February 20, 2003
Thank you for not raising my taxes!
Let's see… you chose not to raise my taxes by a maximum of $1,000 per year for the next two years and instead your decision will cost us $4,150. Wow I am glad we moved to Minnesota to admire your "common sense approach" to government. Now I remember why I don't vote for republicans.
Right on. I cannot believe that people are really being fooled that not raising state taxes will result in cost savings. Of course the costs are being pushed off to city and counties, so people may well end up spending more in taxes. Not to mention the cuts in human services that will result in higher long-term spending. Hopefully the legislature will pass something a bit more sane than Pawlenty's no-new-taxes approach, but I doubt it.
I confess that I am having a hard time looking at the big picture in budget questions beyond the cuts that might put me out of a job. Normally I'd be outraged about gutting programs that do serious good in people's lives, all in the name of silly, short-sighted campaign promises. Okay fine, I am outraged. But it's taken some time and more energy than I have available to think beyond how this will affect my ability to put food on the table.
That selfishness, of course, is part of the problem. I love Bob Collins's comment about people in the suburb where he lives, who
...often have houses that are too big, which they purchased for the status of it all, they're running a couple of SUVs which costs $80 a throw to fill up and probably are leased or have a pretty large monthly payment. They've got 3-bay garages, better to hold the boat and SkiDoo with and they think the reason they're having a had time making ends meet is their property tax bill.
Damn frelling straight.
