Blog Archive for 2012
May 16, 2012
We’ve pulled together a list of what we consider the more important initiatives that were passed by the Legislature and presented to the governor, whether they were signed or not.
May 16, 2012
Here are some of my thoughts on the omnibus tax bill and the expenditure type reporting.
May 11, 2012
The labor force participation rate is not increasing as we crawl out of the recession and as the unemployment rate drops.
May 9, 2012
Less than a week after Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed the omnibus tax bill, a second omnibus tax bill passed in the House and is waiting for a vote in the Senate. The first bill was good. This second bill—a sincere effort to compromise with Dayton—is, well, half as good.
May 8, 2012
The Senate version of the Vikings stadium bill has a provision tucked away in the last two pages that seems a bit out of place.
May 3, 2012
I read in the Star Tribune on Tuesday that an old University of Minnesota friend, Prof. Norman Fruman, recently died of cancer in California at 88.
May 3, 2012
It’s now clear the legislature is committed to investing all the time that’s necessary to advance and pass a meaningful set of laws that will move Minnesota forward.
April 23, 2012
Governor Dayton just sent another clear signal that he is unable to act on principle if it means saying no to the public employee unions. He vetoed the bill that forbid from the state from using state child care subsidies for lower income working parents to pay union dues, in the event that the daycare industry is unionized. This law, sponsored by Sen. Ted Lillie and Rep. Kathy Lohmer (both R-Lake Elmo),was a smart move by the legislature because it would make the childcare providers less attractive to AFSCME and SEIU—they want to take over that industry via licensing and training but they need a reliable source of dues. What could be better than the state subsidy paid BEFORE the subsidy even reaches parents.
April 23, 2012
As a nation, we’ve made great strides in combining growing the economy and cleaning up air pollution. But as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is setting up to roll out nine new new rules or regulations, most of which are related to coal-powered electricity, it’s worth asking, “Is the gain worth the pain?”
April 16, 2012
Reporting on one of last week’s more irritating “get out of my face” events, the Star Tribune ran a piece about how an outfit in Boston, something called “Corporate Accountability International” had urged Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis to get rid of its McDonald’s restaurant, which has been onsite for more than 20 years. A spokesman for the group was quoted as saying how having such a restaurant in a hospital “really runs counter to the goals of a health institution.”
