Lots of April Fools at the Capitol these days
To celebrate April Fools’ Week, we present three strange things that happened at the Capitol last week.
1. Democrats present their budget
Gov. Tim Walz and the Democrat majorities in the legislature released budget targets and began moving omnibus budget bills through committees. The deadline for most budget bills is Tuesday, April 4th. Here are the targets released by the Democrats:
The way they release the targets says a lot about how they view the budget process. These numbers represent increases in spending over last year’s budget, not the target amount to be spent in each budget area. For example, their target for K-12 schools is $2.21 billion, but the current budget spent over $20 billion on schools in this biennium. Walz and the Democrats assume every dollar spent in the base budget is righteous and good and above scrutiny. They use last year’s budget as a starting point and release “targets” for spending the surplus.
The target for the tax committee is also misleading since it includes both spending and tax cuts. Tax cuts are counted as spending in government-speak because it’s treated as revenue that doesn’t materialize. The largest spending item in the tax bill is known as Local Government Aid (LGA). LGA is direct payments to cities from the state treasury. While every media outlet reported the tax target as $3 billion for tax cuts, with Walz proposing increases to LGA, the amount of money available for tax cuts will be closer to $2 billion.
2. Walz loses it over gun control
Someone needs to remind Gov. Walz he has friendly majorities in both the Senate and the House. With gun control activist Gabby Giffords at his side, Walz released an angry tirade against Republicans this week, threatening that he will “frame” the issue in the next election. The language was very similar to Gwen Walz’s threats before the 2020 election on the same topic. To hear the Governor’s rant, click on the linked tweet below from our friend @covid_clarity.
Why is Walz so mad? Why is he asking for more than 34 votes for the gun control measures? This is a clear sign that Democrats don’t yet have 34 votes to pass these bills. Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park) told the press, “We have 34 members, some of them are new, some of them are learning what it’s like to make tough decisions.” Those are not the words of a confident bill author.
3. Dancing on a star
When school kids get the tour of the State Capitol, they are told not to step on the North Star emblem built into the floor of the rotunda. It is cordoned off with stanchions and rope. It’s a respect thing. That respect was completely absent during a Transgender Day of Visibility rally in the rotunda on Friday. With Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan looking on, a man dressed as a woman performed a sexually suggestive dance for the crowd, paying no attention to the roped-off area over the North Star. Video of the dance made the rounds on Twitter but somehow didn’t find its way into any news coverage of the event. As always, biased reporting manifests itself in the things they don’t show the public.
If a man in a dress dancing on the North Star makes you upset, we have a remedy.
Join us in that same rotunda this Tuesday April 4th at 11:00 am for a respectful (yet loud) rally to Stop the Madness. So much madness.
Tuesday, April 4th at 11 AM in the Capitol Rotunda
Stop the Madness! And don’t step on the North Star!
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