Minnesotans for Tax Increases?

The Minneapolis Star Tribune features this arresting headline: “Raise taxes, Minnesota citizens tell Senate panel.” If you actually read the article, however, the Strib’s wishful thinking is clear. The citizens in question–“citizen after citizen,” as the Strib says–were a group of union activists and others who attended a forum sponsored by the Senate Taxes Committee at a Minneapolis school. And the taxes they want raised are not, needless to say, their own; they advocated raising taxes “on high-income families or corporations.” Whoever, just not me.
Fortunately, that is a distinctly minority view. As the article regretfully acknowledges, “It’s no secret that DFLers at the State Capitol, already reduced to their fewest numbers and weakest position in 30 years, have been in a terrible bind over how to respond to [Governor] Pawlenty’s adamant opposition to higher tax rates. Republicans control the House by a yawning margin….The last bastion is the Senate, but DFLers hold a slender margin — 35 to 32. And on fiscal as well as social issues, it is commonly agreed that liberals are in the minority.”
The Taxpayers League has done a great job of leading the fight against Minnesota’s notoriously high taxes over a period of years; the League’s efforts are now bearing fruit.