Bullets and Ballet Dancers…Combined By Politics

My wife hates politics in all forms…she just has no stomach for the games that politicians play with our money and our lives.   Now for me, on the other hand, I tend to like a small dose of politics…so long as I can walk away from it if it becomes too frustrating or aggravating.   So, when the phone rang this evening and it was a political candidate on the other end of the line…she quickly handed me the phone.

You see…ever since last month when Minnesota convened its political caucuses I was elected as a delegate by my local township.   This earned me a quick ticket to my chosen party’s county convention held about 10 days ago where we covered lots of issues for the party platform, as well as listened to a host of wannabe candidates vying for several different state government offices.   Sound boring?   You bet…at times politics can be a downright yawner.   Still, I chose to spend an entire Saturday at this county convention because I believe in the process and I feel it’s important to take an active role to keep the political wheels turning.

This year, in fact, there is some landmark legislation that hopefully will be put on the November ballot as a constitutional amendment dedicating a fraction of 1 percent to preserve and enhance Minnesota’s natural resources.   It’s a concept that has been patterned after similar legislation passed many years ago in Missouri that dedicates a portion of that state’s sales tax coffers back to various environment needs—including programs that would vastly improve hunting and fishing opportunities.

Obviously sportsmen are behind this concept and to most of us this is a no-brainer.   We see the dedicated funding as a way to ensure that adequate monies are appropriated toward important programs such as cleaning up our waters, protecting vital land resources, etc. for many years to come.   It’s a battle and a concept that Minnesota’s sportsmen have been waging for nearly a decade and every year it has fallen a bit short of passage from the legislature…but perhaps not this year.

Okay, now I’m going to get a bit deeper into explaining some political maneuvering that is taking place in Minnesota on this particular issue…but I guarantee it’s the same sort of thing that happens in every other state.   The facts and the issues might be different…as well as the main movers and shakers who make a name for themselves in the news, but the bottom line is politics doesn’t change a whole lot no matter where you observe it.   Sometimes as a constituent it makes you want to smack a few people up alongside the head with a newspaper in hopes to knock some sense back into them.

Now on to the issue at hand.   The Minnesota Senate has passed a bill that would dedicate 3/8 of one percent to not only funding various outdoor programs, but also to the arts.   The Senate’s bill would increase the current sales tax rate from the level where it exists now.   In effect, all Minnesotans would be paying more tax under the Senate bill if it gets placed on the ballot this November.   The Minnesota House of Representatives will likely be voting soon on a bill that matches that same percentage…however, its revenue would be derived from within the current sales tax structure and NOT increase taxes.   The original House bill has also been saddled with many extraneous modifications that support such things as the arts, public television, and possibly certain transportation measures.

Here’s the problem.   Obviously there is a big divide between the two measures when they both support a 3/8s fraction of taxes but they disagree substantially on where that percentage should originate from.   Democrats want to achieve it by raising sales taxes…and the Republicans believe it should come out of the current tax structure.   That sounds pretty typical for both parties, don’t you agree?

But why include the arts?   Why should extraneous issues be attached to what could be a purely outdoors-oriented constitutional amendment?   The answer can be summed up by explaining it simply as pure politics.   Quite honestly, the constitutional amendment that stands the best chance of showing up on the November ballot for Minnesota voters to pass is the dedicated outdoor funding measure.   So, if you have some other pet bill why would you not want to piggy-back your issue on with one that has the clearest chance for passing?   Of course you would.

Yet, there’s much more to this issue than getting bills passed alone.   It has even more to do with winning elections and party control in the legislature.   The Democrats reason that if an outdoors amendment appears on the November ballot that would stir the passion in rural voters who typically vote Republican.   Therefore, the best way to balance this out is to stir the passion of urban voters by promising improved arts, public television and transportation.   This is being done to ensure that however the sportsmen might rally and tend to support a more Republican base…that the Democrats won’t be left out in the cold with nothing on the ballot to stir their base into showing up to vote.   In other words, an issue as simple as the outdoors cannot and likely will not stand alone on the ballots in November because of the political games that legislators seemingly must play.

This coming Saturday is the second annual Wetlands Rally to be held at the Minnesota State Capitol.   The Minnesota Governor, as well as leaders from both branches of the Minnesota Legislature, will be on hand to explain their version of how the dedicated funding measure should pass and be voted on this November.   Here’s a chance for Minnesota sportsmen to listen to all their promises and then hopefully “hold their feet to the fire” to ensure that 2006 is the year this measure finally passes and gets put to a vote by the people.

Perhaps if we squander the opportunity once again this year for passing a dedicated funding amendment…well, then I might just have to reconsider my wife’s negative thinking about politics.   Maybe then she would then have a better chance of convincing me that indeed politics in any form actually does suck!

© 2006 Jim Braaten.  All Rights Reserved.   No Reproduction without Prior Permission.