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Our Congressman Erik Paulsen will host a job fair on Monday February 8 1:30-5:00 p.m. at Normandale Community College in Bloomington. Link here for the details. |
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Reading all the horse race-coverage of the 2010 campaign for governor, it’s striking to see how all the DFL candidates continue to use the same old playbook, with the same old directions: “Raise taxes, make the wealthy pay their fair share, and increase revenue to pay for government programs.”
Ten DFLers have either announced they’re running or are “exploring” a run; one would think that a field this large would produce a broad spectrum of ideas and policies. Nope.
This crowd is surprisingly united around the need to raise taxes. In fact, they’re tripping over each other to display their zeal for tax increases.
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From the Politics in Minnesota website:
First-term Minnesota state Rep. Keith Downey, R-Edina, has been named a co-chair of the bipartisan House Small Business Caucus.
The caucus, made up of legislators from around the state, hopes to improve the state's overall environment for small businesses and entrepreneurial growth.
"This is an important time for the state to rethink its policies toward small business," Downey said in a statement. "I appreciate the opportunity to help lead and collaborate with a diverse group of lawmakers and business owners."
Downey said he plans to urge caucus members to "avoid short-term thinking" and identify policy changes that will help Minnesota's small businesses and startups to "thrive for the long haul."
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Minnesota needs a better business climate -- not more government.
By Keith Downey
Minnesotans have never shrunken from a challenge, and we are ready to rebuild our economy. But do we really need 36 politicians in St. Paul cooking up short-term state government job creation?
Unfortunately, that's the current edition of the House Jobs Task Force (of which I am a member).
Von Bismarck compared the law to sausage -- it is better not to see the end product being made. But Minnesotans should watch this task force closely. After two meetings it seems poised to do nothing, or worse, for the state's economic recovery. At a time when state leaders should be working to improve our business climate and should be relying on our dynamic businesses and talented workforce to create jobs, instead the task force is holding hearings on government-grown jobs, including a jumbo state bonding "stimulus" bill.
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By Tim Pawlenty
Minnesota has a lot of great traditions. Unfortunately, limiting the growth of state government spending isn't one of them. From 1960 to 2003, state general fund spending increased by an average of more than 21 percent per two-year budget cycle.
To put that in perspective, per capita income in Minnesota typically grows at about 5 percent per two-year budget cycle. State government spending grew more than four times faster than per capita income. That's unsustainable and reflects an ever-growing appetite for more and more government spending at a rate that's far outpacing private sector growth.
We've put the brakes on state spending during my nearly seven years in office, limiting annual spending growth to an average of 2.2 percent. But there's no guarantee that kind of discipline will continue.
That's why I'm proposing we let Minnesotans vote on a "Spending Accountability Amendment" to the state Constitution that would cap spending at the level of revenue actually received during the previous budget period.
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