There have been so many bad ideas floating around this legislative session. One place that has chronicled them is the Saint Paul Legal Ledger, a place for legal notices (business is doing very well due to bankruptcy filings and foreclosures) and wonky news articles and commentary. What follows are some brief notes on articles published there in the last month. The topics include legislative pay; ethanol/biodiesel mandates; the tax burden; corporate welfare and welfare to local governments; and health care policy. (Links are subscriber-only).
May 8
“Let the people decide.” Rep. Dennis Ozment (R-Rosemount) thinks that legislators need a pay raise to attract a more diversified set of candidates. The House Rules committee wants voters to approve a change to the constitution. The upshot: Remove having legislators having to vote on their own raises.
“Is Ethanol to blame?” has a profile of the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association who, naturally, supports ethanol mandates. It also discusses the efforts of Rep. Joyce Peppin (R-Rogers) to do away with state subsidies. Huzzah!
“Ethanol’s benefits to Minnesota are no myth,” says one commentary. Well, ethanol mandates do have benefits — to Minnesota corn growers and processors, at least. To everyone else? Myth. Give Rep Randy Demmer (R-Hayfield) and Rep. Al Juhnke (DFL-Willmar) credit for pointing out that India and China are part of the global market for food. Now if some other politicians would remember that point when it comes to oil consumption, too.
“Hold the line, at least” is an account of a press conference and tour by Jonathan Williams, of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Williams says that Minnesota’s taxes are too high. I agree. Go to www.alec.org and take a look at “Rich States, Poor States.”
“Oh say, is that star-spangled banner made in the U.S.A.?” is a story about how other states are looking at imitating one of Minnesota’s silliest laws: Outlawing the sale and purchase of foreign-made American flags.
“Minnesota shouldn’t wait,” Tom Emmer argues in a commentary that Minnesota should act on a recent Supreme Court decision and require photo ID in elections. Damn straight.
May 5
Minimum wage bill focus of debate features a photo of Archbishop Harry Flynn, along with Sen. Ellen Anderson (DFL-St. Paul) and Sen. Tarryl Clark (DFL-St. Cloud). They’re all smiling. Why does this photo make me nervous? Buried in the story is yet another chapter of inane argumentation. Flynn supports a higher minimum wage because, “If we can send people to space, it seems we can find a way so that every woman and man can live with dignity.”
Let’s try out this logic in another arena: We can send a man to the moon, so why can’t I play golf like Tiger Woods?
“Deal reached for 35W bridge collapse victims.” The Legislature has opened up a big can of worms and put it on the shelf for use whenever anything else goes wrong.
May 1
Legislature addressing pension fund troubles: State worker pension fund only 91 percent funded. It’s about time that someone looks into this situation, which is largely caused by overpromising benefits. I wrote a commentary on this issue last year.
Aid cuts squeeze townships. According to the state auditor’s office, “state financial support for towns has declined and local property taxes have increased” over the last 10 years. That sounds like …, well an end to subsidies. Is that a bad thing?
April 28
House passes 20% biodiesel requirement may not attract a lot of popular attention, since most of us don’t drive diesel vehicles. But the effects will be indirect, in higher costs for food and other products. Incredibly, the Minnesota House passed the measure, which requires that 20 percent of diesel sold in the state to include “soybean oil or other oils.” (Why not dictate that all beer in the state be brewed with corn? Oops. Forget I said that; it may give someone an idea.)
Rep. Dean Urdahl gave away the game when he supported the bill, saying “This is the time to end the disaster in the pasture.” Right from the Jesse Jackson school of political rhetoric? Anyway, it’s another case of welfare and income transfers—in this case (again) to farmers. Ethanol advocate Rep. Juhnke dismissed (again) the argument that laws requiring the burning of food lead to increases in food prices: “He said soybean oil is mostly confined to things like deep-frying food and salad dressing.” Good thing nobody in Minnesota eats salads or fried foods. Oh wait; better take out some extra cash from that ATM if you’re going to buy some food-on-a-stick at the state fair.
April 24
The caption of the photo that accompanies “Public funds center of MOA growth debate” reads in part: “Some workers [union officials’] said, have to move outside Minnesota because there are too few construction jobs in the state.” And that justifies taking money from other people? Sounds like someone needs to read Economics in One Lesson to avoid the Broken Window Fallacy.
“Taking a holistic look at taxes” is about the governor’s tax reform commission. I’ll give a tax reform package in four words: Flat tax. Cut taxes. OK, a few more words: The governor is right in arguing that the state needs more predictable sources of income. In technical terms, the current approach is pro-cyclical—not what you want a tax system to be.
Disputed HCAF dollars drive budget discussion is about the 2 percent tax that is levied on the gross revenues of health care providers—an in turn, health care consumers. There’s a move to create a constitutional amendment to prohibit the state from using those dollars for anything that isn’t related to health care. I suppose. But rather than shovel dollars into MinnesotaCare, how about reducing mandates on individual policies, following the lead of recent laws in Georgia and Missouri, which go a ways towards making insurance portable—and personal, not public.
April 21
“Genetic testing measure prompts debate over privacy.” The House votes unanimously to test infants without parent’s written consent. Testing may be useful, but without consent? Whose kids are these, anyway? (Think of all the crime we might
“Minnesota greenhouse bill proposes more study.” Sounds innocent enough, but legislative studies have a way of morphing into legislative action, usually counterproductive. The bill in question involves a cap-and-trade system “aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” Put aside the wisdom of doing anything about “greenhouse gas emissions” for the moment, but if you’re going to do that, a carbon tax is a more transparent way of doing so. I
“House passes bill on low-cost health plan requirements.” I’ve got an idea: How about eliminating all those mandates that Minnesota puts on plans that individuals buy? Minnesota has more mandated benefits than any state in the country, according to the Council for Affordable Insurance.