Daily Digest: Dayton joins tax debate
Good morning and happy Tuesday. Also, happy Halloween. I hope your candy reserves are sufficient to avoid tricks. The big news is still coming out of Washington, but let's take a look at things closer to home in the Digest.
1. DFL Gov. Mark Dayton is criticizing the proposal from President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans to eliminate a key tax deduction. Dayton said Monday that the repeal of the state and local tax deduction is “one of the most offensive proposals” in the GOP plan. His administration estimates the deduction currently benefits 900,000 Minnesotans at a total of $1.2 billion per year. Dayton said Minnesota would take a disproportionate hit. But others say not enough details have emerged yet about the tax plan to say for certain how Minnesotans would fare. (MPR News)
2. The five leading candidates for Minneapolis mayor made some of their final pleas to voters Monday, focusing on housing and equity issues in the city. Raymond Dehn, Jacob Frey, Tom Hoch, Betsy Hodges and Nekima Levy-Pounds were mostly cordial during the forum hosted by Tom Weber at the Minnesota Public Radio studios, with only minor spats coming while discussing housing policy. The candidates discussed a variety of issues including education, racial inequity, policing reform, climate change and how city government should work. But housing seemed to be the issue where their views differ most significantly. Even the candidates' language on the topic differed — some called it a housing "crisis," while others used more muted terms. (MPR News)
3. Dayton weighed in on the St. Paul mayor's race. The governor has endorsed Melvin Carter III, a former St. Paul City Council member who works for Dayton as head of the governor’s Children’s Cabinet. Carter, was the target of a series of political criticisms — attacks, some say — from the St. Paul Police Federation and a political group the union supports. Here’s what Dayton said: “It’s just very unfortunate that it’s injected that kind of negativity and that kind of racial bias into a mayor’s race. I support Melvin for many positive reasons. I think he’d be an outstanding mayor.” (Pioneer Press)
4. Dennis Banks, a key figure in the American-Indian rights movement that started in Minneapolis in the late 1960s, died Sunday from complications following surgery. Born on Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota in 1937, Banks served in the U.S. Air Force, was discharged, and then did a stint in Stillwater Prison on a burglary conviction. That's where he was first politicized, according to his autobiography. "I would read the papers and see that demonstrations about civil rights and the Vietnam War were going on all over the country," Banks wrote. "I desperately wanted to be part of a movement for Indian people, but we had no organization to address social reform, human rights or treaty rights." It was after his release that Banks and a number of other like-minded activists in Minneapolis formed the American Indian Movement, known as AIM. (MPR News)
5. An Anoka County judge has ordered CenturyLink to be more transparent about its prices and fees — including sticking to the prices it initially quotes to customers buying phone, internet and cable packages. The court order on Friday from Anoka County Chief Judge Chief Judge Douglas Meslow was prompted by a lawsuit filed in July by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson. The judge's order, written with input from both Swanson and CenturyLink attorneys, does not amount to a judgment on whether or not CenturyLink did engage in unlawful business practices. The lawsuit by the DFL attorney general compiled 37 stories from some of the "hundreds" of people Swanson said contacted her office with stories of CenturyLink's attempts to bill them for charges they hadn't agreed to, or refusal to honor deals offered by the company's salespeople. (Star Tribune)
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