GOP makes it "perfectly clear" -- new state revenue, including gambling, is unacceptable

Lest there be any doubt, the Minnesota Republican Party Friday made it "perfectly clear:" "any scheme to generate revenue" for the state runs counter to the party, the platform and candidates' campaigns.

The message contained in the party's weekly newsletter tells subscribers that: "There is nothing conservative, Republican or 'free market' about current proposals to expand gambling."

The missive comes as Republican lawmakers and DFL Gov. Mark Dayton are locked in stare down over the state's next two year budget. Dayton insists that the budget cannot be "all cuts." Republicans insist they will spend no more than $34 billion.

Although Republicans have been clear they will not raise taxes, they have also introduced -- although not approved -- a series of gambling proposals that could raise money for the state coffers.

The state party's message: "Depending on the Legislature's appetite for increased revenue, from gambling or any other source, the state party will continue to oppose any scheme to generate revenue as a means to avoid spending reductions"

The session is supposed to end with a two-year budget in place in just two weeks.

Read the entire note below:

There is a lot of media play lately on gambling expansion – Racino legislation and a proposed state-owned casino in downtown Minneapolis. Legislators seem to be all over the map on the gambling issue for a variety of reasons – some valid, some not. Let me make it perfectly clear where the state party stands and the reasons for the party's stance.

Make no mistake. There is nothing conservative, Republican or 'free market' about current proposals to expand gambling. They are not about competing with the Tribal monopoly on casino gambling. The state giving preferential treatment to private businesses, which it doesn't extend to any and all businesses, is simply creating and protecting a second gambling monopoly alongside the Tribal monopoly. The current gambling expansion schemes are cozy deals between private companies and the government where, essentially, state government is demanding a piece of the action in return for protection from competition and state interference. That is not free market.

Furthermore, tax revenue from Racino's is earmarked for an 'economic development' fund that will be used to pick winners and losers in the marketplace. It is nonsensical to claim the expansion of gambling is a free market activity when state proceeds from gambling will be used to fund anti-free market activities.

The Republican Party, its platform and its candidates argued throughout the election cycle and since the beginning of the legislative session that Minnesota doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. Republicans campaigned on living within our means. The fact of the matter is that you cannot stand for limited government while looking for more money to grow government.

Where will the search for more revenue end? What will be the next scheme to find new revenue to grow government? Republicans heard the message loud and clear last November – government already spends and taxes too much. There is a better way. The first step on that road to that better way is to live within our means, and not grow government with higher taxes or other revenue-raising schemes like the expansion of gambling.