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Taxpayers
League of Minnesota For 3 years, since Pawlenty started campaigning for the job, he has insisted that “Minnesota doesn’t have a tax problem, it has a spending problem.”In fact, the very first commercial that Tim Pawlenty ran in the campaign made the promise that he was “the only candidate running who won’t raise your taxes.” Sure, Governor Pawlenty still insists that the tobacco tax increase is really a “health impact fee,” not a tax. But outside the reality-challenged bubble of the Governor’s office, nobody seems to be fooled by these verbal gymnastics. In fact, many of Pawlenty’s Republican allies at the capitol have long ago dropped the “fee” language and openly admit that this is a tax increase to balance the budget, including Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, House Tax Committee Chairman Phil Krinkie, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jim Knoblach.Pawlenty himself says of the new tobacco tax that "Some people call it a tax, some call it a fee, I call it a solution." It all depends upon what the meaning of “is” is, I guess. Governor Pawlenty has been going down this path for a while now. Two years ago Pawlenty was saying unequivocally that he did not support an expansion of gambling in Minnesota: “there are less destructive ways for government to get more money than to be in the business of running casinos,” Pawlenty said. This year, Pawlenty made a government-run Twin Cities casino his number one priority. Pawlenty was not supportive of expanding rail transit in Minesota—until he became Governor. Now he has led the charge for commuter rail and has championed a constitutional amendment that for the first time will dedicate transportation dollars to transit projects—paid for out of taxes from the sale of automobiles. Buy a car, you will get to pay for someone else’s train line. Pawlenty was clearly cool to the idea of taxpayer funding of new Twins or Vikings stadiums during the campaign, and now he is contemplating calling another special session to address the “stadium issues.” We could go on and on, but you get the point. Nobody expects a politician to be absolutely rigid and never change his mind, no matter what the circumstances. But how many flip-flops does it take to make you wonder whether the Governor is merely flexible, or is perhaps losing touch with his core principles? Is government too big, or not? Does it tax too much, or not? Is gambling a good way to fund government, or not? Should people be forced out of their cars into government-run transportation, or not? Are baseball and football teams private businesses that don’t need government money, or not?These are not complex questions, and most of us vote at least partly based upon how the candidates answer them. That’s why it is so important that campaign promises mean something. The Governor asked us to vote for him based upon what he said and promised during the campaign. Is it too much to ask that his promises mean something? The answer the public is giving right now seems pretty clear. Tim Pawlenty began this session with a pretty good approval rating of 56%. The latest poll, done by Survey USA shows that only 43% approve of the job Pawlenty is doing, and even among his conservative base only 66% approve. A stunning 57% of moderates disapprove of Pawlenty’s performance as Governor. Overall, his approval is 9 points lower than the average Governor in the country. The Governor started this session as a shoe-in for reelection. Now, his opponents are busy writing television commercials to run against him in next year’s campaign. In fact, it doesn’t surprise us that there is even some rumblings in Republican circles that a new candidate is needed for the party’s endorsement in 2006—one who is not a pledge breaker who could possibly drag down the entire ticket. Pawlenty still has some time to recover, but the first thing he needs to do is recognize he has a problem, and one made a lot worse by the bad decisions he made during this legislative session. ### Michael Wigley is CEO of Great Plains Companies and Chairman of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota David Strom is President of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota |
