By Dennis Schminke

Republican candidate for 27B

The Rep. Jeanne Poppe report-piece printed by the Daily Herald on Sunday, Oct. 26, is essentially a thinly disguised campaign brochure. As such, it invites a factual response. As the challenger in the Minnesota House District 27B race, I appreciate the Daily Herald’s willingness to allow equal time for rebuttal.

Of course, it all sounds very nice. But here are some things Rep. Poppe is not telling you:

Minnesota unemployment is indeed down. It is also higher than our neighbors — North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. We also lag these states in other important measures such as under-employment, workforce participation, economic growth, and private sector job creation. This is where high taxes and the burden of heavy regulation places us —business goes elsewhere. This effect is even more pronounced in border communities such as Austin, where a state with a friendlier business climate is only a few miles away.

In 2013, Rep. Poppe voted with the Legislature to increase taxes and fees on Minnesotans and Minnesota businesses by $2.4 billion to cover a budget deficit estimated to be roughly $630 million. Little thought was given to the idea that some unneeded items could actually be trimmed. Rather, they simply pulled out the taxpayer ATM card — because they could. They controlled everything. They did not just raise taxes on the wealthiest two percent. Tax-incidence studies produced by the non-partisan Minnesota Department of Management and Budget show that a substantial portion of those taxes actually fell on low and middle-income Minnesotans.

DFL claims of tax cuts are misleading, at best. After the 2013 spending binge, there was still a $1.2 billion surplus going into 2014. A second spending spree then ensued. $540 million was eventually returned to taxpayers, but we surely can’t call it a tax cut. In addition, the much touted property tax relief netted out to only $8 million state-wide, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

DFL claims of GOP cuts to education have been demagogued to death, and are simply not true. The fact is that the vast majority of cuts to education (actually shifts in timing of payments) were put in place by earlier DFL-controlled legislatures in 2008-09 and 2010-11, actions in which Rep. Poppe participated. They were nearly paid off by the end of the GOP controlled 2012-13 session.  It is also true that during the early days of this current session, the DFL-controlled legislature actually delayed repayment of this shift, in favor of other spending priorities.

Rep. Poppe claims that long-overdue down-payments were made on repairing and improving our transportation infrastructure. The facts belie this assertion. This legislature could have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on roads and bridges. Instead they spent it on pet projects of the metro-centric DFL leadership. Thus, we now have stadiums we don’t know how to pay for, a $90 million legislative office building, civic-center projects all over the state, light-rail in the metro, state taxpayer bail-outs for metro event venues, and many more. Roads and bridges received little more than lip-service.

MNSure provided coverage to some but caused enormous burdens on a much larger group of Minnesota families in the form of lost coverage and higher costs. News stories are now appearing almost daily of large 2015 rate increases, mismanagement, and indications of outright corruption in the initial rate-setting process. Additionally, they have put the state on the hook for billions in new spending in future years. And we still have a $160 million website that does not work.

There are many areas of state-level funding — education, transportation, and local government aid — where the metro-centric DFL leadership shortchanges Greater Minnesota. This is the same leadership Rep. Poppe votes to place in charge.

Gov. Dayton and the DFL-controlled legislature have demonstrated over and over that they are working for themselves and their friends in St. Paul. They seem to have a difficult time seeing beyond Lakeville, Minnetonka, or Forest Lake. Their tax and regulatory policies are fiscally irresponsible, unsustainable, and have already impaired Minnesota’s employment and long-term prosperity. They make your life more costly and more difficult every direction you turn. They are clearly not working for you, the interests of this district, or Greater Minnesota. There is a better way.