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Minneapolis Republicans |
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Minneapolis is a premier American city handicapped by ideological
leadership. Now there is good news for the city!
The Minneapolis City Republican
Committee intends to reverse the effects of decades of
liberalism--taxation, government control, weak law enforcement, and
anti-family policies--by electing Republicans to city offices who believe
that common sense conservatism is the answer to the city's problems. |
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Our Candidates |
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City Budget: Nice vs. Necessary |
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 To
offset a potential 2.15% reduction in state funding in 2010, Mayor
R.T. Rybak first considered
cuts to essential services,
police, fire, and city street maintenance. Shouldn't Rybak have started
with cuts to other departments
to make up for this miniscule shortfall in a
budget of $1.3 billion? We took a look at the city's 2010 budget and
found many nice, but not necessary projects that could easily be trimmed
down. In fact, many of these expenditures are not the primary responsibility
of city government and could be more appropriately and efficiently done by
the private sector.
For example, the
Community Planning/Economic Development (CPED)
has a budget
of $86,587,525, over 400 employees, and a mission to "grow a sustainable
city." This massive bureaucracy is a
tangled web of departments that uses taxpayer dollars
to give out interest free mortgages and
delve into land speculation while pushing a
central planning agenda.
Minneapolis is the wonderful city it is
because men and women were free to build their homes and businesses and
develop their neighborhoods as they saw fit and could afford. They
didn't need a master plan
from city bureaucrats to direct them.
Our "Nice vs. Necessary" section is an
ongoing effort by MCRC to find out where the 1.3 billion dollars of taxpayer money
is being spent, so please check back frequently for updated material.
MORE BUDGET DETAILS |
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How much does it cost us
to live in the city? |
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NEW: Chart explains exactly how expensive it is to own a home in
Minneapolis.
Our property taxes are not the only source of revenue for the city.
City fees and taxes are everywhere. The list below are actual city
charges on the monthly bills of a south Minneapolis resident (2/10):
Excel Energy: Fee-$8.39 (5%), Tax-$.88 (.5%) = $9.27
Qwest: .5% additional fee on phone charges
Water bill: Stormwater fee - $13.86 ($11.09 per ESU)
Long distance phone: .05% additional fee on phone charges
CenterPoint Energy: $11.50 (City franchise fee)
*Special assessment: $1,040.76 to resurface the street in front
of her house in addition to the taxes she pays for street maintenance.
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If this South Minneapolis resident went out to eat, had a drink at a
bar, or stayed in a downtown hotel for the weekend, she'd pay even more in
taxes just because she decided to spend her money in the city.
Click for a list of all the Minneapolis sales, liquor, hotel, beverage,
entertainment taxes. |
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Useful links |
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"When the people fear their
government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the
people, there is liberty...The strongest reason for the people to
retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to
protect themselves against tyranny in government."
John Basil Barnhill, 1914 |
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MCRC
out and about the City |
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MCRC is out and about all over our great city spreading conservatism
and the Republican message of limited government and personal liberty.
We'll be posting photos of the various events throughout the summer so
check back often and see what we've been doing.
Better yet, check out our calendar and join us!
TC PRIDE FESTIVAL,
June 26-27, 2010
Click images for a larger view.
More
photos...
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About the city,
wards, and neighborhoods... |
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Below are news items about city, ward, and
neighborhood issues that you might find of interest. Please check back as
the list is updated often.
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54% Favor Justice Department Action Against Sanctuary Cities
Rasmussen Reports, 7/27/10
"Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say the Justice
Department should take legal action against cities that provide
sanctuary for illegal immigrants. Even more think the federal
government should cut off funds to these 'sanctuary cities.'"
Minneapolis is a 'sanctuary city...' |
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Chanting Points Memo: Buying Minnesota With Daddy's Money
By Mitch Berg
Shot in the Dark blog, 7/16/10
"So 'Alliance for a Better Minnesota' is essentially a front for a
group of unions and, to the tune of millions over the past four
years, Mark Dayton's family, friends and ex-wife." |
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County Requests $600,000 to Teach Kids how to Garden
By Jeff Johnson
Look True North, 7/13/10
"The kicker: $600,000 of this public money would be spent to help
kids plant and maintain 40 gardens in the urban core of
Minneapolis and at the Home School. In other words, we would be
spending $15,000 each for 40 "community gardens" in the
name of environmental education." |
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Judge removes commission chair
Members of the Minneapolis Charter Commission were surprised that
the chair wasn't reappointed.
By Steve Brandt
Star Tribune, 7/10/10
Our own Lyall Schwarzkopf was newly appointed to the Mpls. Charter
Commission |
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Brother, can you spare a dime? Is Hennepin County so broke it
needs a new tax to fund basic road maintenance?
By Jeff Johnson
Look True North blog, 6/30/10
"Several of my colleagues on the board suggested that it would be
all but impossible to find an additional $10 million for roads
within our $1.6 billion budget (which would require
reallocating just over 1/2 of 1%). Hence, the argument for
a new tax." |
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Charter group ready to forward redistricting plan to City Council
By Steve Brandt
Star Tribune, 6/23/10 |
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Minneapolis wants specifics on pension repayment
By Steve Brandt
Star Tribune, 6/21/10
"Attorneys for the city of Minneapolis have asked a judge to order
two pension plans to get specific about how they'll recover $75
million in pension benefits that she ruled were overpaid to
retired city police and firefighters." |
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Mpls. plans to appeal Loring Heights decision
By Steve Brandt
Star Tribune, 6/21/10
"Minneapolis is appealing a judge's decision awarding almost
$523,000 to a spurned developer in a case in which it has already
sunk more than $700,000 in outside attorney fees and related
costs." |
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Healthy Fat ["We are failing our schools"]
By Speed Gibson
Look True North blog, 6/23/10
"Let me quote another statistic...Minneapolis St. Paul ran on $415
per student in 1962, the suburbs averaging $442. In today's
dollars that's $2,998 and $3,193 respectively, and we're clearly
spending many times that today. And all that just to tread water
on test scores." |
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Regents review ugly cuts
By Luke Feuerherm
The U faces a $152 million budget shortfall.
AND YET...
Regents approve new construction
By Ashley Bray
"The project has attracted criticism due to its $200 million
price tag."
mndaily.com, 6/16/2010 |
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Now Playing: The Hiawatha Line
By Speed Gibson
Look True North blog, 6/16/10
"It's flashy and expensive but as a significant transportation
carrier, it's insignificant. And you can't depend on it for
mission critical trips to the stadiums or the airports, not unless
you leave at least an hour earlier. It's always something with LRT,
like when they let you board downtown but somehow forget to tell
you that the line is closed further down where you'll find a
slower though much more comfortable bus waiting to limp through
the rest of the stops." |
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Our mission |
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To seek out and support Republican
candidates to the city council, school board, park board, board of estimate
and taxation, and mayor who are committed to bringing real solutions to the
problems of the city and our neighborhoods, and |
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| To organize informational
forums of experts to speak in wards across the city on issues of importance
to voters and offer specific common sense Republican solutions and goals for
changing public policy. |
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Personal Liberty
