Don’t let the DFL-led tax bill, supported vehemently by Robin Brown, fool you. Tying property taxes to your income is yet another scheme to pit different economic classes against each other. It is a scheme to unfairly take money out of the hands of successful, hard working Minnesotans and redistribute it to those with lower incomes yet equally hard-working Minnesotans. We all know that the DFL has a history of doing this in the name of self preservation with the primary goal of remaining relevant within the Minnesota political landscape.

Property taxes should not be tied to income. There is a reason they call property taxes for what it is and income taxes for what it is. Linking property taxes to ones income is not a characteristic of a free and fair democracy but of socialism. Why is our state obsessed with socialism when it comes to the taxation of its citizens? We need to demand, from our legislatures, fair and equitable taxation across the board regardless of ones social status or demographics.

What Robin failed to state in her article on May 8 is that the Department of Revenue calculated that 69 percent of Minnesota homeowners will see their property taxes increase when the bill is fully integrated.

Robin also talks about prioritizing the budget. Let’s look at this for a minute. Was $15 million for state trail and acquisition a priority? Was the $3.5 million for the Rochester Civic Center a priority? How about the $8.5 million we will spend for a convention center and National Hockey Center in St. Cloud. Is that a priority? And then we have the $600,000 for the John Rose Oval in Roseville, just to name a few. During these tough economic times, I would challenge how Robin defines the word priority. 

When our neighbors and fellow citizens come upon hard times it is our moral duty as fellow citizens to help them, but not at the expense of punishing the rich.