Residual Forces

DFL Speaker of the House Margaret Kelliher is out with her new plan for The Nanny State formerly known as Minnesota

Saying they’d begin voting as soon as Thursday, the new House Democratic majority introduced proposals Monday that would further their long-stated goals on education, health care and property taxes.

The list largely mirrors a set of objectives Democrats outlined on the campaign trail: assured health care coverage for poor children, statewide access to all-day kindergarten programs, boosted classroom funding, relieved pressure on local property taxes and increased production of renewable energy.

“Today we’re not just talking the talk, we’re going to walk the walk,” said House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis.

But the DFL leader is refusing to admit how much it would cost.

Kelliher refused to estimate the cost of the package. She said Democrats would pull money from a projected $2.17 billion surplus and cover other priorities by more aggressively going after people and businesses who don’t pay what they owe in taxes.

Does that mean, there won’t be tax increases? I’m guessing if the $2.2 billion dollars is not enough to pay for the entire DFL package, we’ll be seeing a budget well over $33 billion dollars.  Meaning this new package is BIGGER than $2.2 billion. Which raises the unanswerable question, how much is enough for our state?

Most of the items will take months to move through the Legislature. [...]

Meaning even in the DFL liberal bastion now known as the Minnesota House, these nanny state ideas won’t be well received, even by DFLers.

[...] But House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, said one bill could clear the floor this week.

The bill would line Minnesota’s tax code up with changes made by Congress late last year. Roughly 110,000 low- to middle-income Minnesotans would be able to deduct up to $4,000 from tuition and related expenses, depending on income. And an estimated 54,000 Minnesota teachers could deduct up to $250 for classroom supplies they purchase.

Its too bad that with $14 billion plus (yep nearly 50% of the state’s budget, K-12 education couldn’t provide the necessary classroom supplies for every classroom, but then again, why should they worry about the actual tools for education. Minnesota’s Education Department is merely a jobs program for the teacher’s lobby, Education Minnesota.

Regarding the taxpayer funded college tuition, is there any way we can expect to see achievement requirements that will go along with the handouts? Don’t hold your breathe.

The child-health measure would extend coverage to uninsured children as long as their family’s income is less than 300 percent of the federal poverty line. For a family of four, the poverty line is currently $20,000. Estimates of the uninsured children population now range from 68,000 to 90,000. Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and majority Senate Democrats have also embraced the cover-all-kids policy.

I’m a family of one, can I sign up? Free health care! Whoo hoo! Party!
And what would any good liberal DFL plan be without the green factor?

Pawlenty and House Democrats have some differences when it comes to energy. Pawlenty has set a goal of getting 25 percent of the state’s power from renewable sources by 2025. The DFL plan demands that it be done five years sooner.

Do we really have to go through how renewable energies have nothing to do with energy supply? We don’t have enough land to put up enough windmill or grow enough corn to replace oil and coal. For crying out loud folks. Farms USED to be a bad thing. Pesticides, herbicides. Why doesn’t anyone care about all the polluted run off in lakes and streams anymore? I’d call the green movement nothing more than an impending imminent environmental disaster just waiting to be legislated.

Also mixed among the DFL’s top bills is a proposal to avoid future government shutdowns, like a partial stoppage that occurred when lawmakers failed to adopt a timely budget in 2005. The bill would keep government spending at current levels if a budget isn’t passed by June 30 in years the budget is set.

Great, I support it. Pass it and go home….. forever.