Terry Pearson for Minnesota House

Responsible Spending

It's time to let families decide how to spend their money. They know what is important.

In the private sector, people earn money first to pay for necessities, then they use their excess money for charity, luxuries, entertainment, or whatever else interests them. Most people agree that this makes sense. In the United States, we value the individual’s right to freely choose how they spend their income.

Government should not hold these same rights. When they collect taxes or fees, they should be solely used for the duties the government is entrusted to perform. Any other income should be used to pay off debt or be given back to the people.

Unfortunately, many members of government feel that they get to use the government’s checkbook to buy “goodies” for their supporters. Politicians think they have a “Cash for Voters” program. They feel they can just turn over other people’s money and get a new voter to support them in return.

Terry Pearson has a different idea in mind. He believes that we should carefully evaluate spending proposals to ensure that they are necessary. We should be asking questions like:

1. Does this fit with the roles and responsibilities of the Minnesota government?
2. Can the private sector or non profits do this more effectively?
3. Will government spending in this area destroy private market competition?
4. Will this commitment grow with time?
5. Are these commitments sustainable?

Sunset Clause

Terry is proposing that all new taxing and spending laws have a two year “sunset clause.” This would allow Minnesotans to re-evaluate the laws after two years. If they do nothing, the law would expire. The sunset clause would stop useless spending from being buried, or forgotten about, in the shuffle of state politics and budget cycles.

Taxes

‘We have long had death and taxes as the two standards of inevitability.  But there are those who believe that death is the preferable of the two.  ”At least,” as one man said, “there’s one advantage about death; it doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” ‘ ~Erwin N. Griswold

Taxes may be an inevitable requirement of life, but it does not mean that there is any virtue that comes with the increase of taxes. Terry believes that taxes should be held to a minimum necessary to run the operations of the state of Minnesota. Taxes that are based on percentages should not ever find the need to increase. If they do, it is only because government has increased it’s power over the individual beyond what they previously had.

As a principle, taxes should be a means to a very limited end, and only be designed to fund what is needed to run an efficient government. Any proposal to raise taxes on the whole of Minnesota, which is designed to fund special interest projects and groups, should not be approved by the legislature.