotment was illegal. Pawlenty was kinder but said the ruling was "unwise."

Republicans challenge at their peril here. As I mentioned in Wednesday's editorial, "voters can forgive politicians for a lot of things, but not for denying them the right to have their vote counted." Any challenges from Emmer, at this point, seem to be playing with fire near a propane tank.

There's some sound reasoning behind a recount of votes making a difference with regard to the Emmer petition and several counties filed information to that effect.

Recount wouldn't stack up

Here's the good info from a solid Pioneer Press report on the issue by Jason Hoppin.

Noteworthy is Blue Earth County's own expert Patty O'Connor, election director.

In Anoka County, election judges were able to reconcile the ballots in all precincts but one. Out of 131,700 votes, officials said there was no evidence that the sole extra ballot was cast by anyone other than a legitimate voter.

In Ramsey County, officials said there were just five unexplained ballots out of more than 192,000 cast but that there was no reason to toss out those five.

In Hennepin County, Minnesota's largest, officials found discrepancies in 15 precincts for a total of 22 ballots and said they would work to resolve the discrepancies but did not want to throw out votes.

Together Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey County cast nearly 800,000 votes in the Nov. 2 election, or about 39 percent of the statewide total. With Emmer needing to close a nearly 9,000-vote gap, they found just 28 unexplained ballots between them.

Some local officials contacted by the Pioneer Press said they also have found few extra ballots. Officials in Goodhue County, which follows the procedure sought by the GOP, found discrepancies, but none that could not be explained. And Carver County officials found only a few extra ballots but said they appeared to be caused by election judges themselves forgetting to sign the register when they voted.

In an affidavit, Hennepin County election manager Rachel Smith argued that counting voter receipts is actually a more accurate way of tallying voters than counting signatures, calling the method "universally preferred."

That was backed up by others, including Blue Earth County Auditor Patty O'Connor, who said the problem with counting signatures is that voters sometimes don't sign the register, even though they are required by law to do so.

"You have to remember, I'm in outstate Minnesota, where we all know each other," O'Connor said, adding that it's easy to forget to follow the letter of the law when chit-chatting with a friendly face. "The wife signs and the husband doesn't, and off they go."

Hoping to bring great budget debate to Mankato

2010-11-19T11:42:00.000-06:00

I'm hoping to convince the Citizens League of Minnesota to bring one of their intriguing budget debate meetings to Mankato in the near future.

The Citizens League, a non partisan and credible research group, has through a grant with the Bush Foundation set up some 30 plus meetings around the state, in small towns and big, to gather citizens for a night of discussion on how to solve the state's estimated $6 billion budget deficit.

There's a good report on one of the recent meetings in MinnPost.

I recently spoke with Citizens League Executive Director Sean Kershaw and when I saw he didn't have Mankato on the list for a meeting, I recommended we get one. I told him I believe Mankato was a community that could be very engaged in this process and he'd get a good turnout.

He sounded like he was going to pursue it. I spoke with him at a recent meeting of the University of Minnesota Frank Premack Public Affairs Journalism board, of which we are both members.

The Free Press will do everything it can to help bring about this meeting, including participating in it and publicizing it. I'm hoping to hear back from Kershaw soon. Will update when I know.