Dimed And Quartered

Q: Is there anything that the DFL won't find a way to tax?

A: Of course not!

Puck stops here; DFL'er proposes hockey ticket surcharge:

The House floor turned into a game as rough as hockey during debate on providing money to the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

Rep. Tom Rukavina included a provision in his economic development bill to add a 25-cent surcharge on every Division I college hockey ticket sold in the state. That did not set well with many Republicans.

"It is a bad idea for the 'state of hockey,'" added Rep. Kurt Zellers, R-Maple Grove.

Before we continue with the story, how do you think Rukavina will try to defend his proposal? By following the longstanding DFL tradition of minimizing the impact down to the micro level of course:

Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said the Iron Range has done a lot for the state and Republicans should not begrudge it a relatively little money.

"I don't think a quarter is going to break anybody," he added.

A dime on my drinks, a quarter on my hockey tickets, pretty soon you're talking about some real money here.

UPDATE-- Tim from Colorado e-mails:

Once again a subject has come up in which the State of Minnesota Hockey Commissioner should step up. Where is he? Is he waiting for some sort of official request? Does he need some sort of Bat Signal in the night sky (maybe the old standard of a pair of crossed hockey sticks with a puck between)? You know he'd be all over this if we were talking about some sort of pants tax on Dockers.

You know, if he's not going to step up and do his job you should have his appointment rescinded.

Not only that, but the Wild recently played three playoff games right in his backyard and he didn't so much as lift a finger to help their cause. Dangerously incompetent is a charitable way to describe his job performance of late.

Meanwhile, Cathy from Wyoming gets the last word in on the debate between the states by rubbing salt in our open tax wounds:

I hate to rub it in BUT--I live in a three bedroom, two bathroom house on two and a half acres, overlooking a rimrock canyon on the edge of the Black Hills (think million dollar views). My property taxes for this year are $203....

There is no state income tax (personal or corporate) and the sales tax is 5% (food is exempt). Energy (coal and oil) royalties fund the state. (And we would like to thank all of you end users.) I think we have had billion dollar plus surpluses for the last four or five years.

We like it here?