September 1-3, 2016
Sep 01 01:28 Dayton's dishonesty, part infinity Sep 01 09:04 Paul Thissen: dishonest & partisan Sep 01 16:43 The DFL's deafening silence Sep 01 18:06 Paul Thissen & the ACA Sep 02 10:22 DFL hates farmers, laborers Sep 02 12:23 Dayton-DFL indoctrination Sep 02 13:18 Let's spend $11,000,000 foolishly Sep 03 04:49 School Board hires St. Cloud Times Sep 03 19:00 Special session still possible?
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Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Dayton's dishonesty, part infinity
There's no question about whether Gov. Dayton is dishonest. The only question left to determine is how dishonest Gov. Dayton is. I'd say that he's exceptionally dishonest if I'm using this article to determine Gov. Dayton's dishonesty.
According to the article, Gov. Dayton " said that 'the cost of inaction' by state lawmakers had caused the price increase." Gov. Dayton knows that the legislature has nothing to do with the price increase because Adam Duininck told him that the SWLRT project was being put off by the federal government . Commissioner Duininck told Gov. Dayton that "the federal government has no plans to execute a funding agreement until sometime in 2017 because of ongoing litigation regarding the project."
The "ongoing litigation that they're talking about is something I've started calling the Tunheim Lawsuit. It's a lawsuit being tried in federal court. The Tunheim Lawsuit won't start until Sept. 17, 2017. The FTA, aka the Federal Transportation Administration, won't lift a finger until that lawsuit is settled. The earliest that lawsuit will be settled will be January, 2018.
That's actually the least of the Met Council's worries. It isn't likely that they'll win the Tunheim Lawsuit. It's that they have no chance at winning the lawsuit that the Calhoun-Isles Condominium Association might bring. The Calhoun-Isles Condominium Association hasn't filed a lawsuit yet but if they did, they'd win.
This paragraph is wishful thinking:
The Council, backed by Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, has proposed to authorize $103.5 million in debt, with the Hennepin County Regional Real Authority and the Counties Transit Improvement Board contributing a total of $41 million - enough to ensure $900 million in federal dollars for the light rail project.
This isn't based on reality. It's based on what the Met Council, the Hennepin County Regional Real Authority and CTIB wish would happen. They know, though, that it won't. They know it won't happen because they've been told that it won't happen.
Posted Thursday, September 1, 2016 1:28 AM
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Paul Thissen: dishonest & partisan
I've written more than a few posts highlighting Rep. Thissen's dishonesty. It's nice to know that others have noticed those traits in him, too. This op-ed , written by Rep. John Petersburg, who represents House District 24A, cites the same traits.
Rep. Petersburg starts his op-ed by saying "It was amusing to read Minneapolis Minority Leader Paul Thissen's inaccurate and partisan letter to the editor in this last week's paper attacking Rep. Brian Daniels and House Republicans over special session negotiations. Thissen and liberal Metro Democrats are desperate to say and do anything this fall to defeat hardworking legislators like Brian. Why? It's simple: Paul Thissen wants a return to single-party Democrat control in Minnesota."
It's time that Minnesota accepts as fact that Rep. Thissen is one of the most disgusting men to serve in the legislature. He's been accused of making derogatory statements about GOP staffers . House Majority Leader Joyce Peppin, Reps. Mary Franson, Tony Albright, Marion O'Neill, Tara Mack, Dan Fabian and Jim Nash, stated in their letter that Rep. Thissen "routinely made derogatory remarks about our staff by name on the House floor and in the Rules Committee. These comments were made knowing that our staff cannot respond in kind and that staff has no microphone to defend themselves."
This paragraph highlights Rep. Thissen's dishonesty:
I find Minority Leader Thissen's partisan finger pointing especially interesting given that he personally wrote a letter to Gov. Dayton calling for Hwy. 14 funding to be removed from any special session bonding bill . It's seems Rep. Thissen is trying to have it both ways and is being disingenuous with Faribault Daily News readers.
It's clear that Rep. Thissen isn't interested in working to make Minnesota better. He's interested in being a dishonest partisan hack who's interested in one-party rule in St. Paul.
Posted Thursday, September 1, 2016 9:04 AM
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The DFL's deafening silence
The longer that the DFL sits silent about pushing Gov. Dayton on the Republican tax relief bill, the easier it is to figure it out that they voted for it because it was politically poisonous not to vote for it. It's getting easier to figure it out that rural DFL legislators side with their metro leadership rather than with their constituents. Thanks to this op-ed by Sen. Gazelka, it's getting easy to detect the DFL's intention of rallying to their metro base.
Sen. Gazelka highlighted what's wrong with the DFL when he said "After Democrats walked away from the table on special session negotiations, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Bakk finally came clean about his real motivation for killing the tax cuts and transportation spending. He complained the bills were too focused on rural Minnesota and needed to be balanced with more money for the Twin Cities. This is where local legislators normally come in handy to bring some common sense to the discussion. Unfortunately, Sen. Matt Schmit, DFL-Red Wing, spent the summer standing loyally by his liberal metro leadership as they demanded the train at the expense of Winona County taxpayers. Does he agree with his leader that the bonding and transportation bills spent too much on Greater Minnesota? I say it's about time! Judging by Sen. Schmit's vote to add the train into the bonding bill in the last minutes of session, and his silence on the issue since then, we have to assume he sides with party leadership instead of his own constituents."
The question that every conservative activist needs to ask their neighbors when the last time was that their DFL legislator stood up against their metro leadership. I suspect that these DFL legislators haven't stood up against the metro in a very long time, if ever. I suspect that Sen. Schmitt is the rule, not the exception, within the DFL.
Sen. Schmitt didn't lift a finger to bring about $550,000,000 worth of tax relief or $700,000,000 in transportation projects. Sen. Schmitt saluted Sen. Bakk and accepted his marching orders. I suspect that Sen. Bakk appreciates loyal foot soldiers that do what they're told. That's what Sen. Schmitt is. That's what Dan Wolgamott would be. This paragraph says it all:
House Republican Speaker Kurt Daudt likened Democrats' attitude to "throwing their suckers in the dirt" and walking out because they didn't get what they wanted. Instead of working together to finish the things we all agree on, they are content to let it all go up in smoke. Meanwhile, $550 million in tax cuts and $700 million in transportation funding are stalled while our roads continue to fall apart.
I'd modify that paragraph just slightly. Instead of saying that the DFL walked out "because they didn't get what they wanted", I'd say that they walked out because they didn't get everything they wanted. The DFL is the party of spoiled brats. They fight for the metro brats all the time.
The simple truth is that voting for the DFL is a vote for the metro DFL.
Posted Thursday, September 1, 2016 4:43 PM
Comment 1 by JerryE9 at 02-Sep-16 09:28 AM
Correct, but I think you need to add, in case it may not be sufficiently obvious, that the Metro DFL are fools and wastrels.
Paul Thissen & the ACA
Paul Thissen and the DFL must think the turnout of uninformed voters must be high. That's the only explanation for Rep. Thissen's tweet asking "Kurt Daudt in 2014: "We will ensure fair access and affordability in health care." What happened?"
Simply put, the DFL, 'led' by Rep. Thissen, Sen. Bakk and Gov. Dayton essentially told Minnesotans that the DFL didn't care about their wallets. Rep. Thissen, Sen. Bakk and Gov. Dayton and the rest of the DFL essentially said that they'd fight for President Obama, not for their constituents.
Thanks to the DFL's steadfastness to their leaders, not to their constituents, the DFL has shown where their loyalties lie. While Rep. Thissen's and Gov. Dayton's loyalties lie with President Obama's failed system, Republicans are committed to ideas that've worked in the past.
In the past, Republicans supported systems like the 'skinny Gottwalt', a system devised by former Rep. Steve Gottwalt. Rep. Gottwalt's system would've guaranteed high rates of people getting insured (when he was in the legislature, 93% of Minnesotans were insured with another 3-4% of people eligible for taxpayer-subsidized insurance. Obamacare doesn't come close to hitting the 97% mark of people getting insured.
In short, Rep. Thissen, Republicans wanted to implement a superior plan and the DFL wouldn't let them because the DFL was more beholden to President Obama than they were to doing what's right for their constituents.
Posted Thursday, September 1, 2016 6:06 PM
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DFL hates farmers, laborers
If anyone needs proof that the DFL hates laborers (the L in DFL supposedly stands for Laborer), they should look at this map of the new alternative route that Enbridge will use to get their Bakken oil to market:
I wrote this post to highlight the DFL's indifference to pipefitters and other blue collar workers. The metro DFL environmental activists threw up hurdle after hurdle to prevent the Sandpiper Pipeline. The DFL won. The Sandpiper Pipeline won't be built. Enbridge decided to avoid Minnesota and route their pipeline through North and South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
The oil will flow. The commodity will still make it to market. The DFL 'won', if you consider losing hundreds of high-paying heavy equipment jobs to other states winning. (HINT: The Metro DFL thinks this is a victory. Since the Metro DFL runs the party, the DFL considers this a victory.)
The DFL isn't the party of the blue collar workers. This is who they are:
Today's DFL is led by a trust fund governor who's lived a life of carefree luxury. It's led by a House Minority Leader who lives in a tony Minneapolis enclave and pays more in property taxes than some people make in a year . It's led by a clownish U.S. Senator who made a fortune playing the fool in Hollywood, writing vacuous trash while doing dope. All three live in Minneapolis and consider walking down to the farmer's market to pick up some kale to be "farming."
That isn't all. Think of this:
Of course, the antidote for this malaise would be to get more mining jobs up and running, especially for those minerals, ferrous and non-ferrous, that have recovered in price point. But the urban elites who run the DFL won't allow it. Instead, they engage in a cynical game of stringing people along, claiming that there's just "one more" environmental regulation to clear.
Years later, miners are still waiting for good jobs. They won't be coming, at least so long as Mark Dayton is governor. You see, there is no intention to allow this mining to start up. It's all a smoke screen to cop some more votes out of Iron Rangers for the next election.
It's about the false hope. The DFL party has delayed considering a resolution to oppose mining. It wasn't defeated. Only delayed until after the election.
The DFL abandoned farmers, the F in the DFL, when Gov. Dayton vetoed a tax relief bill that would've provided hundreds of farmers property tax relief. Gov. Dayton didn't fight for farmers . Instead, Gov. Dayton fought for the SWLRT project .
When it was decision time, Gov. Dayton and the DFL fought farmers, laborers and other blue collar workers. They fought for environmental activists and the metro.
Posted Friday, September 2, 2016 10:22 AM
Comment 1 by eric z at 03-Sep-16 07:57 AM
You disrespect Angie Craig and Rick Nolan, but your party has yet to offer a viable alternative. Mills III and the talk radio bloviator with a John Galt complex are jokes.
Mills III comes across as a decades later Dan Quayle. Born on third base, etc.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 03-Sep-16 09:01 AM
That's an opinion, not a statement of fact. I thoroughly reject your opinion. If Jason Lewis is so terrible, why did Paul Wellstone enjoy debating him on a weekly basis? Those shows were some of the best radio that's ever been done.
Stewart Mills' 'crime against humanity' is that his family made money selling quality products to farmers, mechanics & families at reasonable prices. Oh, the inhumanity of the Mills family selling people good products at fair prices. As for being born on third base, that's just the DFL's class warfare propaganda. Who cares what base a person was born on? I didn't hear you complaining that Gov. Dayton was born on third base. I didn't hear you criticize Paul Thissen for living in a home whose property taxes are more than many people make in a year. Why haven't you been consistent on that, Eric? Is it because you've turned a blind eye towards people you agree with? Shame on you.
Dayton-DFL indoctrination
I just received an indoctrination email from Gov. Dayton's office. The opening paragraphs of the email state "ST. PAUL, MN - Standing beside the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Fish Pond at the Minnesota State Fair, Governor Mark Dayton this week announced a " Year of Water Action " Stewardship Pledge, which will last throughout the year. The pledge calls for Minnesotans to rethink how water impacts daily life and the lives of future generation; to use water efficiently and wisely in everyday activities; to learn more about what individuals can do to protect and preserve water; to make informed consumer choices; and to talk to one another about water protection and preservation.
"As I travel across Minnesota, I hear frequent concerns about the quality of our state's water," said Governor Dayton. "The future of clean water in Minnesota is dependent on the action we all take now. That is why I am asking all Minnesotans to join me, in pledging to protect and preserve clean water throughout our state."
Let's stipulate that Gov. Dayton means from DFL stronghold to DFL stronghold when he talks about travelling across Minnesota. Appearing anywhere that people might confront him definitely isn't part of Gov. Dayton's agenda. (FYI- It isn't part of Sen. Franken's agenda, either, but I digress.)
Let's understand what this is. This is the Dayton-DFL indoctrination program. Surely, people can't oppose cleaner water, they'll tell you, knowing that they'll require a new raft of regulations that they'll later use to strangle jobs on the Iron Range and throughout rural Minnesota. The DFL's indoctrination is especially targeted at children:
Turn off water faucets? Carry your own water bottle? These sound like things they told us before the first Earth Day half a century ago. (Or whenever it was. FOOTNOTE: The first Earth Day was on 4/22/1970 so it's only been around 46 years, not 50.)
Let's remember that, with the DFL, no age is too early to indoctrinate kids on the environment. Here's a question worth pondering: how can the political party that believes in indoctrinating children about the environment side with miners, farmers and blue collar workers? I'd submit that they can't support miners, farmers and blue collar workers while indoctrinating children about the environment.
Posted Friday, September 2, 2016 12:23 PM
Comment 1 by Terry Stone at 02-Sep-16 12:44 PM
After decades of cleaning up Minnesota's 200,000 pristine bodies of water, let's declare victory and move on to Iron Range unemployment and that education gap thing.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 02-Sep-16 12:50 PM
You mean you think that letting people prosper is more important than a "Year of Water Action"? Seriously, the DFL doesn't care about the middle class. If they did, they'd try to strike a balance between environmental regulations & putting people to work at PolyMet & Twin Metals. It's horrifying that they always side with the Sierra Club & Conservation Minnesota.
Comment 2 by eric z at 03-Sep-16 07:54 AM
Those not treasuring clean potable water should move to Flint.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 03-Sep-16 09:09 AM
Eric's flimsy argument is built on the notion that Minnesota will be like Flint if we don't strangle more businesses with overregulation. For every Flint, MI, which was run into the ground by a Democrat BTW, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of success stories where conservative Republican governors have balanced essential environmental regulations with creating jobs. It's entirely possible but fanatics like Eric think that we can't overregulate businesses. Perhaps, that's because Eric is an anti-capitalist. If he is an anti-capitalist, he should watch this.
Comment 3 by JerryE9 at 03-Sep-16 06:54 PM
One might think that if Dayton were concerned with clean water he would NOT have vetoed the funds to do it, holding them hostage until he go his all-important choo-choo train. And now that he's done the end run around the Legislature, he is STILL not releasing those funds.
Let's spend $11,000,000 foolishly
The next time that the budget is being put together, I hope Republicans will tell airheaded liberals like Betsy Hodges and Chris Coleman to stick it where the sun doesn't shine when they ask for their LGA increases. I wrote this post to highlight the fact that Chris Coleman was upset that he'd have to cut firefighters or police officers because evil Republicans didn't give him an additional $3,000,000 in LGA. Because Coleman spent money he wasn't owed and didn't have, St. Paul suddenly had a $3,000,000 deficit.
As stupid as that sounds, Coleman's in the minor leagues compared with Betsy Hodges. Betsy Hodges wants to spend $11,000,000 "beautifying the Convention Center plaza." She wants to do that because, in Hodges' estimation, the Minneapolis Convention Center plaza's "lush grass, huge, funky animal sculptures, and fine trees" aren't good enough. She wants to "plant more trees, level its tilted slope, and install electricity hookups and tent anchors so NFL VIPS might hob-knob inside party tents when Super Bowl LII comes to town in 2018."
This is classic DFL spin:
Hodges' spokesperson David Prestwood says it's needed to "maximize the space." And it "makes sense to do it now" because the city is slated to also host the X Games and the 2019 Final Four.
That sounds good but it isn't wise when you consider this:
The job of the 33-member, citizen-led Capital Long-Range Improvement Committee is to review spending requests. Most recently, it scrutinized 97 projects, the plaza among them. The others included construction of a new fire station and sidewalk and intersection improvements so that kids can safely walk and bicycle to school.
The panel graded the proposals on various criteria such as level of need, cost, and public benefit. They were competing for a funding pool totaling about $150 million.
After all that, the citizens committee essentially flunked the Convention Center project:
But the committee ranked the plaza 95th out of 97.
Let's get serious for a moment. This isn't the exception for Minneapolis. It's worth checking this post out:
We've been staking out the four fabled city-financed artistic drinking fountains in Minneapolis recently. We wanted to see what the nearly $50,000 per fountain from our property taxes and water fees buys. You can judge for yourself from the photos.
That's right. Minneapolis spent $200,000 on "artistic drinking fountains." Comparing R.T. Rybak with Betsy Hodges in terms of foolish spending is foolish. Rybak is a conservative compared with Hodges. Here's the bad news:
Thus, the only ones standing between spending $11 million on lights, grading, and trees at the convention center plaza is the Minneapolis City Council.
It isn't surprising that people are leaving Minneapolis as fast as their feet will fly.
Posted Friday, September 2, 2016 1:18 PM
Comment 1 by Nick at 02-Sep-16 11:53 PM
The only cities that people flee more in the Midwest are Detroit and Chicago. Detroit may be coming back, but only in the Downtown and Midtown areas. Everywhere else in Detroit, it's trashy.
Comment 2 by eric z at 03-Sep-16 07:49 AM
Starting by looking at your headline, I thought it was going to be about another dumb military adventure; or raising pay grades for senior officers.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 03-Sep-16 09:12 AM
Sorry to disappoint. It's just more proof that progressives like Betsy Hodges spend money more foolishly than anyone. Spending $11,000,000 on a plaza is stupid enough. Spending it on a plaza that's already nicely decorated is disgusting.
Comment 3 by Nick at 03-Sep-16 09:28 AM
I used to live in Kansas City, MO and when I was working there, I had to pay city income taxes. Some of those tax $$$ were used to subsidize a loss-making entertainment district called the Power and Light district. Ex-Mayor Kay Barnes wanted the district so that KCMO could be more like Chicago. Detroit recently emerged from bankruptcy and soon after, all the Detroit city council members wanted a pay raise, but they are already making $70,000/yr.
School Board hires St. Cloud Times
This St. Cloud Times editorial shows how out of touch the Times is with St. Cloud voters. The editorial opens by saying "Driven by residents' input after last fall's defeat of the bond referendum to build a new Technical High School, St. Cloud schools Superintendent Willie Jett is welcoming a reasonable potential solution to one of the biggest concerns residents have raised: What happens to the current Tech campus?"
That's nothing but hot air. I'm betting that few people asked about what would happen to the "Tech campus" if the referendum passes this fall. (It won't.) I'm betting that even fewer people care that "the district is willing to keep a school district presence there." That's a peripheral issue at best. Most people want to know if building a new school is necessary They're questioning that because spending money on a new Tech HS will cause their property taxes to skyrocket.
The people that've contacted me or that've spoken out on this want to know if this is the best option going forward. Simply put, they aren't certain it is. That's why they defeated it last fall. The School Board has spent the past year making the same unpersuasive arguments that it made before. People want answers to specific important questions. They don't care about answers to peripheral questions. This is their problem:
District leaders are open to the recommendation from a very high-powered panel that the district move its administrative offices and Welcome Center into the portions of Tech built in 1917 and 1938.
This "high-powered panel is just as out-of-touch with voters as the School Board. It's a case of the blind leading the blind. This high-powered panel has spent years not listening to people. Now they're expected to hear what people find most important? This high-powered panel couldn't find the American mainstream if they had a GPS and a year's supply of gasoline.
The plan came from a panel made up of outgoing school board member Dennis Whipple; St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis; Mike Gohman, president of W. Gohman Construction; Patti Gartland, president of Greater St. Cloud Development Corp.; Teresa Bohnen, president of St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce; and Henry Gruber, a longtime St. Cloud business owner.
I know these people. Of this panel, I'd only trust Mike Gohman and Henry Gruber. The rest, I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them if I had 2 broken arms and a bad back.
Posted Saturday, September 3, 2016 4:49 AM
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Special session still possible?
It almost seems impossible that Gov. Dayton might call a special session this year but that's what Don Davis is reporting in this article . He's reporting that "Gov. Mark Dayton said at the Minnesota State Fair that if local money could be found to support a southwestern Twin Cities light rail project, and the Legislature did not need to take action on the issue, he would talk to key lawmakers about calling a special session to take up a tax bill and funding public works projects."
Let's be clear about this. Republicans shouldn't let the DFL off the hook if a special session is called. There's no disputing the fact that the DFL was perfectly prepared to throw rural Minnesota under the bus to shove the SWLRT project down rural Minnesota's throats.
Republicans put together a strong bonding bill in the House that included $700,000,000 worth of funding for improving Minnesota's most dangerous roads and bridges. DFL senators, in a last night hissy fit, said no to those highway improvements by insisting that SWLRT funding be included in the bonding bill. The DFL did that despite the fact that DFL senators refused to include $135,000,000 in SWLRT funding in their $1,800,000,000 (that's $1.8 billion) bonding bill. If SWLRT was a high priority to DFL senators, why didn't they include funding for it in their bill? Further, if it's such a priority to them, why did every DFL senator vote for their bonding bill even though it didn't have a penny of funding for SWLRT?
These are questions that the DFL hasn't answered because the DFL can't answer those questions. The DFL is playing political games, which is what politicians do when they can't run on what they've accomplished. The DFL has shown that they care about the Metro than they care about all of Minnesota.
The last night of the session, the DFL didn't hesitate in putting a significantly higher priority on funding light rail than they put on tax relief for farmers, veterans, small businesses. The DFL didn't hesitate in putting a higher priority on a project that won't get built for at least another 5 years than they put on making the most dangerous stretches of highway safer.
Is that really the types of priorities we want the legislature to have? If citizens want priorities that fit all of Minnesota's priorities, defeat the DFL. They've shown what their priorities are. They aren't Minnesota's priorities.
Posted Saturday, September 3, 2016 7:00 PM
Comment 1 by JerryE9 at 04-Sep-16 10:05 AM
I see from the morning papers that Dayton is now interested in a special session, having snuck around the Legislature to get his toy train. I'm guessing the DFL must be getting beat up pretty badly out on the campaign trail, as I certainly hope. But the GOP should insist that this underhanded "deal" for SWLRT be "approved," as a standalone vote, in any special session. Otherwise, keep on banging on them.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 04-Sep-16 12:30 PM
Jerry, the reason I wrote this post is to give the good guys some talking points to make sure the DFL doesn't have any squirming room on SWLRT. The DFL decided not to fight for $550,000,000 worth of tax cuts because SWLRT was their highest priority. The DFL decided to kill $700,000,000 worth of transportation projects that would've made some of Minnesota's most dangerous highways safer to fight for SWLRT, a project that, in its current form, has no chance of getting built within the next decade.
Republicans, remind voters every day you're out door-knocking that the DFL put a higher priority on a vanity item than they put on saving people's lives on Minnesota's most dangerous highways. That's today's DFL. They aren't for the middle class. They're for themselves. Period.
Comment 2 by JerryE9 at 05-Sep-16 09:04 AM
Well said, sir.
