[Speed Gibson,
Tuesday December 20, 2005 at 10:09pm]
Deal or No Deal?
Breaking news, first noticed by Anti-Strib I believe: a Ramsey County judge has struck down the 75 cent a pack cigarette fee/tax. It may get overturned on appeal, but I believe Judge Fetsch got this right.
A deal was struck in the infamous tobacco lawsuit, a key tenet of which was that this was to be the end of it. But just as with the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, such promises are soon forgotten. Oddly, it was a Republican Governor who said, "No deal!" No sitting legislature can be bound by a prior session's actions or court decisions we were told.
The judge said otherwise. I'd paraphrase this as rewriting the deal, which said that the amounts paid fully covered all health care costs. The State agreed to pursue nothing more.
Governor Pawlenty owes us a flip-flop in our direction. We have a surplus, such that we now know we never needed this tax increase at all. Don't appeal it. Don't rework it. Let it drop.
A deal was struck in the infamous tobacco lawsuit, a key tenet of which was that this was to be the end of it. But just as with the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, such promises are soon forgotten. Oddly, it was a Republican Governor who said, "No deal!" No sitting legislature can be bound by a prior session's actions or court decisions we were told.
The judge said otherwise. I'd paraphrase this as rewriting the deal, which said that the amounts paid fully covered all health care costs. The State agreed to pursue nothing more.
Governor Pawlenty owes us a flip-flop in our direction. We have a surplus, such that we now know we never needed this tax increase at all. Don't appeal it. Don't rework it. Let it drop.