It's no surprise that when Republican leaning reporter Tom Hauser looked at our recent ad highlighing Tom Emmer's legislative record that he repeated the same accusations of the Minnesota Republican Party.
What is surprising, though,is that he did so even after these claims had been proven false, and that a simple glance at the ad's accompanying fact-check would reveal a simple typo, not some grand conspiracy.
See the links below for the fact-checks of every bit of information contained in our ad "Failed", and see that it's 100% factually accurate.
The Foundation’s analysis is a mixture of distortions, selective presentation, and outright fallacies.
The errors commence in the first paragraph of the report. The Foundation refers to LGA as “a uniquely Minnesota form of direct aid paid to local units of government.” In fact, several other states have programs for directing general purpose aid to cities. Minnesota’s program is unique only insofar as it attempts to rigorously measure each city’s need for state-funded property tax relief.
The Foundation’s description of the growth in total government revenue is at best confusing. The Foundation presents information that shows that state and local revenue as a percent of statewide personal income declined from 16.2% in FY 2000 to a projected 16.0% in FY 2011 and asserts that this information proves that “state and local government do not have a shortage of revenue.” How does a decline in revenue as a percentage of personal income prove that state and local governments do not have a shortage of revenue? The Foundation makes no attempt to explain this non sequitur.
Incidentally, throughout most of the 1990s total state and local government revenue in Minnesota amounted to 17 percent or more of statewide personal income—significantly higher than it is today. During the relatively high revenue years of the 1990s, Minnesota’s economy was doing better in comparison to the rest of the nation than during the relatively low revenue years of the current decade.
The Foundation correctly notes that property taxes have increased dramatically during the current decade. However, the growth in property taxes is not the result of increased local government budgets. While real per capita property taxes have certainly increased over the last seven years, the amount of the increase has not been sufficient to replace cuts in state aid; consequently, property taxes have increased at the same time that the total real per capita revenue of cities, counties, and school districts has fallen. It is state aid cuts, not growth in local government spending, that have caused property tax increases during the Pawlenty era.
For more information from MN2020 on the state's local government aid system and the rationale behind it, click here. For a discussion of some of the actual problems with the state aid system, click here.
The Fox Nation, Gateway Pundit blog, and Mickey Kaus all highlighted a Minneapolis Star Tribune column to claim or suggest that ACORN stole the 2008 Minnesota Senate election for Sen. Al Franken (D). In fact, the column -- which Gateway Pundit and Kaus falsely claimed was a Star Tribune "report" or "story" -- did not contain a single allegation of a fraudulently cast vote, and the Minnesota Supreme Court stated that counsel for Franken's 2008 opponent, Norm Coleman, "confirmed at oral argument that Coleman makes no claim of fraud on the part of either voters or election officials."
Media cite Star Tribune columnist to tie ACORN bogeyman to Franken victory
Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten: "Did ACORN folks pull some fast ones to help get their favorite son Franken elected?" Kersten wrote: "Here in Minnesota, ACORN has boasted of playing a major role in the 2008 elections. It claims to have registered 43,000 new voters, which it describes as 75 percent of the state's new registrations. Franken's margin of victory in the Senate race was razor-thin: 312 votes out of about 3 million cast. And Minnesota's laws on proof of voter eligibility are notoriously loose." Kersten added: "Did ACORN folks pull some fast ones to help get their favorite son Franken elected -- a win that handed Democrats the 60-vote, veto-proof majority that they needed to enact their liberal agenda? Secretary of State Mark Ritchie assures us that Minnesota's system of voter verification protects electoral integrity. But here's an uncomfortable fact: Ritchie himself was endorsed by the now-notorious ACORN and elected with its help." [Minneapolis Star Tribune, 9/26/09]
Gateway Pundit: "Figures. ACORN Was Behind Franken's Stolen Senate Seat." Following Kersten's column, GatewayPundit.com posted a piece with the headline, "Figures. ACORN Was Behind Franken's Stolen Senate Seat." The post falsely claimed that Kersten's opinion piece constituted a Star Tribune "report." The post stated, "Here's a shocker. ACORN may have helped Al Franken steal the US senate seat from Minnesota." It then added, "The Minnesot [sic] Star-Tribune reported," and then quoted extensively from Kersten's piece. [GatewayPundit.com, 9/28/09]
Fox Nation: "New Questions About ACORN Role in Franken's Victory." From a Fox Nation headline linking to Kersten's column:
Mickey Kaus: "Did ACORN chicanery elect Al Franken? That's the import of this tactfully phrased Minneapolis Star Tribune story." On his Slate.com blog, Kausfiles, Mickey Kaus linked to Kersten's column, which he falsely claimed was a "Minneapolis Star Tribune story," and stated: "Did ACORN chicanery elect Al Franken? That's the import of this tactfully phrased Minneapolis Star Tribune story. Franken won by 312 votes. ACORN claimed to have registered 48,000 new Minnesota voters. If just 1% were ineligible but cast ballots, or had ballots cast for them illegally, and survived the recount process ... that's 480 votes, almost certainly overwhelmingly cast for Franken. ... Maybe in pristine Minnesota even ACORN is clean. If so, the state would apparently be an outlier." [Kausfiles, 9/28/09]
Earlier today, the White House launched a new online quiz to help set the record straight abouth health insurance reform. By answering a few simple yes-or-no questions (like "What is your age range?" and "Are you self-employed?") the "What's In Reform for You" Quiz will let you know exactly what's in health insurance reform for you and your family.
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