Speed Gibson

Balance of Power

A minimum of a Special Session, with a good chance of a shutdown July 1 awaits us in Minnesota.  It's good politics for Governor Mark Dayton.  Monday, he sent the Republicans his surrender terms.  Wednesday, former Governor, some say former Republican Arne Carlson futher cautioned the GOP of the institutional advantages a Governor has in such showdowns.  And he's right.  Former Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller found that out more than once going up against then Governor Tim Pawlenty.  Thursday (3/31), the Minneapolis Star Tribune showed their hand in their lead Editorial, insisting that:

The nonpartisan fiscal analysts in the executive branch -- and no one else -- must be the final arbiters of the cost of budget bill provisions.

Unsaid, of course, is that this rule does not apply when a Republican is Governor, as some video clips from last year's Legislative sessions have shown.  And this DFL Governor has already engaged in some very partisan financial analysis of his own budget proposals by including very naive tax the rich scenarios that have not worked in any other state.

My fellow blogger and LookTrueNorth contributor Gary Gross at Let Freedom Ring likes our GOP chances on the merits of our positions.  But this is also the State that elected Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, and now Mark Dayton to high office.  Property taxes are out of control in Minneapolis because spending is out of control in Minneapolis but the Vikings will win a Super Bowl before a Republican wins even one City Council seat.  Truth and logic are a start, a sound foundation, but by themselves not a convincing message or effective strategy.

The Republicans had better get their story together now.  As Carlson says, as Pawlenty proved, the Governor has some advantages here and this Governor has the media on his side.

 

Limits to Power

My Hennepin County Commissar Mike Opat is in the news again, one of the gang of six that voted to extend the pallor of the smoking ban over all County property except its roads but including your car. And once again, I'm wondering if there is any limit to County power.  Just how much can your County meddle with your lifestyle, for any reason if one is even needed.

Like the other smoking bans that led to the state ban that "conservative" Governor Pawlenty signed, this is not about public health.  We are still waiting for the first credible study linking "second hand" smoke with medical issues.  I'm sure the Minnesota Lung Association wishes it could cite one but is honest enough to admit there are none to cite.  The County knows this first hand, when they took many hours of public testimony.  The proponents talked only about the smell, the neighborhood environment, and the known effects of first hand smoke.  The fact that remediation via sophisticated air handlers that maintain cleaner air than non-smoking emporiums was not allowed as a solution confirmed that the fix was in.  This was about lifestyles, how we'll be better off adopting theirs.

So besides an election, what is to stop the County from doing anything it wants?  They could outlaw bowling alleys, for example, since they draw too many undesirables, citing crime statistics.  They (and the cities) do this now to gun shop owners via choking regulations.  How about requiring restaurants to serve only "fair trade" organic coffee? Folgers and other greedy exploitive capitialists might cut too many corners, allowing excessive pesticides and herbicides, a clear public health danger.

Maybe we need dress codes, to prohibit wearing shorts below some termperature lest the wearers get sick, head for the Emergency Room and raise health care costs.    Maybe we should limit cars on County roads to E-85 30+ mpg vehicles to save the earth.  And there must be something else we can find wrong to finally close all those annoying Charter Schools that drain money away from the public schools, making them look bad and lowering property values.  Hostess Twinkies?  Behind the counter.  Your kid might buy one instead a carrot, soon needing glasses.

Two wrongs don't make a right, but maybe the Legislature needs to look at just how much power County Boards have.  Maybe we need a framework of specifically enumerated powers to prevent further abuses of liberty and thereby also reign in their excessive spending.

Borr-ringg!

In years past, I"ve had much to say about the Robbinsdale Area Schools, District 281.  Much was wrong.  But I now must also say, much is now better.  I still attend School Board meetings and Work Sessions as time permits, but of late they are becoming almost routine, with little blogger-ready material.  In a word, they've become almost boring.  And that's a good thing.

The obvious change? There are two, I think.  One, the School Board finally came to grips with reality, that the glory days of 281 when the Robbinsdale Schools were rated alongside Edina are gone.  The enrollment is less than half its peak 40 years ago.  The tax base has moved west as the Twin Cities expanded into second and third tiers of suburbs.  There is more reality to accept, but let's acknowledge that the Board led and implemented a controversial facilities downsizing and a five year Strategic Plan.  Unless their peer districts that merely published their plan, this district is continuing to follow that plan.

The other obvious change was the hiring of Superintendent Aldo Sicoli, for which the Board can take additional credit.  At a time when I wondered why anyone would even apply for this job, the Board made an excellent choice in Sicoli.  Compared to his energetic, combative, at times caustic predecessor, he is Caspar Milquetoast.  But within that welcome professional demeanor is a man of action.

The previous Superintendent had consolidated power with budget cuts and attrition, unable to function effectively trying to wear those many hats.  Like other poor leaders, he didn't develop his immediate reports, instead burdening them with an inconsistent mix of neglect and overwork.  Sicoli has reorganized and decentralized his "cabinet" in moves I at first found surprising given his staid and flat answers in his public interviews.  Every move has seemed logical, even overdue, even when adding headcount or expense.

Also welcome is that Sicoli is pro-active.  He has launched several initiatives to not only respond to the recent cuts in State funding (yes, cuts), but get out in front of the next wave.  Every area in the district has been challenged to come up with better and less expensive ways to do their jobs, hopefully both.

And now, Sicoli and the Board are trying to slay the biggest dragon of them all, the achievement gap.  Though not original, I like the stated theme: "Raising the Bar, Closing the Gap."  It immediately precludes the usual solution of dumbing down the curiculum to some lowest common denominator.  Specific actions have been taken, and while the news isn't all good, there's enough good news to be hopeful.  Regardless, much better testing and measurement of these goals is being implemented.

So that's why I haven't had as much to say of late about my favorite subject.  There is still more change needed in 281, like financial clarity and transparency.  I'd like to see the Superintendent and Administration further assert their true management roles vs. the Board.  Conversely, I think the Board can and now should ease up a bit on the micro-management.  It's no longer necessary.

 

Health Update

It's been a little over three months since my heart attack.  In the last month, I "graduated" from my outpatient therapy and my vital signs are all good.  I've had no further symptoms and the nitroglycerin I carry remains sealed.  Only snow shoveling is off the list, which is almost moot now.  Walking has resumed, over ten miles last Saturday in the Regina and Whittier neighborhoods.

As of this morning I clicked off another 5 pounds as you can see at the right.  I'm now 25 pounds lighter from when I left the hospitial, with 20 pounds left to get my Body Mass Index (BMI) down under 30.  That will let me claim I am just overweight, not clinically obese. I'll set a new goal when I get there.

If you wondering, I use CalorieCount.com to - count calories!  It also tracks cholesterol, saturated fat, etc. which I need to do now, one reason I had to quit Weight Watchers in January.  But their basic approach is still sound: eat less, move more.

 

If Only Politics Were Non-Partisan

I learned long ago that the better a document, as in more precise and more detailed, the more auditors will find wrong with it.  And so it is in St. Paul as regards the current state budget cycle.  Initially, the Republicans said no tax increases.  The Democrats said that wasn't a balanced approach, but could say little else but "where's the rest of it?"  Then came the GOP spending targets, some areas getting more money like health care, some less like higher education.  This allowed the Democrats to work the list in detail, decrying the lack of "investment" in almost every area as compared to the Governor Dayton's budget.  And in each area, another call for the detailed budgets, something Democrats seldom unveil before May.

The budget specifics are now working their way through the streamlined committee structure, and the DFL responses have expanded accordingly.  But the game has changed.  The Democrats are no longer talking numbers.  Instead, it's the methodology that's wrong now, too sketchy, based on fantasy, no basis in reality.  This is what I heard this morning in a remarkable report on MPR, remarkable in its bias.  Come now, quoting Rep. Phyllis Kahn on matters involving money or arithmetic?

But the howler in DFL stenographer Tom Scheck's story was that the spending bills are not based on non-partisan research!  (Mitch Berg if you're listening, call your Chanting Points office.)  The danger is obvious:

The problem with crafting a budget that isn't based on nonpartisan research means lawmakers may think they're passing a balanced budget when they're not. That means the governor and Legislature would be forced to continuously revise the budget to make it add up.

Golly, that's never happened before.  And that wouldn't happen to Dayton's budget either when all that new income tax bracket money shows up as projected, just like other states that tried that.  Uh, wait ...

We could use proven management techniques like zero-based budgeting, right?  Well, no, you see ...

The bill uses catchy buzzwords like zero-based budgeting, sunsetting state mandates and increasing tax analytics. But the savings behind those buzzwords aren't guaranteed.

I would love to see Mr. Sheck tell MPR's Chief Financial Officer not to waste time on zero-based budgeting.  "It's a trend, Mr. Dithers, a fad.  It'll pass.  We'll try to keep our expenses within that figure, but no promises."  J. C.'s reply would finish a great story to tell at his next job.

Of course, we all know that what MPR considers "solid" research would likely be quite partisan.  Real world research and experience have found that Head Start and all other (government run) pre-K education don't work.  Hard facts and honest accounting would end our Light Rail delusions, particularly the Central Corridor project.  But of course, the Democrats want still more of all these failures.

By the way, research also shows that public funding of public broadcasting is no longer necessary, if it ever was.

 

What Problem did LGA Solve?

Normally, Minneapolis Star Tribune opinion columnist Lori Strurdevant only questions why we plebians do not accept liberal orthodoxy as she has, not the orthodoxy itself.  Today's column on LGA (Local Government Aid) is a welcome exception, thoughtfully considering what State Representative Linda Runbeck (R-53A, Circle Pines) had to say about LGA.  Runbeck chairs the House Property and Local Tax committee.  Sturdevant asks:

What if, in 1971, Minnesota had not created local government aid (LGA)?

The column masthead has her answer:

If not for LGA, cities would spend (and have) less.

She based this on interviews with a number of current and former mayors, which made for a good column.  She might have asked who has more if the cities have less.  But back to the orignal question: what if LGA had never been invented?

Mayor Ness of Alexandia thinks 600 Minnesota cities would have ceased to exist today.  That's about 7 of every 10.  But the real problem for most of these cities is declining population, leaving those who remain to support now oversized facilities.  You can't just get everyone to move closer in and unpave the outer ring of streets.  LGA has put off their day of reckoning, but cannot save them indefinitely.

Indeed, many cities have ceased to exist, like Pomme De Terre as Minnesota 2020 chronicled last year.  And as I've said before, many more should join this list or at least unincorporate.  They are no longer viable as local units of government.  That's not a judgment on their current residents, businesses, heritage, or contributions to MInnesota history.  It's just the consequence of modern communications and transportation that have devalued their local presence and charm.  And LGA cannot change that reality.

So I ask: what problem did LGA really solve?  I answer: none.  Government is a zero sum game.  The money to prop up inefficient service providers must come from the more efficient providers.  The irony is that while cities like Bemidji receive LGA, that same program negatively affects their population.  Could it be that the only real winners are the really big cities who receive the really big slices of LGA: Minneapolis and St. Paul?  Cities contemplated as payers, not payees in the original 1971 law?  Cities with lengendary overspending and accountability issues?

Let me also ask: what good would it do to double LGA?  Would Minneapolis hire more police?  Doubtful.  Would St. Paul fill potholes faster?  Of course not.  Would our schools get any better?  Health care?  Transportation?  No, we'd just get yet another load of community development and green energy.

I'm not totally opposed to some form of LGA as I said in my previous post on property tax reform.  The economies of scale have shifted significantly.  Acres served drive costs as well as population.  And the State of Minnesota has no doubt burdened outstate governments with additional paperwork and expensive big city mandates on energy, pollution, and construction.  But that LGA must indeed go outstate, not to the Twin Cities, who never did need it.

 

Less is Simpler. Less is Better.

I groaned again when I heard that Republicans were again proposing a state limit on local property taxes.  Repubilcans are further working to cut income taxes just as Democrats are always trying to lower property taxes.  Meanwhile, the battle continues over Local Government Aid.  I have a suggestion: get the State of Minnesota completely out of the property tax business.  This could be a bi-partisan deal, phased in over Governor Mark Dayton's (first) term.  To wit, property meaning specifically real estate subject to property taxes, even if classified exempt today:

1.  Repeal the current state tax levy on non-residential property.  Property taxes should be local only.  Plus, this will improve the business climate.

2.  Repeal the state estate tax on all property.  This is best done by repealing the entire state estate tax.

3.  Repeal all state regulations limiting property tax levies for operations by Counties, Cities, and Public School Districts.  Yes, this means School Districts no longer need voter approval for what are now Operating Levy referendums.  Further, prohibit all other entities from levying property taxes or related fees such as by joint powers consortiums, watershed districts, parks districts, and the Metropolitan Council.  They can appeal for funding from the Cities and Counties they serve.

4.  Require voter approval by referendum of all bonding paid by property tax assessment.  For example, bonding to purchase electronic water meters for a city would not, paid for by savings in readings and more accurate billing.  But bonding to add or replace the swimming pool at the recreation center would require a vote.

5.  Eliminate special property tax assessments to a subset of property owners.  The most common case is the periodic repair and/or repaving of streets.  A well run city or county will spread out these many specific projects over their 25-40 year typical lifetimes, amortizing them into the annual tax levy.  Contrast this with School Districts.  When they issue bonds to repair or replace schools in isolated portions of the district, they are paid by all in the district, not just those nearby.  It's eventually everybody's turn.

6. Repeal the Market Value Homestead Credit (MVHC).  This is a crude and now dishonest "tax break" for residential property owners.  You think you're getting a break on your property taxes, but the State has been quietly refusing to pay much of that discount to the locals as part of "balancing" the budget.  The best run cities suffer most, having already trimmed operations, and therefore must raise the levy still further to compensate.

7.  Repeal the Minnesota Property Tax Refund (form M1PR).  Based on income, this is just welfare, which belongs in a spending bill if anywhere.

8.  Phase out Local Government Aid (LGA) as currently practiced.  Any system that pays profligate cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul is by definition is only throwing good money after bad.  Personally, I think some sort of per capita payment to the counties would be sufficient to ensure basic services throughout Minnesota as originally intended.  Cities that want to augment this can pay the extra freight and/or work out a deal with the county.  Smaller, shrinking cities under 1,000 should consider unincorporation, and the state should pay these one time costs.

9.  Getting back to schools, require that property taxes only be used for property and related expenses like utilities and transportation.  Licensed staff, textbooks, etc should be paid by the state.  This actually wouldn't change the current ratios all that much, but would provide some needed isolation.  Today, districts can legally shave transportation to unsafe or uneven levels of service just to pay higher salaries.  This is closer to the "one price fits all" salary structure the teachers unions want, right? Parents who want to pay their teachers still more can hold fundraisers.

10. And finally, all non-public property pays property taxes, including non-profits, private schools, charter schools, and churches. 

Property taxes will never popular, but simplifying taxes and focusing them on true property related pubilc expenses should help.  And without all the bureaucracy moving the coins around, we would save money as well.

 

Welcome Back to the Fight

There was a time when we had 8 solid hours of "Northern Alliance" radio and friends Saturdays on AM 1280 The Patriot.  But now we're down to just the Headliners from 1-3 pm, with Mitch Berg and Ed Morrisey.  Even Joe Soucheray has left Saturday Morning Sports Talk.

But the "First Team" has reemerged as a podcast at Richochet.  I'm listening to their first "broadcast" as I post between lunch bites. 

It's great to hear them again.  King Banaian, newly elected Representative of 15B, has returned to the air on 1570.  Now, if only David Strom (and Margaret) would resume their podcast, we'd have the band back together!

 

Who's In Your Wallet?

We're all familiar with the Left's overly broad definition of immgrant to include illegal aliens.  Another is to present labor unions as representing labor in general.  Union leaders are fighting for all of us they say in opposing the limiting of the scope of collective bargaining for most public sector union members in Wisconsin.  The union label is the difference between decent wages and the minimum wage, said both to lure new members and retain existing members.  Odd that union membership has continued to fall over the last few decades, the sole exception being the public sector.

Actually, that's not so odd.  Above market labor costs make alternatives like automation and out-sourcing more viable.  The days of 40 year careers at a single employer are gone.  The days of 40 years doing the same thing are on their way out.  Without stability, the unions can't gain the necessary traction.  The only area with that stablility now is the public sector, and indeed, this is the only area where unions are gaining, Wisconsin notwithstanding.

When a union negotiates a higher cost of labor, who pays for that increase?  As with any other cost increase like taxes or energy, the short answer is some combination  of customers, investors, and employees.  But there's another reality, for which I turn now to the late Milton Friedman, from Free to Choose:

When unions get higher wages for their members by restricting entry into an occupation, those higher wages are at the expense of other workers who find their opportunities reduced. When government pays its employees higher wages, those higher wages are at the expense of the taxpayer. But when workers get higher wages and better working conditions through the free market, when they get raises by firm competing with one another for the best workers, by workers competing with one another for the best jobs, those higher wages are at nobody's expense. They can only come from higher productivity, greater capital investment, more widely diffused skills. The whole pie is bigger - there's more for the worker, but there's also more for the employer, the investor, the consumer, and even the tax collector.

That's the way the free market system distributes the fruits of economic progress among all people. That's the secret of the enormous improvements in the conditions of the working person over the past two centuries.

Wage increase by union contracting is at best a zero sum game.  It is the free market that expands the pie for all as he notes, the true source of the benefits the unions often ascribe unto themselves.

Thus, we can't all realize the union dream, like when American Federation of Labor (AFL) president George Meany promised not to rest until everyone was making more than the average wage.  Raising union membership from its peak of about 30% clearly can't work because the remaining 70% are needed to pay the difference they receive.  Just as clearly, 40% will not be able to provide comparable largess were 60% to be unionized.

Nowdays, union membership is under 15%, which means there is a larger pool of wallets to tap per union employee.  And in the public sector, where a complicated system of taxation generaly insulates negotiators from the downsides of capitulation, those wallets were indeed tapped.  To further strengthen their hand, the teachers unions in particular used their relatively large numbers to support weak or sympathetic politicians, giving many near total control of negotiations.  Until now.

Now, as I posted recently, these extra costs can no longer be hidden.  Even the Minneapolis Star Tribune today (March 13, not online) writes of the large pensions now being paid some high-end public servants, among them former Hennepin Country Sheriff Dom Omodt and a couple of public school superintendents.  Over 100 such retirees are receiving over $111,000 annually.

So when Wisonsin public union leaders parade and preach how important it is to preserve their "right" to "collectively" "bargain" remember from whose wallets all their blessings flow.  And this final point especially relevant now, also courtesy of Dr. Friedman:

The unions might be good for the people who are in the unions but it doesn't do a thing for the people who are unemployed. Because the union keeps down the number of jobs, it doesn't do a thing for them.

 

Just the Facts, Ma'am

I'm sure she merely read what was TelePrompter'd, but it was still disappointing to hear Rebekah Wood's account of the Wisconsin Senate vote yesterday, on KSTP-TV's early morninng new broadcast.

It's the unexpected vote heard across the country. Republican Senators in Wisconsin bypassed Democrats to strip public workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Here's what happened.  Late last night, Senate Republicans were able to pass the proposal by stripping all financial elements from the bill. Essentially, they found a loophole to get it done.

Unexpected? The only thing in doubt was when the vote would be taken, not the outcome.  That's why the "fleebaggers" fled.

Bypassed? The Democrats bypassed themselves without Republican assistance.

Public workers? Not all of them, just state workers in certain unionized professions that do not justify their exhorbitant contracts, particularly retirement.

Strip? Substantially, yes, but this word is still too loaded.  "Limit" is the accurate, unloaded choice.

Rights? There is no right to collective bargaining, merely whatever the law allows, case by case.

Loophole?  Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans followed the legislative process as set out in the State Constitution and required by applicable law.

Am I wrong to expect better from channel 5? This would be business as usual on WDFL, though I haven't watched them in years.  The KARE Bears lull me to sleep, so I really have no recent experience with them either.  Maybe I should try Fox 9.