Why are so many lies being spread about Mark Dayton's "Tax the rich" initiative?
Here are some facts:
Reality Check: Mark Dayton's 'Tax The Rich' Pledge Reporting
...Pat Kessler MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO)
DFL gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton said he'd solve most of the state's record budget deficit by raising taxes. He calls it his "tax-the-rich" plan.
But listen up: Dayton's plan goes beyond income taxes.
"I know where that money is," said Dayton, one of three major Democrats in the race. "I know who has it and I will get it if I'm your governor."
IN FACT....
Dayton's proposing as many as three new income tax brackets.
Singles and couples with incomes between $130,000 and $150,000 would pay "slightly more" according to Dayton. For those earning more than $500,000 a year -- a sharper spike. And at $1,000,000 and above: "significantly more" in income taxes.
Dayton says million dollar "homes" deserve special attention too.
Remember that $53 million home for sale on Lake Minnetonka?
It's taxed at the same percentage as a $500,000 home in Fridley.
It's TRUE.
Currently, Minnesota has two property tax rates: 1.0 percent for homes valued under $500,000 and 1.25 percent for homes valued above $500,000.
Dayton would change that with a special tax on homes worth $1 million or more.
And ONE MORE THING:
Avoiding winter is one thing but if you're snow-birding to avoid taxes, your wings could get clipped. Minnesotans who live 6 months and 1 day outside the state currently don't pay Minnesota income taxes.
Dayton said that's over if he's elected: You live in Minnesota and pay taxes or you don't.
The super wealthy among both Democrats and Republicans have called Mark Dayton "crazy." Even Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party Chair Brian Melendez called Mark Dayton "crazy." But, we should all remember how these same Democrats and Republicans who are members of the very tiny and select Summit Hill Club called Rudy Perpich "crazy red Rudy" when he proposed a steep increase in stumpage fees for the forestry industry and a very sharp increase in the taconite tax to fund public education and other social programs.
These extremely wealthy members of the Summit Hill Club like to call names instead of engaging in real debate since they have no position on taxation which they dare to place before Minnesotans.
Another Minnesota governor during another period in our history was smeared in much the same vicious way by the Summit Hill Club as they relentlessly and viciously attacked Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party governor, Elmer Benson, in the very same way when he proposed "taxing the rich."
The Summit Hill Club domination of the Minnesota DFL has to end--- let these rich SOB's who contribute nothing to political campaigns other than name calling go join the Republican Party where they should have been all along ever since Lincoln was shot.
Brian Melendez goes around calling "tax the rich advocates" crazy when he is bringing home a six figure salary employed by a corporate law firm which has undermined the MN DFL to prevent working people and the racially and nationally oppressed and women from fully participating in the political process in a way where their political activities can solve their problems.
Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands that if we are going to turn this country around and solve the problems of working people we are going to have to redistribute the wealth in this country and "taxing the rich" is the first way to begin this process.
Of course, ending these dirty wars and re-ordering this country's priorities away from war and military spending is going to have to be placed at the very top of the political agenda along with "taxing the rich"--- their homes and incomes.
No doubt as Minnesota's campaign for governor begins to really heat up, we are going to be subjected to lots more name calling, and red-baiting is going to raise its ugly head again in Minnesota against Mark Dayton just as it did against Elmer Benson and Rudy Perpich.
No doubt the Summit Hill Club will start quoting from the "Communist Manifesto" that "tax the rich" is part of the Communist Party platform. One can only hope that Mark Dayton will respond with the same kind of courage demonstrated by Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins; when she was confronted by such accusations she responded, "I hate to see good ideas remain on the pages of a pamphlet; I would much rather see them being carried out in real life helping people."
Right-wing talk radio, the Tea Baggers, Republicans and the Summit Hill Club of the MNDFL are sure to launch vicious red-baiting attacks against Mark Dayton.
In addition to Dayton's "tax the rich" agenda; these right-wingers of all political persuasions and stripes hate his support for affirmative action which is another part of redistributing the wealth in our state more equitably and fairly since the wealthy have reaped tremendous super-profits from the racism they have sown going back to the days when they stole the land and resources out from under the Indians and supported chattel slavery. Take a drive down Summit Hill and check out how long this disgusting institutionalized racism and the rape of Minnesota's resources and exploitation of labor has been going on.
Mark Dayton, a long-time peace and anti-war activist and advocate, is now proposing just what is needed to redistribute the wealth in our state: Tax the rich and full implementation of affirmative action in hiring.
Let's see if we can't get Dayton to call for an end to the most Draconian, anti-labor legislation standing in the way of union organizing: "At-will hiring; at-will firing." This will give the right-wing radio hosts, the Tea Baggers and the Summit Hill lub even more to rant and rave about.
That's Reality Check.
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