Legislative Watch, House Edition 1

This will the first in a series of posts keeping an eye on what our state legislators are doing in St. Paul.  We’ll start off looking at our representatives in the State House.

Newcomer Rep. Ernie Leidiger (34A) has been busy signing on as a co-author on 11 bills so far in the session.

The 11 bills are:

H.F. 1:  streamlining permitting processes

H.F. 4:  mandating a 15% reduction in the state workforce

H.F. 5:  implementing a wage freeze for all remaining state employees

H.F. 6:  increasing the penalty for first degree criminal sexual conduct

H.F. 9:  removing the prohibition on planning for new nuclear power plants

H.F. 50:  creating new license plates honoring female veterans

H.F. 89:  requiring photo identification to vote

H.F. 92:  repealing the penalty on school districts who do not reach negotiated agreements with their teacher’s unions

H.F. 103:  modifying eligibility for unemployment benefits

H.F. 187: a constitutional amendment that would require the Legislature to establish a process for replacing members called into active military duty

H.F. 201:  ending public funding of abortion

Rep. Joe Hoppe (34B) thus far has only signed on as an author of H.F. 1.

Let’s talk about a couple of the bills that Leidiger is supporting. 

H.F. 4 (reducing the state’s workforce by 15%) may strike many as a common-sense measure.  We do face a $6.2 billion deficit, after all, and cuts are going to have to be made.  However, setting an arbitrary workforce reduction target without thinking about what services the state government will need to provide is a recipe for disaster.

I sincerely doubt Rep. Leidiger runs his business in such a way, determining how many employees he will hire without regard to how much activity needs to be performed.  The proper way to go about reducing state workforce is to determine the functions that are no longer needed or duplicated in multiple agencies.  Once you know what services you will be providing, then you can determine the correct staffing levels and look for additional savings and efficiencies. 

For all of their talk about bringing private-sector management techniques to state government, Minnesota Republicans sure don’t govern that way.

Meanwhile, H.F. 89, requiring voter ID at the polls on Election Day, is a solution in search of a problem.  There’s no evidence of significant voter fraud in the state.  In fact, nearly every documented case of voter fraud in this state during the past decade can be traced back to felons attempting to vote before completing their probation, many of whom did so because they weren’t notified about the status of their voting rights.  The DFL-controlled Legislature passed a solution supported by every County Attorney in the state during the last legislative session:  send a letter to felons that clearly state whether or not they are eligible to vote.  The Republican Governor vetoed the bill.

And that doesn’t even touch the very real problem that many voters who don’t currently have photo identification (typically the poor and elderly) will be disenfranchised by the law.  This is a law that is designed to discourage people from voting.  Period.  Since when do we as Americans want to keep our citizens out of the democratic process?

Date change for Downtown Open House and other items

The public open house to review the initial output of the Downtown Master Plan has been moved back to Wednesday, February 16.  The event will still be held at the Chaska Community Center Community Room from 7-9 p.m.

Other news from around the city:

• The Two Twelve Medical Center opens February 1.   An open house will be held on Saturday, January 29 to allow the public to tour the facility and meet the providers.
• Needful Things Boutique opens February 2 at 212 N. Chestnut St.  They are moving to downtown Chaska from Jordan (the Jordan location will be open through January 29).
• The City Council will be making appointments to the city commissions at tonight’s meeting.  The staff report for the council meeting shows that they still may be short on applicants for the Heritage Preservation Council. 
• I continue to hear middling-to-outright awful reviews on La Quebrada.  Has anyone had a good experience there?  If so, drop me a comment, and tell me about it.  Sure hope to hear better things soon!

And pigs will fly…

I agree with Frank Long – let’s televise the entire County Board meeting.

Building a better business climate in Minnesota

The new legislative session has started, and even though we’ve got a $6.2 billion deficit to address, there are already calls for tax cuts for business.  It’s seemingly taken as a matter of widespread agreement that Minnesota has an “unfriendly” environment for business.  But is that really the case?  Crunching the numbers indicates that the conventional wisdom on this issue may not in fact be correct.

A recent study by the Council on State Taxation (a collection of 600 large corporations) and the accounting firm Ernst & Young compared states by calculating the ratio of actual tax dollars paid by businesses to states, counties, and cities versus the GSP (Gross State Product) of private sector companies.

This is a different measure used than in most analyses, which merely rank states based on their corporate income tax rate.  Minnesota has a fairly high base corporate income tax rate, and as such doesn’t fare well in these rankings.  As we all know from our personal income taxes, though, the actual tax that we end up paying doesn’t match what bracket we are in because of the various exemptions, deductions, and credits that are in our tax law.  Well, the same things apply to business taxes as well.

When you look at the actual amount of business taxes paid as a ratio the economic activity in the state, Minnesota fares significantly better.  In fact, Minnesota’s ratio of 4.3%, is tied for 16th in the nation, ahead of such purported tax havens as Arizona (4.8%, tied for 26th) or Florida (5.3%, 37th).  Minnesota even fares better than Nevada, South Dakota, and Texas (all at 4.9%, tied for 28th).

Yes, you heard that right.  Minnesota businesses pay less in taxes as a percentage of total economic activity than businesses in Nevada, South Dakota, and Texas.  What’s the Sioux Falls radio guy going to say now?

So the answer to getting Minnesota’s economy back on track isn’t cutting business taxes.  We know that.  All we have to do is look at the experience of the last decade.  Since 2000, we have had five rounds of federal tax cuts and created about 2 million private sector jobs nationwide over that time.  In the 1990s, we increased taxes and created 20 million private sector jobs.  The answer to encouraging economic growth is much larger and diverse than merely cutting taxes.

So what are those answers?  Well, we know what they are.  They are time-tested and proven.  Even with our deficit, we need to protect and promote the societal infrastructure that has given Minnesota such strong economic performance over the last three decades and which has begun to decay over that time.

It’s physical infrastructure (roads and bridges, the electrical grid), it’s education (from early childhood through our colleges and universities) and it’s health care (protecting children and the poor).  As Jeff Rosenberg at mnpublius.com points out, for the cost of the corporate tax cuts, we could make investments that would almost certainly do more to add jobs and create long-term prosperity.

January 2011 Poll: Best Full Service Restaurant in Chaska

A new feature on the blog will be a monthly poll regarding something going on in the community.  This month, readers can name the best full-service restaurant in Chaska.  Feel free to use the comments to explain your vote!

Downtown Master Plan Open House on February 2

The public open house for the Downtown Chaska Master Plan has been set.  It will be on February 2, from 7-9 p.m. at the Chaska Community Center Community Room.

District 112 Kindergarten registration packet problems

Are you a parent of a child slated to start kindergarten in September?  If so, pay attention.  You were supposed to receive a registration packet from Eastern Carver County Schools.  However, because of a problem in the mailing process, many parents (our family included) have not.

If you haven’t received your packet, here’s what you can do:

• Download the packet from the District 112 Kindergarten Center website
• Attend a Full-Day Kindergarten Open House.  Tours will be held at Bluff Creek Elementary (January 12 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.), Chaska Elementary (January 12 at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.), Kindergarten Center (January 13 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.), Victoria Elementary (January 13 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.), Chanhassen Elementary (January 14 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.) and Jonathan Elementary (January 14 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.)

Kindergarten registrations are still due by February 1.

It doesn’t sound as if the District intends on proactively communicating to parents at this time, so it’s up to you to follow-up and take the necessary steps.