May in Minnesota

It is now the second week of May. Today is Mothers Day.

Here in Minnesota, the leaving of winter behind is now total, even though it is 30 degrees in International Falls.

The trees are leafing out, and the song birds are back and nesting. The clouds are racing by in front of a high pressure system bringing in bright, but cool Canadian air.

The first mowing of the year has been done in most yards and the tulips are opening brilliant red and yellow this morning. The coffee is perfect.

It is warming and this is one of the best canoe times of the year, no bugs yet. I'll be on the Saint Francis River meandering through parts of Sherburne County before it meets the Elk Rivers' trek to the Mississippi.

The Fishing opener was Friday and the Governor held his event just south of Forest Lake in White Bear Lake. I was in town and ate breakfast at the diner. It was a nice day but with a chilly wind and more clouds than blue sky.

In town, the large "workers rights" [communist] May Day parade at Powder Horn Park in Saint Paul had a float drive over an individual, nothing major but rather symbolic if you ask me.

In Saint Paul the legislature is now being compressed to the May 18 deadline and the demand for tax hikes is beginning to increase in pitch.

It is proposed by the DFL that we adopt a fourth income tax bracket, and raise all of the ones we already have.
This would make two of the highest income tax brackets in the nation exist here in industry crushing Minnesota.

Also they intend to raise taxes on alcohol consumers. The stuff for drinking, they still want to subsidies that intended for the gas tank.
[More irrational energy nonsense brought to you by the powerful environmental lobby.]

The tax-guzzling, special interest groups that live off of working Minnesotans are also making maneuvers for the new monies generated by the "legacy" amendment.

It was voted into law last election based on a false, fear mongering, tax funded, campaign that brow-beat Minnesotans into believing that our water was dangerously polluted and needed this additional remedy now.

To secure political support at the Capitol the so-called "sportsmen" joined with the so called "arts" lobby. They ended up splitting this new revenue stream and are giddy with new money, power and influence.

Watching such sycophantic and demeaning groveling and pawning by these groups and their members at the feet of these committee meetings, is embarrassing enough. To know that we are paying these people handsomely to behave so cravenly is more than a little disturbing.

Public Broadcasting here in Minnesota did well by their (our) marketing investment on behalf of the tax hike.

The Minnesota Film Board is angling for some of these "new arts dollars". They can be seen interviewed on "news" shows saying how a dollar they are given creates five in the economy.

They may understand lobbying and grant righting and all that, but they have a clear lacking in the understanding of basic economics.

Minnesota is vast and varied in terrain, vegetation and climate. There are advantages to making a movie here naturally. We do not need a "film board".

I don't think we need a department of tourism for many of the same reasons. Trust me, people will vacation in Minnesota without the MN Dept. Of Tourism.

They did before.

These closed-loops, that lobby for tax dollars with tax dollars, have contributed significantly to the unsustainable financial mess Minnesota and its industrious citizens are burdened under.

Things must change. Things will change.

Politically that is.

Minnesota will always be beautiful in May.