Judge strikes down tobacco fee

HA. Deal with that, Tim. And now I want my money back.

http://www.kare11.com/

Lawyers for cigarette makers argued that the fee violated a 1998 tobacco settlement that funneled billions of dollars to the state to cover health costs caused by smoking. That settlement also banned future claims on tobacco companies.

Yeah, Timmy, that settlement that you BLEW in ONE FELL SWOOP to cover up your first budget deficit.

Goddamn do these Republicans EVER do something that generations to come aren't going to have to pay for?

health care costs for same. But I don't think it was really set up that way and this additional "fee" was just another end-play. The taxes alone should have provided plenty to the system, had they been routed correctly. So this "balance the budget on the backs of us somewhat downtrodden group, was just nasty. And next year I hope to see a rebate area on my MN tax form where I can get that money back. Am I right?
HA! My parting shot, eh?

That it somehow tried to prove they could do it without raising taxes. What will he go after to cut come next month?

tobacco companies. What's up with that? We smokers were the ones paying the damn fee.

Ugh. Where's MY refund.

...we people that enjoy chewing tobacco had our prices raised $2 a can I want to know where my refund is!!! Thank god I live in Duluth and I can go over to Superior. I can get 2 cans for what it costs for one in Duluth.

:rant: :sarcasm:

"The governor's verbal gymnastics didn't fool anyone," House Minority Leader Matt Entenza said in a statement. "The public recognized this so-called fee was, in fact, a tax. The state wouldn't be in this mess right now if the governor had simply been honest and up-front with the public about what he was doing."

The St. Paul Democratic-Farmer-Laborite refused to say if he would support turning the illegal fee into a legal tax.


What kind of chickenshit DFLer is this guy anyway? There's a $400 million hole in the state budget staring him in the face due to Governor Pawlenty-of-Fees' word games and he's afraid to re-pass this "fee" as the tax that it always was? And he wants to be attorney general.

The fee was Pukelenty's idea. Make him fix the problem. Force him to call something a TAX and have him grovel before the legislature to pass it. Timmy the Tool will then almost certainly get booted out next year.

Look where his "strategy" of not having a House DFL position on the gay marriage hate amendment got them. The Bachmann Amendment passed the House with plenty of DFL support.

To not take the lead in fixing the $400 million hole in the budget that Pawlenty created is idiotic and represents the political gamesmanship voters are sick of.

what worries me is the thought he could be the next Attorney General - a job that requires a spine.

:rofl:

:rofl: Now he'll have to turn it inti a tax, pissing off his base.