Carol Becker has it exactly right about regressive taxation.
However, she's far too polite here to mention that the reason
we have this situation is because of the Republicans who
control the House. They insisted on a more regressive system
of taxation. Yes, I know that we DFLers controlled the Senate,
and as a matter of fact Senate DFLers fought those changes
tooth and nail, but when you have a Governor (Jesse) who
sided with the House against us, two against one usually wins.
The results are bad for Minneapolis residents, who wind up
paying higher property taxes, and now we're facing a GOP
administration that plans to slash local government aid,
which will only make the problem worse.
Don Jorovsky
New Brighton
I think the debate about the public casino is a fabulous red herring,
designed to take focus away from the real story. The real story is this: we
had a period of unprecedented good economic times. Yet during that time,
the average taxpayer saw substantial tax increases, while businesses, rental
property owners, and high income people saw substantial decreases in their
tax rates. That means that low and middle income people pay more and pay
more of the pie. When interviewed recently our new Finance Commissioner
said specifically that recent tax changes were designed to do that. When
times come to raise taxes, we then find new and even more regressive ways of
increasing taxes, a casino being one of them.
Carol Becker
Longfellow
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