Hundreds of messages from private sector citizens have now been received as a part of the Virtual Listening Session campaign. Nearly all of the messages are from taxpayers demanding that state legislators cut state spending in order to balance the budget. Taxpayers are upset by how legislative leaders tried to manipulate the recent “listenings sessions” conducted as part of their “Misery Tour” acoss the state.

Today the MinnesotaBudgetSolutions.com coalition announced the launch of a campaign designed to expose the truth about recently completed state budget “listening sessions” and solicit real feedback from everyday Minnesotans. The campaign is being launched with a new hilarious parody music video based upon the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. The campaign also includes a “Virtual Listening Session” that allows private sector citizens to submit online video testimony with their suggestions to legislative leaders on the state budget crisis.

“We heard from many people who registered to testify at one of these legislative ‘listening sessions’ that they were passed-over in deference to government employees bellyaching about how cuts in spending would result in dire consequences,” said Jeff Davis, president of Minnesota Majority and a member of the coalition. “Now its time for legislators to hear from the people who are footing the bill.”

Other coalition members said that it was difficult for some people to get to the sessions. “Many folks were too busy running businesses, working jobs and raising families to take the time to come to one of the sessions,” said Pat Anderson, president of MN Free Market Institute. “This provides a convenient way for people to be seen and heard from without leaving their homes.”

TAKE ACTION: Participate in our Virtual Listening Session.

Since the so-called legislative “listening sessions” were first announced, we have been warning people that these sessions are really just a sham.  Thanks to the folks at True North, here’s another example of liberal legislators trying to control the agenda of who  is “testifying” at these sessions.  This is an email sent by Sen. Teri Bonoff (DFL, Minnetonka) to organizers of the Plymouth “listening session” with a list of people she feels should be given priority to speak because they have “compelling” testimony.  No doubt these individuals are all government employees or beneficiaries of government programs.

Counter Point Column Published in the Star Tribune February 24

By Jeff Davis

Lori Sturdevant’s Feb. 22 column assaults Minnesota Majority’s assertion that the state budget “listening sessions” are a sham. We have said these are really just staged events designed to provide political cover for legislative leaders defending out-of-control government spending and advocating for more tax increases.

Sturdevant failed to mention the e-mail sent by Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, to government officials in his area requesting them to testify at the Winona “listening session.” His e-mail says the purpose for the meeting is to get feedback from affected programs in every level of government. This is quite a different take from how the meetings are being billed to the public. “We would ask you to focus your comments on the impact of the Governor’s budget including what is the harm to your area of government or program,” the e-mail instructs. How many similar e-mails were sent out by other state legislators to government employees?

The vast majority of the 54 individuals who testified in Rochester were beneficiaries of government programs. Only two private sector citizens were allowed to speak to express their concerns about potential tax increases. We are aware of at least four additional concerned taxpayers who registered to speak at the Rochester event but were passed over in favor of government employees.

Minnesota Majority has received similar accounts from individuals attending other “listening sessions” across the state. Most said they did not feel these were genuine community meetings. The so-called “listening sessions” have been largely “echo chambers” with government talking to government.

We believe Minnesotans deserve to know the truth about the state budget “listening sessions.” We will leave it to the Star Tribune readers to decide where the truth actually resides.

JEFF DAVIS, PRESIDENT, MINNESOTA MAJORITY

We recently received a copy of an email sent to government employees from the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, a government employee union.  Government employees from across Minnesota are being urged to turn-out and “testify” at the so-called “listening sessions” on the state budget crisis.  The email included the schedule of listening sessions along with a set of talking points to be used by government employees who sign-up to “testify” at the events.  They are instructed to describe ways that cuts to their departments’ budgets will cause “real pain to real people.” The materials are distributed with the brand “Show Governor Pawlenty a Better Budget Fix.”

This is more evidence that the so-called “listening sessions” are nothing more than staged events designed to provide political cover for legislative leaders who want to raise our taxes. Government talking to government about preserving government is not a citizen listening session. It’s a bureaucratic dog and pony show.

Opinion Column published in the Star Tribune on Feb. 23

By Pat Anderson

To date, legislators who eventually must resolve the looming $6 billion budget deficit have been trial-ballooning spending cuts and tax increases while looking over their shoulders with fingers crossed hoping that the federal stimulus package would help bail them out.

The bill President Obama signed this week promises about $2 billion dollars in general fund dollars for Minnesota in “one-time” money. That will certainly help with the 2009-2010 budget cycle, but one-time money doesn’t address the sustainability, or lack of sustainability, of current and projected levels of state spending.

Certainly state government can work smarter and improve efficiency, but given current spending levels, it is also imperative that Minnesotans rethink how and what services government is meant to provide. Reform is not simply one option.

Nor is it an option, as some on the left are suggesting, to maintain state spending at its current levels, using the bailout money to help plug the budget hole and increase income taxes on the top wage earners to fund the rest. That doesn’t solve the systemic gap between revenue and spending, and it’s bad policy in a time of recession.

Under Minnesota’s progressive income tax, the bottom half of filers, those households making under $45,000 per year, pay about 5 percent of all state income taxes. Overall, they pay less than 2 percent of their household income to the state for income taxes.

The top 10 percent, households earning over $130,000, pay an average rate three times higher. It’s about 6 percent individually and 55 percent of all state income taxes collected. These households are generally two-income professionals with children. They are middle-aged families making house payments, saving for college tuition and for retirement while meeting day-to-day expenses.

A progressive system? Absolutely. So why are some folks proposing to raise the top tax rate again?

The progressive argument is that high wage earners “can most afford” to “pay for a better Minnesota.” The fact is they can’t. Not now. The reason the state has a deficit is because given our progressive income tax structure, in times of recession when higher earners see investment earnings tumble or lose their jobs, state revenue is hit disproportionally hard.

The top 5 percent of households have incomes over $180,000 and pay 43 percent of all state income taxes. This group includes many small- and medium-size businesses whose owners who run their businesses as S-Corporations. This means that business income is passed directly through to them on their personal tax return.

According to the Minnesota Chamber, 92 percent of all businesses flow their business income through a personal tax return where it appears as personal income. In fact, from that “income”, the owner must take his personal income and find money to plow back into the business to make it grow.

Today, when many employers are simply trying to keep the doors open and the staff employed, increasing already high taxes is not a tax on the wealthy so much as a tax on a struggling small-business owner, which puts his working-family employees’ jobs at risk. In a recession, tax increases equate to layoffs. The employer’s tax burden has to come from somewhere.

Taxes on the “wealthy,” like so many progressive policies, actually works against its stated objectives. If the tax burden gets too high, the “wealthy” simply pick up and leave for warmer climates. Homes are cheap in Florida and a dollar stretches a lot further when there are no state income taxes. When they move, they take the jobs they provide and the taxes they pay along with them. And, ironically, to woo new high-earners with job mobility to the state, companies must offer higher wages to offset higher income taxes, in effect increasing, not decreasing the wage gap that seems so “unfair.” Mobility is much easier for citizens and businesses in the 21st century.

I would hope that before any legislators consider a class warfare offensive, they remember who it is that pays for their state programs. Punishing hard work and ingenuity does not bode well for the long-term health of our economy.

Punishing job creators so that we can expand non-sustainable government programs makes no economic sense. Even President Obama has stated that raising taxes is not an appropriate action to take in a recession. I urge his Minnesota disciples to take him at his word.

Pat Anderson is the President of the Minnesota Free Market Institute and former Minnesota State Auditor.

Join in the fight to protect our wallets and reduce state government spending. Minnesota Majority, the Taxpayers’ League, the Free Market Institute andother like-minded organizations, are sponsoring the Budget Hawk’s Jam & Bash at Trocadero’s Night Club in Minneapolis on Thursday, February 5 from 5:00 - 8:00p.m.

Gather together with like-minded neighbors, have some refreshments, and meet political leaders. Learn more about what you can do to fight liberal lawmakers who want to increase spending and raise our taxes.

Click here to see a flyer for the event.  Here’s a link with a map to Trocadero’s and  here’s a link with a map for parking.  Hope to see you Thursday night.

An ad-hoc group of non-profit organizations have formed a coalition to advocate for responsible restructuring of the state budget to solve the pending budget deficit. Revenues collected are expected to fall short of the budget by $5 to 6 billion dollars in the 2010-2011 biennium.

The Coalition is seeking common sense proposals and comments from the public on balancing the state budget during these difficult economic times.

News, research and analysis will be presented at this website to help inform visitors and guide public policy on these critical economic issues.