"ALEC" Draz and Winona area Republicans embrace change

Tired of blaming Dayton for tax hikes, Draz and Winona area Republicans embrace change

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen 

In Minnesota tax hikes no surprise, the editorial board of the Fargo Forum writes:

Nobody should have been shocked this week to learn that elected officials representing Moorhead and Clay County gave preliminary approval to property tax increases. They did so grudgingly – Moorhead Mayor Mark Voxland cast the decisive vote on a divided City Council – and vowed that they’d keep scrutinizing the budgets to try to soften any tax hikes before final approval.

The city is forced to find ways to replace $827,000 in Local Government Aid and elimination of a homeowner tax credit paid to cities representing another $538,000 in lost revenue. The $1.3 million revenue gap is a direct consequence of the Minnesota Legislature’s refusal to raise statewide taxes – action that merely shifts the burden downstream to local governments. Cutting the city budget absorbs part of the gap, but the preliminary budget calls for an 8.3 percent increase in property tax, translating into $73 more in taxes on a $140,000 home.

Read the whole editorial which, like so many of Greater Minnesota's editorial judgments concerning the property tax shift, is as withering as an mid-September frost.  It leaves the legislative majority just as exposed as limp zucchini, defrosting in the garden:

So, while members of the Minnesota Legislature can crow about their achievement in holding the line on spending, local taxpayers repeatedly have been forced to pay higher property taxes – often cited by voters as the least popular tax. Ultimately, Minnesota voters will have to decide if they want that to continue.

The Mankato Free Press board observed that now Property tax boosts start with the state:

It will also be more difficult now for state legislators to say that property taxes are strictly a local decision and come from the local level. Clearly, the Legislature and the governor changed state law in a way that will likely cause local property taxes to rise, even if locals don’t increase their levies.

Looking to Minnesota's southeastern corner, it's not surprising to find ALEC model lawmaker Steve Drazkowski doing the sort of crowing that the Forum editors derided. For as the editors of the Winona Daily News recently pointed out with regard to local school levies, the corporate bill factory zombie has no shame.

Today's Winona Daily News reports in Lawmakers reconsider cutting property-tax creditthat Draz and his pals have broken with House GOP Tax Czar Greg Davids' gambit of blaming Dayton entirely for the elimination of the homestead credit. Now it's just tough love, perhaps the local government equivalent of torching a daughter's provocative panties.

Draz and other Southeastern Republicans aren't the ones doing the reconsideration mentioned in the headline. They're doing the sort of crowing scorned by the Forum and other editors:

"The credits make it difficult for our cities, counties, and townships to budget when they're not sure how much of a credit they'll receive from the state," said Jeremy Miller, R-Winona. "Everyone seems to agree that in the long run, the homestead exclusion will be better for the budget processes at the state and local level."

Miller must move in very small circles to think that "everyone seems to agree" that the homestead exclusion will be better. Perhaps he's merely riding the rhetoric of the world's smallest bandwagon. Howe has a slightly different cackle:

Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, and Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, agreed.

"By changing to an exclusion, the state's trying to be up front with counties and municipalities," said Howe. "When we make decisions on the local level, residents get better results."

But for Draz the Destroyer, it's pure anti-revenue template:

"We shouldn't make promises we can't keep with money we don't have, and that's just what reinstating the credits would do," said Drazkowski.

DFLers Ann Lenczewski and Paul Marquart proposed a bill this week to bring back the homestead value market credit.

Image: Chocolate Drazombie bunny, by Tild.

Related posts: "Breathtaking chutzpa": House Tax Czar Greg Davids haz it, DL Online sez

This is not what reform looks like: Faribault paper calls out legislators on end of Homestead Credit

Mr. Accountability: Greg Davids not ready to take hit on homestead credit property tax change

Posted by Sally Jo Sorensen on Sep 16, 2011 at 07:32 AM in Cities, Counties, Governor Mark Dayton,Minnesota legislature, Politics, Postmoronic Politics, State Legislature, Taxes |

Exclusive: Clinton in talks over possible move to World Bank

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives for a news conference after the third contact group meeting on Libya, at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, June 9, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Jumana El Heloueh

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON | Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:16am EDT

(Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been in discussions with the White House about leaving her job next year to become head of the World Bank, sources familiar with the discussions said on Thursday.

The former first lady and onetime political rival to President Barack Obama quickly became one of the most influential members of his Cabinet after she began her tenure at State in early 2009.

She has said publicly she did not plan to stay on at the State Department for more than four years. Associates say Clinton has expressed interest in having the World Bank job should the bank's current president, Robert Zoellick, leave at the end of his term, in the middle of 2012.

"Hillary Clinton wants the job," said one source who knows the secretary well.

A second source also said Clinton wants the position.

A third source said Obama had already expressed support for the change in her role. It is unclear whether Obama has formally agreed to nominate her for the post, which would require approval by the 187 member countries of the World Bank.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney denied the discussions. "It's totally wrong," he told Reuters.

A spokesman for Clinton, Philippe Reines, denied Clinton wanted the job, had conversations with the White House about it or would accept it.

People familiar with the situation, told of the denials from the White House and State Department, reaffirmed the accuracy of the report.

Revelations of the discussions could hurt Clinton's efforts as America's top diplomat if she is seen as a lame duck in the job at a time of great foreign policy challenges for the Obama administration.

Under normal circumstances, names of potential candidates for the World Bank would not surface more than a year before the post becomes vacant. But the timing of the discussions is not unusual this year given the sudden opening of the top job at the bank's sister organization, the IMF, after Dominique Strauss-Kahn's resignation following his arrest on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid in New York.

The World Bank provides billions of dollars in development funds to the poorest countries and is also at the center of issues such as climate change, rebuilding countries emerging from conflict and recently the transitions to democracy in Tunisia and Egypt.

WOMAN HAS NEVER HEADED WORLD BANK OR IMF

The head of the International Monetary Fund has always been a European and the World Bank presidency has always been held by an American.

That gentleman's agreement between Europe and the United States is being aggressively challenged by fast-growing emerging market economies that have been shut out of the process.

The United States has not publicly supported the European candidate for the IMF, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, although Washington's support is expected.

Neither institution has ever been headed by a woman.

If Clinton were to leave State, John Kerry, a close Obama ally who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is among those who could be considered as a possible replacement for her.

Clinton's star power and work ethic were seen by Obama as crucial qualities for her role as the nation's top diplomat, even though she did not arrive in the job with an extensive foreign policy background.

She has embraced the globe-trotting aspects of the job, logging many hours on plane trips to nurture alliances with countries like Japan and Britain and to visit hot spots like Afghanistan and countries in the Middle East.

She has long been vocal on global development issues, especially the need for economic empowerment of women and girls in developing countries. She has made that part of her focus at State. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has also been involved in those issues through his philanthropic work at the Clinton Global Initiative. (and selling nukes and uranium .. )

(Editing by Kristin Roberts, David Storey and Peter Cooney)