According to ProgressNow’s Denise Cardinal, Gov. Dayton is doing a great job of focusing the conversation on his budget. Friday night on Almanac, here’s what Ms. Cardinal said:

MS. CARDINAL: Let’s get real. Guns and gay rights is something that’s also getting talked about nationally so I don’t think there’s anything we could’ve done that would’ve avoided talking about those things. And I would actually disagree. I think the Governor’s done a great job of talking the pillars of his budget. I noticed that they’re talking about the relief it would give working families who have kids that are about to go to college.

Ms. Cardinal is a prefessional spinmeister. She didn’t say a thing that’s accurate. The nation isn’t having a major discussion on gay rights. A few highly funded special interest groups are pushing to start the conversation but the DFL, after saying “who are we to say no to these couples?”, is now doing their best to ignore these couples.

 

There was a brief moment in the immediate aftermath of the Newtown, CT, shootings that the nation attempted to have a conversation about stopping school violence. Unfortunately, that conversation got hijacked by anti-Second Amendment activists.

As for Gov. Dayton doing a great job “talking about the pillars of his budget,” that’s laughable. What he’s done thus far is talk rather defensively about his tax increases on Minnesotans. His sales tax proposal will hit everyone. Cities will be especially hard hit. When a city like Sauk Rapids remodels their downtown, they’d need an attorney, an architect and an engineer to turn Sauk Rapids’ vision into a reality.

The Dayton/DFL/Lenczewski sales tax increase could cost a city like Sauk Rapids $500,000 or more for a significant-sized project. Cities wanting to remodel their city that aren’t getting LGA would be faced with the option of either not doing their project or getting hit with a massive property tax increase to pay for the project.

When the bill got a hearing in committee, a Plymouth city official testified that Plymouth would pay an additional $690,000 thanks to the Dayton/DFL/Lenczewski sales tax increase.

Plymouth isn’t the only local government that would be negatively affected by the Dayton/DFL/Lenczewski sales tax increase. Beltrami County would be negatively affected by the sales tax increase, too. The truth is that there won’t be any cities or counties that won’t get hit with this sales tax increase.

The Dayton administration, including Ms. Cardinal, haven’t talked about the negative effects the Dayton/DFL/Lenczewski sales tax increase will have because their primary goal is to raise taxes to pay for more spending on their political allies. This isn’t about tax fairness. This isn’t about creating jobs or tax reform.

What’s saddest about this tax increase is that it’s cutting into people’s buying power because government won’t take an inventory of what it’s supposed to do, then implement a plan that accomplishes the things it’s required to do at the most reasonable price.

It’s time that the DFL admitted that they aren’t about putting Minnesota on a path of prosperity. They’re about paying off their special interest allies even if it means hurting job creation.

Comments welcome at Let Freedom Ring.