TPaw, Taxes & Tribes

Here in Minnesota we have a governor named Tim Pawlenty, or as some - both affectionately and not - call him, TPaw. And TPaw, like many politicians has made his career by making pledges to special interest groups. In TPaw's case the special interest group that controls him is the Taxpayer's League of Minnesota. You see TPaw took an oath not to raise taxes. Some would say that is how he won the election. And TPaw has stuck to his word not to raise taxes.

This story is not unique and not particularly interesting until you know a little about the current state of affairs. It may be fine not to raise taxes at the state level and to force government cutbacks and (hopefully) eliminate some waste and pork, however, much of the tax burden has simply shifted to the local level in Minnesota, with property taxes at record levels Minnesotan's are simply paying more out in taxes.

Even this semantic adherence to his pledge wasn't enough to really earn my ire, as TPaw has seemed like a reasonable guy on other topics (including his commitment to public transit improvements).

There is now, however, a movement spearheaded by the governor to get a larger share of revenue from native run casinos (or else he would bring in others to essentially undercut their business). Isn't a larger share of the profits of casinos another tax? Does the governor only care about taxes on white people? I think it is very wrong of TPaw to try this tactic, as he knows there is very little to lose in terms of political capital. Minnesotans believe for the most part, I think, that Native American's are well off now due to the casinos and that they have received unfair protections under the law. That seems pretty damn ironic to me.