The Taxman Cometh! (and he cometh for thee)

I’m usually not the kind of guy to tell somebody, “I told you so”. I don’t even, really, mean this as an “I told you so”. But it’s so frustrating, because I saw this coming the whole time, and I feel powerless to do anything about it. I mean sure, I have a bit of a platform as a musician who is out in public, and I have a microphone, but I have been reluctant to use the stage as any kind of political platform. I have to get this off of my chest, however.

The lawmakers in Minnesota seem to have this crazy notion that they are welcome to any and all fruits of our labor. Like a child, they have been sneaking around for a long time, looking for an opportunity to steal cookies before dinner. Well, they have finally been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Minnesota is the 4th highest local/state tax burden in the nation (http://www.taxpayersleague.org/NewIssues/TaxFacts/TaxFacts.htm). Yet they want to increase the:
gas tax (http://ros.leg.mn/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H1469.0.html&session=ls85),
income tax (http://ros.leg.mn/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H1738.0.html&session=ls85),
alcohol tax (http://ros.leg.mn/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H1050.0.html&session=ls85),
and sales tax (http://ros.leg.mn/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H1463.0.html&session=ls85).

They want to create a mileage tax, a special prefab home sales tax (http://ros.leg.mn/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H1458.0.html&session=ls85), and a plastic surgery tax (to quote the author of that bill: because the people that can afford to get plastic surgery, can afford to pay the tax). This is their most brazen example of irresponsible behavior, to date.

Let’s look specifically at this gas tax proposal. The money from this tax is supposed to go to fix the roads. Everyone wants better roads, right? Remember an article I wrote in November called, “Just Vote No”? (You can scroll down to find it.) Here was my argument in a nutshell. We, the voters of Minnesota bought the “Vote Yes” campaign, hook, line, and sinker. It was a constitutional amendment to divert 100% of all vehicle taxes over to roads and mass transit. So far, so good. No one, however, seemed to read the small print. It stated that no more than 60% could be used for roads, and no less than 40% could be used on mass transit. So, there’s no floor on roads. They can spend as little as 0% on roads. There’s no ceiling on spending for mass transit. They can spend as much as 100% on mass transit.

See where I am going with this? No one seems to remember that we just appropriated a bunch of new monies to the roads. No one seems to be talking about that. What happened to those monies? Where are they? I want to see figures. Why won’t we? Light rail is eating up all of that money! They have nothing left for roads. Do you really trust them with more of your money? If your friend asked you for $100 to get his car fixed, and then came back to ask you for another hundred dollars, because the last hundred dollars was eaten up by a phone bill and a case of Corn Nuts, would you give it to him?

I demand accountability from those we send to represent us in government. The sneaking around has got to stop. No more money. You have a huge surplus of our money ($2.136 billion)that you’re already refusing to give back! Learn to use what you have better, before you reach your hand into my pocket.

If you live in Minnesota, here’s how to get a hold of your government officials and demand (politely) to keep your money- http://www.leg.state.mn.us/leg/legdir.asp. After all, you worked hard for it.