Minnesota's Legislature Elects a New People

The Minnesota State Legislature ended its 2013 session with a hurried whimper, minutes before midnight on Monday, May 20^th. 

One of the last orders of business—the nearly 400-page tax bill—turns out to have been one of those “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it” situations.  The next-day headlines focused on the $2.1 billion in tax increases:  income tax hikes, corporate tax hikes, tobacco tax increases, sales tax increases, etc.  Not included in that figure are the $ hundreds of millions hidden as “fees” in the dozen or so spending bills that fund state government.

Now that the tax bill has passed, the sordid details are starting to trickle out.  Since Monday we have learned about $250 million in tax breaks for the Mall of America expansion, a $33 million bailout of the Minneapolis Central Library, and taxpayer money for a 3M corporate expansion in Maplewood.  The $400 million in subsidies for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and a $33 million bailout of St. Paul’s Xcel Energy hockey arena were already known before the bill was voted on.  We are preemptively bailing out the new Vikings stadium, on which construction has yet to start.  I’m confident we will learn about more big-dollar taxpayer gifts over the next few weeks.

We will hear a lot about the few items left undone by the Democrats when the clock ran out: minimum wage hike, gasoline tax increases, and a new “bullying” law.  Don’t worry, all of that and more will be done in 2014.  Already scheduled for a 2014 do-over are the warehouse and ag taxes dropped in at the last second.

When asked to sum up the 2013 session, Democrat Gov. Mark Dayton offered one word: "progress."  Indeed, the Governor’s progressive allies have been taking victory laps since the gavel fell on Monday night.  On Tuesday morning, the first sentence of the Minneapolis Star Tribune story on the session’s end read,

Minnesota DFL legislators scrambled to patch together the final budget measures late Monday night, charting a dramatic new course for the state.

Sadly, for once I agree with the Star Tribune.  We are taking a dramatic new course in state government.  Not so much because of the new taxes, spending, and thousands of additional new state employees:  all of that could be reversed in the future, should Republicans regain control.

The dramatic new course comes from redefining as the responsibility of state government what used to be the responsibility of local communities, families, parents, and individuals.

The state takeover of the health insurance industry, through the new healthcare insurance exchange, was one high-profile item.  Less publicized are the state taxpayer bailouts of local police, fire, and teacher pension funds in St. Paul and Duluth

The worst example, of course, is the forced unionization of home childcare businesses.  The verbal gymnastics required to re-classify small business owners as state employees—for the sole purpose of forcing them to pay dues to a private labor union—does great violence to the concept of the private citizen.

Democrats did not do what they said they would do.  Despite $ billions in new taxes, the school shift is not being paid back.

Democrats did do what they said they would not do.  Despite the uproar over last year’s constitutional amendments, they voted to put another amendment on the 2016 election ballot…an amendment to raise their own pay.  They will use general fund money to pay for the Vikings stadium.

In the end, I believe this legislative session will be recalled as historic, but not for the reasons imagined by the Democrats.  The Star Tribune quotes Gov. Dayton as defending the session with these words,

Dayton said the budget deal will show that government has a role in improving the lives of Minnesotans.  "We believe in a positive role for government," he said.

In 2013, the Democrats controlling the state legislature succeeded in redefining the relationship between citizen and government.  From the founding of this nation, through the founding of this state, right up until the second decade of the 21^st century, we defined government as the representative of the people.  In 2013 Minnesota, we’ve redefined it as the other way around.