Posted: 08/30/11 01:10
by Dave Mindeman
Governor Dayton singled out the proposed "Protect the Rich From Taxation" Amendment which the GOP Legislature is touting as their centerpiece of legislation next session....which he promptly and rightly blasted.
The proposed constitutional amendment would require a super majority vote for future tax increases. I am assuming that means a 60% majority. A number that would be nearly impossible to get, in what has become a very divided state and legislature.
And, again, this is another Republican method of dirtying up the Constitution to align with their own policy agenda. The Constitution has always demanded that Minnesota's budgets be balanced, but it has never taken sides on how to achieve that goal.
Written as a balanced forward looking document, it had assumed that the governor and legislature could figure all of that out without furthur restrictions.
But that is not enough for this "new" legislature. They are certain that we, and all future generations, are going to want societal and budgetary issues to be decided in the manner of current conservative philosophy.
Governing philosophies change over time. No legislature in the past has deemed it necessary to make future legislatures agree with their current philosophy. No legislature in the past has imposed its own will on the next generation.
At least not until now.
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa , the chief sponsor of the proposed amendment, said the threshold would force the Legislature to focus on redesigning government rather than on raising taxes.
Redesigning government. We have gotten a glimpse of how this legislature deals with any redesign. All we got was a shutdown, more Constitutional amendments, debt service, budgetary gimmicks, education funding chicanery, and less people getting health care.
That's not a redesign, that's renouncement. A renouncement of government that works.
And a violation of our sacred Constitution.
