After Two Week Government Shutdown and the No-New-Tax Republicans Win, Minnesota Turns to Raising Taxes to Build Football Stadium

 Thoughts While
Waiting for Minnesota to Return from the Twilight Zone.

The State of Minnesota is ending a two week+ shutdown of the government because Republicans would not agree to raise taxes on millionaires to pay for vital state services.  They were willing to engage in budget gimmicks and new borrowing to preserve tax rates for the wealthy, and so the stage is set for a budget that will fix everything and return the state to normal.

Normal, of course, is a relative term.  Minnesota has been considering spending $650 million, paid for in part by the state (which doesn’t have the money) and in part by an increase in the sales tax in St. Paul (because it doesn’t have the money).  It turns out that the timing right now isn’t all that great for approving the stadium.

Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Fairmont, said that the stadium bill could be acted on during a special session later this year, perhaps in the fall. She said that she remains “strongly committed” to the bill, along with Gov. Mark Dayton and House sponsor Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead.

“We will have a vote on [the stadium bill] and we’ll work to get it passed,” Rosen said. “But if I tried to get a vote on it right now, I’d be strung up.”

And for those who need it spelled out why

“There’s not a lot of support for cutting people off health care, cutting jobs, then turning around and authorizing bonding for a stadium,” said Rep. Michael Nelson, DFL-Brooklyn Park, a stadium bill co-author

Minnesota used to be the home of good Democrats and moderate Republicans.  Now it gives the country Tim Pawlenty, Michelle Bachmann, Conservatives who will shut down state government to keep taxes from rising on millionaires.  It is a state that is so broke that it has to rely on a $700 million budget gimmick and a $700 million borrowing spree just to pay the bills and it wants to build a football stadium for a private, highly profitable NFL team.

Why, Minnesota, why?