I've cced the Taxpayer's League staff on this one - and I encourage others to do likewise.
Eva Young writes:
>>While at the convention I met David Strom from the Taxpayer's League. >>I asked Strom where the Taxpayer League was with opposing Stadium >>Taxes. Strom told me he thought the DFL if they were smart would >>make the >>republicans get the votes to support the stadium and the Northstar >>corridor >>without Democratic help. While I agree with this, it didn't answer >>my >>question about where the Taxpayer League was on this issue.
Actually he did. He won't take a position until Wigley et. al. tell him what to do. Wigley, in turn, will coordinate strategy with the Republican leadership and Pawlenty's office. Your party and the Taxpayers League are joined at the hip on all major issues.
Rick Mons Tanglewood neighborhood of Shoreview
Reasonable question. My Hennepin County Sales Taxes are in imminent danger of getting raised 1/2 percent without a referendum for the Twin Stadium? Where is the Taxpayer's League? Who is Wigley?
Wigley is Michael R. Wigley, age 50, of Orono, who I believe is the head guy behind the Taxpayer's League -- he is at least a board member. He's also a member of the Freedom Club, if my information is correct.
According to the Sontra Medical Corporation web site (www.sontra.com):
"Michael R. Wigley, M.B.A.
/Director/
Mr. Wigley joined the Sontra board in June 2002 upon the merger of ChoiceTel Communications with Sontra. Since 1989 Mr. Wigley has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Great Plains Companies, Inc. a diversified holding company. Mr. Wigley has B.S. and B.C.E. degrees from the University of Minnesota and holds a M.S. degree from Stanford University and a M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School. Mr. Wigley serves on the boards of several private and non-profit organizations and is a regent of Luther College."
ChoiceTel Communications, then of Plymouth and now of Wayzata, sold its pay phone business to Access Anywhere of Minneapolis in December, 1999. Access Anywhere is the company that paid Tim Pawlenty $4,500 a month for 13 months while he campaigned for governor. Access Anywhere's CEO is Elam Baer.
Here's an interesting blog entry from somebody who knows Wigley personally:
"Minnesota Republican Governor-elect Tim Pawlenty has named a 16-person transition team full of friends of ours. The St. Paul Pioneer Press account is particularly astute: "Pawlenty fills transition team with moderate, conservative Republicans." <http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/4610361.htm> The article notes the connections of several of the transition team members to Minneapolis's conservative think tank, the Center of the Amerian Experiment. Rocket Man is the immediate past chairman of the Center; both he and I are current members of its board. Mike Wigley, a member of the transition team who is a Center board member with us and who is also a member of the board of the Minnesota Taxpayers League, is simply a ferocious, take-no-prisoners conservative stalwart and advocate of limited government. He is only one of the sixteen, but on average, and despite the tenor of the Pioneer Press account, this is a very conservative transition team. May it be an omen!"
Chris Johnson Fulton
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