Introducing Brian Grogan

Brian Grogan is the endorsed Republican candidate to challenge John Benson (DFL-Minnetonka) for the state House seat in District 43B. I have already documented on North Star Liberty what little I know about Brian: basically, he seems like he will make a great candidate. So I asked Brian to introduce his campaign positions, and here is what he wrote:

As the Republican endorsed candidate for House District 43B, I am excited to bring a new vision to address the challenges that Minnesota faces. We need to bring change to how we address job growth and our economy, raising health care cost, inadequate funding levels for our schools and being good stewards of our environment.

Most importantly, it is my firm belief that these challenges can be achieved without raising corporate or personal income taxes. We are, after all, already the 12th highest taxed state in the nation. In addition, we are rank 49th in the nation for our state’s business tax policy. Our citizens are taxed enough as a state. The key to solving our budget challenges is not more taxes but a better prioritization of what we need to do as a government for our citizens.

My priorities will be to create jobs by developing tax neutral policy incentives for business investment in infrastructure and equipment. Secondly, I want to create jobs by proposing legislation that reduces regulations and offers tax incentives which induce businesses to locate to Minnesota.

The leadership response in St. Paul for meeting our state’s challenges is, too often, to increase taxes and regulation in order to force compliance and support supervision. We can do better than this. The belief that higher taxes, more regulation and bigger government are better approaches to addressing the challenges within our society is misguided. I believe a Tibetan Monk said it quite well when he commented that "the only way to implement our vision for society is to bring it down to the situation of a single household" or as I would add, single neighborhood or single business. Our citizens and small businesses know what they need and what they need is a responsive government not a big brother.

Watch this blog for more from Brian during the campaign. Next we'll hear what he has to say on health care, education funding, and the environment.

Legislators: "It could have been worse"

On Tuesday evening, the Taxpayers League of Minnesota hosted an informal end-of-session meet-and-greet in one of the tony paneled club rooms at the Metropolitan in Golden Valley. (It was as close as I'll ever get to a smoke-filled room, thanks to the Minnesota Clean Air Act.)

The most common thing that people were saying about the legislative session now adjourned sine die was, "It could have been worse." The best thing that people could say about the session was, "It's over." The take-away message from conservative legislators was, "Send us some help!"

Among the notable conservatives working the crowd were former gubernatorial endorsement candidate Sue Jeffers, Hennepin County Commissioner candidate Jeff Johnson, Pioneer Press columnist Craig Westover, fellow True North founders Derek Brigham and Brian Mason, Wright County Republican's Drew Emmer, and of course the lovely Margaret Martin, co-host of the David Strom Show, heard Saturdays from 9:00-11:00 am on AM 1280 The Patriot.

The food and drink at 5:00 pm fooled everyone into staying for a wide-ranging recap of the session from some very hard-working, fiscally-conservative legislators at 6:00 pm. After consuming, as Minnesota Free Market Institute president David Strom put it, "Mike Wigley's wine" and the delish D'Amico hors d'oeuvres, the aloha-shirted chairman of the Taxpayers League Wigley opened the program by introducing League president and former state Rep. Phil Krinkie. Krinkie presented a special award to Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall): the Worst Friend of the Gorillas Award, for opposing state funding of the gorilla exhibit at the Como Park Zoo.

Seifert thanked the Taxpayers League for their work, and explained that sustaining Gov. Tim Pawlenty's (R-MN) vetoes is only possible because the DFL is five votes short of a veto-proof majority in the House. He said end-of-session negotiations with the majority party leaders, notably Sen. Larry Pogemiller (DFL-Minneapolis), were particularly brutal this year.

Several legislators provided a recap of the session in their areas of expertise.

Sen. Geoff Michel (R-Edina) and Sen. David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) represented Minnesota's conservative state senators. Michel reported that 80% of the state budget reserve ("rainy day" fund) was used to balance the biennial budget, in spite of the expected November budget forecast of a $2-$3 billion deficit. Although state law requires a balanced budget, conservatives would prefer cuts in spending to depleting the reserve.

Krinkie presented Rep. Mark Buesgens (R-Jordan) with the Best Amendment Award for his amendment that would have renamed the "per diem" payment to legislators as "Walking Around Money." Longtime education reform stalwart and teacher Buesgens described the "one-time" $51 per-student grant to schools that passed this session, which will enable the DFL to claim a Republican funding "cut" if not appropriated next session. Buesgens also made the point that true reform (in the form of vouchers) is the only way to improve how education is delivered in Minnesota, rather than simply throwing more money at the current system.

Assistant Minority Whip and lead Republican on the Health and Human Services Finance Committee Rep. Matt Dean (R-Dellwood), praised the defeat of Education Minnesota's socialized medicine for teachers plan, although thousands more Minnesotans now qualify for state welfare health plans due to a raising of the maximum qualifying income. He also recommended Pat Shortridge's recent article on National Review Online, "Yes we can," on rebuilding the conservative movement in this country.

Rep. Mary Liz Holberg (R-Lakeville) received the Most Likely To Be Run Over By A Light Rail Train Award, because she is always standing in the way of light rail spending (and gas tax increases)!

Rep. Paul Khols (R-Victoria) sounded like the Son of Dr. No (former Rep. Krinkie) when he said that "no" can be a good word when voting against tax increases. He explained that the DFL was promoting twenty-five tax increases this session alone that would have cost taxpayers $10 billion in new taxes. The $6+ billion tax increase in the transportation bill was bad enough!

Rep. Tom Hackbarth (R-Cedar) explained how political horse-trading perverted the proposed constitutional amendment to dedicate a one-eighth percent of the existing state sales taxes to preserving hunting and fishing into a three-eighths percent sales tax increase to promote radical environmentalism, the arts, and parks, in addition to the original outdoors programs. He warned that special interest groups will be promoting the constitutional amendment, and that its passage would open the door to millions of dollars of grants to those groups (as the Minnesota State Lottery already does to environmental groups).

Strom concluded the program with a fundraising pitch, reminding the group that legislators and the Taxpayers League cannot do it alone. The big tip jar at the door was filled to the top with tens and twenties, a good sign, and contribution envelopes were also distributed with the League's popular lawn signs and "wanted" poster, and a session scrapbook of editorials and Krinkie op-eds. The evening's co-sponsor, AM 1280 The Patriot, also had a table with information and bumper stickers.

Conservatives need to remind the electorate that higher quality of life does not mean ever-larger government, in fact, the opposite is true. As Margaret Thatcher was quoted during the event, "First you win the argument, then you win the vote." If conservatives fail to win the argument and get like-minded candidates elected to the Minnesota House this fall, the 2008 tax-and-spend session will only be another step in our long march to the "cold Detroit" of even higher taxes and an accelerated taxpayer and business exodus from the Land of 10,000 Taxes.

Global warming: at least 31,000 short of consensus

The Star Tribune reported that on Monday, "the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine appeared before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and announced that it has the signatures of more than 31,000 scientists...who agree that the human impact on global warming is overblown:"

We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto ... and any other similar proposals. The proposed limits on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.

Among the notable Minnesotans who signed the petition: WCCO-TV meteorologist Mike Fairbourne. Fairbourne had some courage to publicly declare skepticism about global warming, since his colleagues, anchorman Don Shelby and fellow meteorologist Paul Douglas, are noted believers in man-made global warming/climate change.

The Global Warming Petition Project is much more than just another Internet petition drive. It's a serious rebuttal to the junk science of global warming. The web site includes a summary of peer-reviewed research on the science of so-called global warming.

It's time to take a step back from flawed computer models, the gospel of global warming and its prophet Al Gore and his Hollywood disciples, and the very real economic damage being caused in the name of this myth.

First, get endorsed

Spotted on the north side of Highway 12, west of I-494: