politics

A proposal at the Capitol to raise income taxes lived just a day, but its true impact could stretch into the November elections.

If Minnesota voters go to the polls in pure pro-tax or anti-tax mode, the past few days offered them crystalline choices.

This week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer blasted a message about his Democratic rivals' "radical agenda of reckless taxing" and march toward socialism. DFL-endorsed candidate Margaret Anderson Kelliher led the Minnesota House to approve a $435 million income tax increase. She accused GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty of wearing a "fiscal straitjacket." State Sen. Tarryl Clark, a Democrat hoping to take on anti-tax darling Michele Bachmann, the Republican congresswoman whose district spans the the northern suburbs, cast a tie-breaking pro-tax vote and called for fiscal responsibility and balance.

Partisans were quick to point to the political risk. Democrats attacked Emmer's stand as one that would hurt Minnesota families; Republicans said Kelliher's approach would chill businesses and they delighted in dubbing Clark "Taxin' Tarryl" for putting the quickly vetoed bill over the top.

It's too early to say what voters will make of all this. In recent election cycles Minnesotans have sent politicians conflicting messages on taxes. They rewarded Pawlenty's anti-tax fervor with a second term but also sent tax-friendly Democrats to control the Minnesota House and Senate. They've voted to raise their own sales and gas taxes but passionately rally by the thousands at Tea Party gatherings.

Candidates take a gamble

But on all sides, in races from Congress to the governor, candidates are scrambling to make political gold out of the current budget battle, betting their answer is the right one.

"This is not the answer for the future. It is time for leadership here in St. Paul," said Emmer, who took a front-and-center role in bashing the tax hike bill at the Capitol.

House Speaker Kelliher's pro-tax take: "We will not compromise on our kids and schools, care for the elderly and disabled and the overall safety of our communities."

At the core of the Capitol fight -- and perhaps the coming battle in November -- is the same question Republicans and Democrats have wrestled over for years: Do Minnesotans want to pay more for more services or shrink government and avoid higher taxes?

For some on both sides of the aisle, the answer can be complicated.

"It was not a tough vote for me," said Sen. Terri Bonoff, of her vote Monday against raising income taxes by $435 million. That's not to say Bonoff's Minnetonka constituents want fewer services. She says most high-wage earners in her district might stomach higher taxes -- just not higher income taxes.

"I'm not tax-averse, but it has to make sense," she said.

On the campaign trail, DFLers have gotten increasingly bold about reclaiming the need for tax increases, betting that Minnesotans are fed up with diminished public services, larger classrooms and shoddy roads.

Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton has led the pack with an outright call to "Tax the Rich," to generate school funding and pay for other services. Candidate Matt Entenza is not opposed to tax increases, but says the state can neither tax nor cut a "way to greatness." Both will vie against Kelliher in an August primary.

Emmer is equally bold. He has pledged not only to hold the line on taxes, but to cut the state's workforce 20 percent.

The three-term state representative from Delano pitches himself as a political outsider who will lead the way with "common-sense conservatism" and avoid tax increases like a plague.

Kay Wolsborn, chair of the political science department at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University, said Minnesota voters may be in an anti-incumbent mood this November, but it's not clear what they'll want when it comes to taxes.

"There are no good answers. There are no easy answers," Wolsborn said. "There is a great deal of ambivalence."

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger • 651-292-0164