The Chilling Effect Of DFL Tax Increases

worth repeating...

"Last year, the DFL proposed $5 billion of tax increases on top of spending the
$2.2 billion surplus.

Whenever anyone proposes the slightest restriction on any reporter, we hear
immediate cries about the "chilling effect" of restrictions on freedom of the
press.

A different kind of "chilling effect" was demonstrated in the Business section
of yesterday's Star Tribune. The "chilling effect" of DFL tax proposals in 2007
was reflected in the "economic report" on page five.

* While state-wide government employment increased by 5,200 bureaucrats over a
year ago, the "chilling effect" of proposed DFL tax increases on small
businesses and employers led to decreased employment over a year ago in:
manufacturing (- 4,000 jobs) . . . construction (- 6,000 jobs) . . . mining (-
100 jobs) . . . and financial services (- 500 jobs).

* Manufacturing hours were down by 1% in the Metro area over a year ago.

* Unemployment insurance payments were up by double the rate of inflation over
a year ago.

With state welfare budgets scheduled to go up by 35% in the next biennium under
the 2007 HHS Finance Bill, and with more tax proposals likely in the next two
months to cover the current $1 billion deficit, the DFL "chilling effect" is
likely to keep freezing us out of jobs going to other states and nations.

It has gotten so silly that the House passed an amendment to give free towing
and impoundment services to people on any of the state's nine largest welfare
programs, thus forcing towing companies to raise fees on working families.
Welfare recipients get to sleep in on snowy mornings, while working Minnesotans
must dig out their cars to get to work and pay for more welfare benefits.

When you reward the idling grasshoppers, and punish the worker ants, the
"chilling effect" of the DFL on the economy gets even more bitter."