Rudy Takala's Columns

Minnesota's Republican National Delegate Election Results

05/20/2012 11:53:00

For those keeping track, these are the results from Saturday’s national delegate elections. The top twelve contestants were elected. I was unable to record results for the candidates Tracy Ries or Don Evanson, but the other 33 candidates placed as follows. Though Don Huizenga placed in 13th place, his vote total fell below the 50 percent threshold required to win. Rather than going to a second ballot, Don endorsed Rep. Michele Bachmann (who placed 14th), and the delegation elected her by acclamation.

1) Rep. Kurt Bills – 1,545 votes (76.2 percent)
2) Rep. Brandon Petersen – 1,491 votes (73.6 percent)
3) Kimlinh Bui – 1,371 votes (67.6 percent)
4) Mark Santelman – 1,255 votes (62 percent)
5) Rudy Takala – 1,214 votes (59.9 percent)
6) Eric Goodrich – 1,166 votes (57.5 percent)
7) Marianne Stebbins – 1,156 votes (57 percent)
8) Gene Dornink – 1,125 votes (55 percent)
9) Josh Regnier 1,125 votes (55 percent)
10) John Trojack 1,109 votes (54.7 percent)
11) Craig Westover – 1,091 votes (53.8 percent)
12) Scott Anderson – 1,084 votes (53.5 percent)
13) Don Huizenga – 947 votes
14) Rep. Michele Bachmann – 872 votes
15) Chris Tiedeman – 838 votes
16) Marjorie Holsten – 808 votes
17) Jen Niska – 798 votes
18) Deputy Chair MNGOP Kelly Fenton – 797 votes
19) Treasurer MNGOP Bron Scherer – 792 votes
20) Chris Barden – 728 votes
21) Rep. Keith Downey – 724 votes
22) Mike Vekich – 707 votes
23) Ken Cobb – 643 votes
24) David Fitzsimmons – 632 votes
25) Former Rep. Mark Kennedy – 585 votes
26) Jennifer DeJournett – 335 votes
27) Jane Stewart – 308 votes
28) Joe Wolf – 215 votes
29) Colleen Smith – 180 votes
30) James McKinney – 155 votes
31) Andrew Christensen – 122 votes
32) Bill Whiteside – 94 votes
33) Mike Miller – 19 votes

Former Sen. Arlen Specter loses it on radio show

04/01/2012 23:57:00

From http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/01/arlen-specter-loses-it-on-conservative-talk-radio-show:

Former Sen. Arlen Specter experienced a meltdown of Pennsylvanian proportions on a talk radio show Friday while promoting his new book, “Life Among the Cannibals.”

The Republican-turned-Democrat hasn’t been particularly welcomed by conservative radio hosts during his promotional book tour. Rusty Humphries, whose show airs on Atlanta’s 640AM-WGST, even mocked Specter a bit during his appearance on his show. But on Jason Lewis’ nationally syndicated show Friday, Specter threw an Obamacare-sized tantrum after he had to sit through two commercial breaks.

“Jason, I have one final comment,” Specter said.

“I gave you 10 minutes. You’ve been over every subject except for my book. I’ve listened to two rounds of your commercials. I think it’s insulting. I’ve been in a lot of interviews in the course of the past 30 years and you are absolutely insulting!”

Specter’s on-air tirade didn’t stop there. “This is no way to run an interview!” he sputtered.

“Listen, I’m talking about somebody who’s civilized!” Specter said.

“I told you the last time around I wasn’t looking to sit around and listen to your commercials, and I didn’t want to hang up on you. But I want to tell you this is no way for anybody to run an interview. I’m as experienced as you are, if not more so. And that’s all I have to tell you, so goodbye!”

And with that, Specter hung up.

Lewis reacted to Specter’s tirade by suggesting Specter’s behavior helped explain why he was defeated in the 2010 Pennsylvania Democratic Senate primary to then- Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak. (Sestak ultimately lost to Republican Pat Toomey in the general election.)

“Good lord, senator — no wonder you got beat,” Lewis said.

“This is the most intolerant guest I’ve ever had on the program. How on earth do you — Does he only do NPR interviews? Is that the deal? I’ve never heard anything like it. Well, good luck with the book. I think you’re going to need it.”

Lewis is right about the former senator needing “luck” with his new book. As of Sunday afternoon, Specter’s tome was ranked 3,066th on Amazon.com‘s book sales chart, and 1,369th on Barnesandnoble.com.

A Reminder that Character Matters

03/23/2012 04:46:00

When Minnesota’s Republican Senate Caucus hired Michael Brodkorb as their communications director, they may not have expected it would end with

a lawsuit and multiple retirements. Yet while those specific results may have been unpredictable, a person of reasonable judgment could have figured that it would not end well.

Even so, it is fortunate that then-Majority Leader Amy Koch was not exercising reasonable judgment when Brodkorb was hired. The incident has been good for the GOP and for democracy.

When I first encountered Michael Brodkorb in 2009, he was running against incumbent Dorothy Fleming to become the deputy chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party. He had no substantial contact with the activist wing of the party prior to that from what I had observed. Sure, Democratic blogs probably liked to say that he regularly consorted with Republicans, and Brodkorb might have even sold himself that way. For me, though, the only Republicans I saw Brodkorb associating with were big names that had no relevance to any activism as I knew it.

Former Republican National Committeewoman Evie Axdahl might have been a co-chair on his campaign, but I hadn’t heard of her attending any local meetings since the mid-1990s. Present-day State Representative Kurt Daudt might have exclaimed (via written endorsement) that he was “very excited” about Brodkorb’s candidacy, but Daudt never dirtied his hands helping out the activists that much either. The grassroots credentials of Brodkorb’s campaign may have been advertised, but they weren’t really evident.

Yet in retrospect, it seems clear that there were warning signs. One endorsement that seems ironic now came from Rory Koch, formerly a Republican chairman of the 4th congressional district and a legislative assistant briefly assigned by House Republicans to answer phone calls for Rep. Tom Emmer’s office. (No, he isn’t related to Sen. Amy Koch. Yes, though, this is the Koch who was discovered to be in possession of child pornography when police raided his home earlier this month.)

“Our party is very lucky to have such an excellent candidate for Deputy Chair in Michael Brodkorb,” read the endorsement from Koch. In bold-faced font, the endorsement promised Brodkorb would have “a strong commitment to reform and build our party.”

That endorsement came through in an e-mail distributed on April 30, 2009 by Brodkorb’s campaign. The second-to-next endorsement in the e-mail came from Washington County Commissioner Bill Pulkrabek. His endorsement promised, “Michael… is clearly the best equipped candidate for Deputy Chair,” and if he was elected, Republicans would “win back the suburbs.”

A present-day Google Search for “Bill Pulkrabek Estee Lauder” will display the issues that particular endorser has sincehad to work out over allegations of domestic assault arising from a disagreement with his girlfriend (no, his wife wasn’t involved) over skin-care lotion. Allegedly, he dragged her down the stairs.

Did some good people endorse Michael Brodkorb as well? Sure. Yet did anyone with significant legal problems endorse his opponent for deputy chair? I couldn’t find any. I doubt anyone else could, either.

The people most active in politics can generally be described through a dichotomy. They either make a decision to be basically good and have integrity, or they make a decision that character isn’t really as important as it might otherwise be when it comes to winning whatever it is they want to win. These attitudes both stem from and ultimately influence the other regions of life. The two groups recognize each other in the political realm, and they usually will not cross over to support a candidate who is not a member of their group.

Brodkorb had his own share of problems, before, during, and after his time in the limelight of the Minnesota Republican Party. From getting into a conflict with Wally “the Beer Man” McNeil in 2007 to his wife calling 911 over an altercation at their home in 2011, it was an open secret in the Republican Party that Brodkorb’s coterie was a pretty foul group of people.

For Sen. Koch, of course, that wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The situation was pretty shameful all around.

In addition to the loss of Michael Brodkorb, Republicans’ decisionto accept his overall lack of integrity has resulted in the resignation of a state GOP chair, the Senate majority leader, the deputy majority leader, and ongoing ethics hearings, all of which will be defined by the legacy of Michael Brodkorb.

So has it been worth it? Well, if it gets some bad people out of government and reminds voters of why they shouldn’t be there in the first place, that’s going to be a good thing for everyone.

Review of “Confrontational Politics”

03/19/2012 00:24:00

I recently finished reading “Confrontational Politics,” authored by former California State Sen. Bill Richardson, who was in office from 1966-88. It is an excellent analysis of the conservative movement and guide to how conservatives may be politically effective. The following are some representative excerpts.

“People are surprised, sometimes shocked, by the answer I give when asked about my preference for president. I usually answer, “I don’t pay much attention to who’s running for that office…. Presidents don’t return my phone calls or seek my advice…. Why waste time thinking about politicians who won’t care what I say or do when I can deal with candidates and officeholders who do?” (57)

“I can’t tell you how many [people] I have interviewed who are willing to serve in government—starting at the top. The fact that they have cursory knowledge of the methodology of politics doesn’t seem to bother them at all, even after they lose.... Working in local elections is spring training in the minor leagues. Virtually all the big-name stars start there. Control the bottom, and one day you control the top.” (58)

“Don’t just sit on the sidelines and complain about those who are trying…. The good guys who think politically are a small minority, but so what? We always have been, and we always will be.” (67)

“Incompetent and inadequate management can stay in business year after year because of the influx of new, wet-behind-the-ear candidates. It takes a capable, experienced professional to know which is which; they watch all the nuances of the elective process.” (67)

“I have interviewed hundreds of candidates over more than 35 years, both as the head of a major political action committee and as my state’s senate caucus chairman. I found few who were intellectually capable of defending their conservative views when pressed.… Some of the candidates ‘didn’t like what the government was doing.’ They were viscerally in tune, but surprisingly incapable of intellectually defending the free enterprise system. I’ve met doctors who can’t see the fallacies of socialized medicine, insurance salesmen who have little knowledge of economics, and contractors who don’t mind crippling regulations. Being successful in business is no proof that one can be successful in political office.” (87)

“Think long and hard about it. There is only so much productive time. Isn’t it better dedicating your hours to giving the other side trouble than stewing and complaining over what they are doing to us?... Do humanists blubber at the mention of our names or the organizations we support?... Don't you think it's better to give political pain than to receive it?” (96)

“Exposing a liar is confrontational. They first deny, then change the subject, then attack the accuser’s character. The more vigorously we pursue the truth, the louder they scream. These anguished outcries are often intended to intimidate and cause us to desist. Those reared with Christian ethic tend to back off and give the liar the benefit of the doubt. Bad move. Their cries of anguish are confirmation that we’re on the right course. This is the time to forge ahead and press on.” (97)

"The leftist Republicans are always meekly willing to compromise and give up more ground to the leftist Democrats. But within the Republican caucus, they are extremely aggressive and antagonistic in opposition to the conservatives….. The conflict… is not between Republicans and Democrats; it’s between conservatives and liberals—traditional American values adherents against humanists.” (102)

Minnesota House Aide Rory Koch Charged With Child Porn

03/10/2012 16:14:00

This is some bizzare news. The first time I met Rory Koch was in 2007 when he was the chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota's 4th Congressional District. Between Minnesota Senate Republican Communications Director Michael Brodkorb having an affair with Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and Rory Koch having child pornography, it seems like all of the most senior GOPers are on their way due to sexual problems. Click here or scroll down to read the story.

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A man who was until Wednesday a top staffer on a Minnesota House of Representatives committee turned himself in at the Ramsey County jail Wednesday night on 12 counts of possession of child pornography.

A warrant was issued for Rory Allen Koch's arrest when the charges were filed Monday. Koch, who ran for Ramsey County commissioner in 2010, went to the jail at 6:52 p.m. Wednesday and was arrested, according to a sheriff's office booking report.

The jail started the release process at 11:37 p.m. Wednesday and Koch, 39, was released on $10,000 bond. Koch of St. Paul has not returned calls seeking comment.

Koch was the administrator of the House Government Operations and Elections Committee before he was placed on leave Wednesday, said Jodi Boyne, director of public affairs for the House Republican caucus, who said she could not otherwise comment.

He has worked for the House since 1999. In 2010, Koch ran against Ramsey County District 4 Commissioner Toni Carter and took 25 percent of the vote. Koch was previously chairman of the 4th Congressional District Republicans.

The criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court gives this account:

The Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received cyber tips from AOL in June 2009, reporting someone using the screen name Chadwhite73 might be disseminating child pornography using an AOL email account. With an administrative subpoena, police learned the account holder for the user name

and email account was Koch.

After obtaining a warrant, police searched a Grand Avenue apartment where Koch lived in September 2010 and seized two computer towers. Koch was home, and the task force's commander at the time "conducted a noncustodial interview," the complaint said.

"During that interview, the defendant acknowledged that he has received child pornography over the Internet," the complaint said. "He claimed that he has not intentionally distributed it. He stated that he attempted to delete it as soon as he received it."

Reviewing Koch's computer in his presence, police found a photo of a 15- or 16-year-old boy in a sexual pose.

"When this was shown to the defendant he acknowledged that he would likely have child pornography on his computer," the complaint said. "He also acknowledged that some of those images would be prepubescent children."

Police conducted a forensic examination of Koch's computers and extracted pornographic images of children. The images were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Child Victim Identification Program for identification of known child pornography victims.

In October, an investigator received a CD with all the information from the forensic exams of the computers. Several child-porn images were found as attachments to emails stored on the computer and several images were found on the computers' hard drives.

The Child Victim Identification Program listed 12 images that "have been identified in previous law enforcement investigations as depicting known child victims of child pornography," the complaint said.

When Koch filed to run for county commissioner, he listed the same Grand Avenue apartment as the one in the complaint. His phone number in the filing also was the same as the AOL account holder, a search warrant affidavit showed.

Shaking our Heads at a Republican Disappointment

03/08/2012 16:01:00

After redistricting placed both state Sens. Al DeKruif and Julie Rosen in the same legislative district, DeKruif announced he would step down and allow Rosen to hold the seat without a challenge. That is unfortunate for conservatives. Julie Rosen has been promoting the growth of government since she joined the Senate in 2002.

Legislators like Mary Franson who consistently advocate for less government are taking the hits for Republicans while legislators like Julie Rosen spend their time in office actively trying to raise taxes and spending. The most recent example, of course, was Rosen trying to double cigarette taxes from $1.23 to $2.52 per pack last month.

If then-state Sen. Michele Bachmann was the legislator taking the hits back in 2005, Julie Rosen was the one doing the hitting. When Bachmann proposed a legislative amendment to repeal Tim Pawlenty’s “Health Impact Fee,” the 75-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes, the amendment failed in the Senate by 19–47, with Rosen being one to vote against it.

Rosen is also a proud member of Al Gore’s cult on climate change. She joined Democratic Sens. Prettner Solon, Metzen & Anderson in co-authoring SF0145, also known as the Next Generation Energy Act of 2007. (Senjem was the only other Republican co-author.) It mandated that statewide greenhouse gas levels decrease by 15 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2015, and by 80 percent by 2050.

As now-Republican National Committeewoman Pat Anderson pointed out in 2009, the act was an effort by misguided Republicans to “‘move to the middle’ by buying into the left's agenda.”

In addition to supporting higher taxes and liberal social initiatives, Rosen has also encouraged the government to spend more -- preferably without input from voters. With help from Rep. Morrie Lanning during the 2011 legislative session, Rosen introduced legislation that would have allowed local governments in Hennepin and Ramsey counties to raise sales taxes to pay for a Vikings stadium without holding referendums, which would otherwise have been required.

Now-Republican National Committeeman Jeff Johnson condemned the action, saying, "We have a [state] law in place that if a locality wants to [raise its sales tax] they can, but they have to have a referendum. Skirting it is wrong," he said.

Similarly, when legislation passed the Senate in 2006 allowing Hennepin County to raise its sales tax without holding a referendum, Rosen joined the 34–32 majority voting in favor. Sen. Bachmann joined the minority, as did conservative legislators like Sen. Hann and Sen. Jungbauer.

It’s hard for conservatives to make progress when they are faced by a vocal, wealthy establishment on the left.It’s even harder when their resources are wasted on Republicans like Julie Rosen. This is one race where Republicans can only shake their heads and save their support for more worthwhile candidates.

Supporting a Conservative Champion

03/05/2012 18:52:00

Conservative Rep. Mary Franson has

come under fire for reading aloud an e-mail that has been circulating in Republican circles for some time. At least, I have been receiving it for some time.

Rep. Franson's reading went as follows:

“I'll read you this little funny clip that we got from a friend. It says, 'Isn't it ironic that the food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps, ever.

Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves."

After receiving complaints,Franson posted an apology online. Nonetheless, the liberal Alliance for a Better Minnesota is circulating a petition demanding that she post an additional apology on YouTube.

In spite of the Star Tribune’s claim (in the title of its “news” story on the topic) that Franson compared “food stamps to feeding the animals,” I don’t see that comparison. She suggested that unsustainable dependency shouldn’t be encouraged. Democrats treat welfare recipients like animals by supporting and encouraging permanent dependency; Republicans treat them with respect by trying to help them become self-dependent. It might be accurate to say that Franson said Democrats treat welfare recipients like animals, but anything short of that is less than accurate.

Would any Republican say that welfare recipients are like animals? That’s pretty unlikely. Would they say that Democrats treat welfare recipients like animals when they encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing rather than give them a hand up? In all likelihood, a lot of Republicans would.

Of course, the Star Tribune and other Democrats will keep misrepresenting Franson and using her to distract from the real issue of welfare form. One proposal that has been introduced would reduce the amount of time welfare recipients may stay on the program from five years down to three years. Any legislator who wants to encourage program participants to become more self-reliable would probably support that proposal. Yet Democrats will not.

Few people in the legislature have been as independent and as supportive of limited government as Mary Franson. Earlier this session, she introduced a bill (with Carolyn McElfatrick and Kathy Lohmer) to prohibit abortion facilities from operating without a license. She also proposed a constitutional amendment eliminating the state income tax. These are bold initiatives that many legislators are too timid to take the lead on.

For these reasons, Franson is high on the list of targets for Democrats, and she should be high on every conservative’s list of legislators to support.

If can afford to help her campaign, you may send contributions to:

Patriots for Mary Franson

2740 Le Homme Dieu Hts NE
Alexandria, MN 56308

Story on MN Caucuses Quoting Me

02/27/2012 09:39:00

Click here or scroll down.

Parties report caucus results

Both Democrats and Republicans turned out on Feb. 7 in Pine County to take part in Minnesota Caucus 2012

Republicans

In the race for the Republican nomination for president, Rick Santorum was the nonbinding winner in Pine County.

With a total of 277 Republicans voting. Santorum received 126 votes; Ron Paul received 82 votes; Mitt Romney received 40 votes; and Newt Gingrich received 29

votes.

The Pine County Republicans reported that there were 52 delegates and 57

alternate delegates elected to participate in the county convention at Hinckley High School on March 1, or 109 people in all.

Pine County Republican Chairman Rudy Takala noted that the Republican presidential race is far from over.

“With only 14 percent of Pine County’s Republicans caucus-goers voting for ‘front-runner’ Mitt Romney, it shows that middle America is still looking for a different candidate,” Takala said. “If party leadership tries to promote him as the nominee when few Republicans want him as the nominee, it could lead to friction similar to what we’ve seen in Iowa and Nevada, where both GOP chairmen have been forced to resign in the last month.”

Democrats

A total of 134 Pine County Democrats came out to the caucus on Feb. 7. In the race to see who will take on incumbent U.S. Representative Chip Cravaack in the fall, Rick Nolan came in first in Pine County with 102 votes, Tarryl Clark received 21 votes, Jeff Anderson received 10 votes and other candidates received two votes.

For president, Barack Obama received 120 votes, while there were 10 votes for other candidates.

Pine County DFL leader Thom Petersen said that that the Pine County group voted in favor of reinstating the Homestead Tax Credit

“Several different precincts passed resolutions opposing the the marriage amendment, requiring a photo ID, the right-to-work amendment and ... requiring a two-thirds majority to raise taxes,” Petersen explained. “There was a lot of opposition in general to legislating by constitutional amendment.”

Petersen said Senator Tony Loury visited the caucus, as did Minnesota House candidates Nathan Johnson and Tom Ladwing, Jr. Chris McHugh spoke for Tim Faust, the third potential House candidate.

"Romney's Economic Closet"

02/24/2012 16:55:00

Compelling piece by Paul Krugman in the New York Times today. Generally I severely dislike Krugman because he is an ideologue over whom faux liberal intellectuals swoon. But his point is worth bearing in mind: "The truth is that Mr. Romney is so deeply committed to insincerity that neither side can trust him to do what it considers to be the right thing." Click here or scroll down to read.

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Speaking in Michigan, Mr. Romney was asked about deficit reduction, and he absent-mindedly said something completely reasonable: “If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy.” A-ha. So he believes that cutting government spending hurts growth, other things equal.

The right’s ideology police were, predictably, aghast; the Club for Growth quickly denounced the statement as showing that Mr. Romney is “not a limited-government conservative.” On the contrary, insisted the club, “If we balanced the budget tomorrow on spending cuts alone, it would be fantastic for the economy.”

And a Romney spokesman tried to walk back the remark, claiming, “The governor’s point was that simply slashing the budget, with no affirmative pro-growth policies, is insufficient to get the economy turned around.”
But that’s not what the candidate said, and it’s very unlikely that it’s what he meant. Almost surely, he is, in fact, a closet Keynesian.

How do we know this? Well, for one thing, Mr. Romney is not a stupid man. And while his grasp of world affairs does sometimes seem shaky, he has to be aware of the havoc austerity policies are wreaking in Greece, Ireland and elsewhere.

Beyond that, we know who he turns to for economic advice; heading the list are Glenn Hubbard of Columbia University and N. Gregory Mankiw of Harvard. While both men are loyal Republican spear-carriers — each served for a time as chairman of George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers — both also have long track records as professional economists. And what these track records suggest is that neither of them believes any of the propositions that have become litmus tests for would-be G.O.P. presidential candidates.

Consider Mr. Mankiw, in particular. Modern Republicans detest Keynes; Mr. Mankiw is the editor of a collection of papers titled “New Keynesian Economics.” In an early edition of his best-selling textbook, he dismissed supply-side economics — the doctrine embraced by the sainted Ronald Reagan — as the creation of “charlatans and cranks.” And, in 2009, he called for higher inflation as a solution to the economic crisis, a position anathema to Republicans like Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, who warn ominously about the evil of “debasing” our currency.

Given his advisers, then, it seems safe to assume that what Mr. Romney blurted out Tuesday reflected his real economic beliefs — as opposed to the nonsense he pretends to believe, because it’s what the Republican base wants to hear.
And therein lies the reason Mr. Romney acts the way he does, why he is running a campaign of almost pathological dishonesty.

For he is. Every one of the Romney campaign’s major themes, from the attacks on President Obama for going around the world apologizing for America (he didn’t), to the insistence that Romneycare and Obamacare are very different (they’re virtually identical), to the claim that Mr. Obama has lost millions of jobs (which is only true if you count the first few months of his administration, before any of his policies had taken effect), is either an outright falsehood or deeply deceptive. Why the nonstop mendacity?

As I see it, it comes down to the cynicism underlying the whole enterprise. Once you’ve decided to hide your beliefs and say whatever you think will get you the nomination, to pretend to agree with people you privately believe are fools, why worry at all about truth?

What this diagnosis implies, of course, is that the many people on the right who don’t trust Mr. Romney, who don’t believe that he’s truly committed to their political faith, are correct in their suspicions. He’s playing a role, and it’s anyone’s guess what lies beneath the mask.

So should those who don’t share the right’s faith be comforted by the evidence that Mr. Romney doesn’t believe anything he’s saying? Should we, in particular, assume that, once elected, he would actually follow sensible economic policies? Alas, no.

For the cynicism and lack of moral courage that have been so evident in the campaign wouldn’t suddenly vanish once Mr. Romney entered the Oval Office. If he doesn’t dare disagree with economic nonsense now, why imagine that he would become willing to challenge that nonsense later? And bear in mind that if elected, he would be watched like a hawk for signs of apostasy by the very people he’s trying so desperately to appease right now.

The truth is that Mr. Romney is so deeply committed to insincerity that neither side can trust him to do what it considers to be the right thing.

Doubling the “Good Taxes”

02/16/2012 09:39:00

Two Minnesota Republicans, Sen. Carla Nelson and Rep. Mike Benson, have proposed doubling the state’s excise tax on cigarettes from $1.23 to $2.52 per pack. Nelson suggested that at some point in the future, the revenue could be used to replace some taxes on commercial property. “It’s getting rid of a bad tax for a good tax,” she said.

Before using it to lower commercial property taxes, the legislators suggested that the intent would be to pay back $2 billion borrowed from Minnesota’s schools to pay for state spending. They estimate the cigarette tax would raise about $160 million per year for the next two years.

The $2.52 tax would tie Minnesota with Wisconsin for having the 8th highest cigarette tax in the nation. Presently, Minnesota ranks 27th.

At $160 million per year, it would take a little over twelve years to pay back the $2 billion shift in education spending, allowing Minnesota to follow through on Sen. Nelson’s promise to lower “bad taxes” sometime in the year 2025. (Surely, legislators in 2025 will remember that promise!) Yet with stiff competition from neighboring low-tax states, even that revenue projection could be overblown.

South Dakota’s excise tax on cigarettes currently constitutes $1.53 per pack, while Iowa charges $1.36 and North Dakota just 44 cents. As Americans for Tax Reform has detailed (and PolitiFact has verified), raising excise taxes on products that residents can easily obtain for a lower price by driving across state lines often has a negative impact on revenue.

After Cook County in Illinois raised taxes on cigarettes by $1 per pack in 2006, a team of University of Illinois-Chicago researchers found in a sample survey of discarded cigarette packs in the county that 75 of them came from outside the area. Chicagoans and other residents of Cook County were flocking to neighboring Indiana to buy their cigarettes. And when South Carolina raised its excise tax in 2010, Georgians sold an additional 1.3 million packs in the six months to follow, while South Carolina saw its cigarette tax revenue actually decline.

The last time Minnesota raised its excise tax on cigarettes was in 2005, when then-Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty passed a 75-cent-per-pack tax increase that he described as a “health impact fee.” Its passage, in addition to an in-door smoking ban signed in 2007, led to a vocal outcry from business owners at the time. It also led to a challenge in 2006 for the Republican gubernatorial nomination from Minneapolis bar owner Sue Jeffers, who now hosts a radio show in the state.

Commenting on the latest proposed hike, Jeffers pointed out the obvious. "Increased taxes hurt businesses and taxpayers. The higher taxes rarely meet promised revenue expectations as a tax hike drops the volume of taxable cigarettes. Gross profits to retailers and wholesalers lead to a loss of sales revenue and jobs. Higher cigarette taxes have also been linked to increased theft and gang activity."

The latest proposed tax hike comes a year after Minnesota legislators passed a record-spending budget totaling $35.7 billion over the biennium, an increase of 12% over the previous biennium. Out of that figure, $1.4 billion spent one-time funds that were borrowed from future tobacco settlement proceeds and shifts in school funding. The shifts in school funding came on top of money still owed by the state to cover shifts that had been used to pay for other budgets in previous years.

Considering that over the last fifty years Minnesota’s spending has increased with every budget except for those passed in 1960 and 2010, Sen. Nelson & Rep. Benson will have to find a lot of “good taxes” and keep on doubling them in coming years if they want to keep up with their state’s rate of spending.
Minnesota legislators need to realize that they have a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Short of that, it will take well beyond the year 2025 to resolve their budgeting issues.