Taxpayers League of Minnesota eUpdate
1. Get Your Message Out to Thousands of Minnesotans – Tax Cut Rally – May 2nd 2. Yes We Can! 3. Taxation Without Representation 4. Nanny State Alert 5. A Private/Public Partnership? 1. Get Your Message Out to Thousands of Minnesotans – Tax Cut Rally – May 2nd Are you looking to get the word out about your conservative cause or organization? Thousands of Minnesotans will descend upon the Capitol grounds on May 2nd for the 2009 Tax Cut Rally and you’ll want to get your message in their hands. Sign up now to have an exhibitor table at the Tax Cut Rally. A table under the shared exhibitor tent is $100, and a stand-alone exhibitor tent is $500. There are limited spaces available, so contact Sara Linert today by calling 651-294-3590 x. 207 or by email to reserve your spot. Help advertise the 2009 Tax Cut Rally by printing off this flyer and passing it out to everyone you know! 2. Yes We Can! The Taxpayers League, along with Minnesota Budget Solutions, has gathered proposals from ordinary taxpayers to help identify opportunities to restructure state spending, and then collaborated to put the ideas into practical solutions. The result is a 16-page document that solves the budget deficit using existing resources and doesn’t require federal “bailout” money or new taxes. The budget proposal, titled “Real State Budget Reform” includes recommendations to save the state $6.6 billion through restructuring and greater efficiencies. It also suggests “revenue-neutral” reforms that the group believes will improve Minnesota’s overall economic situation, resulting in more revenue for the state in coming years. This is more than just a band-aid and it brings real reform that will have a lasting effect on Minnesota’s economics. The budget proposal is being distributed to all state legislators and to the governor. Call your representatives today and tell them to support the “Real State Budget Reform” budget proposal. You can view Minnesota Budget Solutions’ proposal here. 3. Taxation Without Representation Last month a grassroots coalition of Duluth citizens and taxpayers filed a lawsuit against the Duluth School District. In June of 2007 the school board adopted what has been called the Red Plan which is basically a long-range plan for how they will use, buy, and sell the district’s facilities. The price tag for the Red Plan is $437 million and is set to be spent without a vote by the taxpayers who will foot the bill. The school district used a legal loophole to adopt the Red Plan. The loophole is state law which allows school districts in special cities to bond for “health and safety emergency problems.” But the red plan doesn’t spend money only on these types of problems, but will instead will remodel some facilities and build three completely new schools. Many school district levies have been proposed and passed in Duluth, but this one is different because the citizens didn’t have the opportunity to vote on this one. Even though the grassroots organization Let Duluth Vote has gathered over 3,000 signatures in hopes of getting a vote on the Red Plan, the school board still refuses to put the issue to a vote by the people. If there’s a local tax-and-spend issue in your community that you would like to fight, consider joining the Taxpayers League and the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota for a training session on starting your own Local Taxpayer Watchdog group. The training is free, and is scheduled for Saturday, May 9th from 9-1:30pm in New Brighton. Email Brad Biers for more information and to reserve your spot. 4. Nanny State Alert Liberals like to think that they can make this world 100 percent safe by legislating anything that could possibly hurt us, our kids, the environment, etc. That being said, a “nanny state” law made the news last week. First, in true “nanny state” fashion, the Consumer Product Safety Commission Act was passed in 2008 to ban metal (which contains lead) from existing in products for kids age 12 and younger. Those supporting the bill never thought about kids’ bikes or kids’ clothing with zippers or buttons. They also didn’t think about dirt bikes and ATVs for kids, which is why manufacturers of dirt bikes and ATVs were trying to get an exemption to the law for their products. This is what can happen when politicians and lobbyists use scare tactics, like stories of kids swallowing metal parts, in order to get much-to-general legislation passed. What’s the chance that some kid is going to start chewing on his metal bike? Since kid dirt bikes and ATVs can no longer be legally purchased, many people will just buy adult-sized units for their children. How will “nanny state” activists feel about that? 5. A Private/Public Partnership? The new Administration has now taken one of the most overreaching steps since the bailout frenzy started over a year ago. President Obama “basically” fired CEO of General Motors Rick Wagoner. Where did President Obama get this authority? What is his next step into the private market place? The line between the public and private sector has been blurred by Obama’s Administration to a point where we soon may not be able to distinguish who is on which side. Should failing CEO Rick Wagoner have been fired? That was a decision for the GM Board not President Obama. It’s never the government’s job to fire anyone in the private sector. General Motors should file for bankruptcy right now and get it over with before they are forced to start making the “Obamamobile”.
