Chris Johnson wrote: > Let's be clear about one thing: Governor Tim Pawlenty, his > administration and his political cohorts are the A-1 problem in the > Minneapolis Public Library's budget. Regardless of any valid criticism > of past or present library administration or board, the 30% or $2.8 > million cut in Local Government Aid (LGA) is the gorilla in the living room.
The gorilla I see romping through all these financial discussions is lack of accountability. Everyone wants someone else to pay. Sure some of the money they've got at the state level came from Mpls residents and Mpls-based businesses, but that's a poor reason to expect them to send the money back. The state should only be grabbing the money they need to run state-wide enterprises. When they distribute the money all over God's creation (and they do enough of that even excluding LGA), then it is much harder to track where the money is actually being spent. How do we judge if the right amount of tax money is being spent when we can't track the money. Also, the recipients of this "free" cash are likely to spend it in places where they would never spend their own money. After all, if they don't spend it, they don't get to keep it for something else; it's simply lost to the city. If Mpls wants to spend money on its programs, they should tax its own citizens. When I pay tax for the Library Board, I expect the money to be spent on Mpls libraries, and similarly when I pay tax to the state. > What the Pawlenty camp has done to the libraries, the city and more, is > steal tax revenue. We pay that revenue in the form of income tax, sales > tax and more, but instead of distributing it back to the cities who pay > it, in a somewhat more equitable arrangement state-wide, Pawlenty and > company have used it to fix THEIR problems in the state level budget. > Remember that Pawlenty was House Majority leader for the past decade. > What did he do about the state's financial situation during that time? > He made it worse. Why should they distribute the money back equitably? It makes a lot more sense for it to stay here in the first place if that's what it's for. If the state would send back a certain proportion of the tax specifically paid by Mpls residents, I'd be fine with that. Then there would at least be a connection between the tax and pay and the benefits we receive. But collecting all the money in one pot and then sending it back again turns the cash into free money for the city. I don't want that dirty money, and I hope the other municipalities won't get any either. I sure hope Pawlenty trying to solve the state's problems with his budget, and not other jurisdictions. HE was elected to run the state. > Then just to rub salt into the wounds, the state won't let local taxing > entites use broad, fair taxes like income or sales taxes. The only tax > they can use is the often unfair and regressive property tax. > This is fine with me. But of course you only put this at the end as a club to enhance your argument. Do you really want more income taxes and sales taxes in Mpls, or are you really only interested in free state money. And why does Mpls need all this extra tax money when other jurisdictions seem to do fine with just property taxes? Sure, we have more poverty and have some centralized assets that suburbanites use, but we also have a much larger business base on which to levy tax. I think we spend more mainly because we are more dependent on the nanny state, not that we need to spend more than others. > The city of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Public Libraries and > Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board have all taken huge cuts in their > LGA funds. It's about time that we decide how much we want to spend and tax ourselves that amount. Nice job, Pawlenty! Mark Anderson Bancroft TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
