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Adam Miller

Minneapolis, Minnesota
Commenter for
1 year 2 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 06/10/13 at 11:04 am in response to Will state cigarette tax drive smokers across the borders?

Of the first blurb, which asks a question that can be answered but fails to do so? "Some" predict that it will backfire? Not even the lobbyists sent by big tobacco to oppose the increase claimed that it would raise no revenue at all.

Posted on 06/05/13 at 12:45 pm in response to Mayo doctors propose higher — and new — 'sin taxes'

And confuses the point of taxes of this type. A more accurate, but not particularly informative, way to describe them is Pigovian taxation, after the economist Arthur Pigou, who advocated for taxes of this type to internalize externalities.

The point isn't to punish or single out these behaviors. It's to price them at a level that better reflects their cost to society. Because smoking or drinking to excess or consuming too many low-quality calories is associated with higher health...

Posted on 05/31/13 at 11:10 am in response to Vikings stadium backup-funding controversy: General funds or not?

First, thank you for getting the facts right. Too many media stories say, "raised the tobacco tax to pay for the stadium." That's not right.

Second, I'm about to write words that I would rarely ever write: Nienow is technically correct that these are general fund dollars.

But there is an important difference in context between spending general fund dollars in the last session, which would have meant additional reductions in other spending or additional debt, and spending them...

Posted on 05/15/13 at 10:26 am in response to Exploring Swede Hollow, once a neighborhood carved out of the wild

But the comparison that comes to mind for me is Bohemian Flats, more than the Gateway.

Posted on 04/29/13 at 12:35 pm in response to Pluses and lots of minuses of a new convention hotel in Minneapolis

That not all of the hotels in the area are included in that map/list? Perhaps there was a minimum size threshold?

Because Meridian Chambers, obviously, is not included. Nor is the Holiday Inn Express on 11th St.

I take it the Graves is out because it's just barely more than a half mile? Same for the Hotel Minneapolis?

Considering that I94 makes almost half of that radius largely inaccessible to conventioneers, perhaps it would make more sense to study the actual...

Posted on 04/25/13 at 03:20 pm in response to Legislators should rethink costly renewable-energy mandates

With that line about charging humans for exhaling.

Is it that you really don't understand why respiration is not comparable to burning fossil fuels? Or is it that you think that reader will not understand the difference and don't mind misleading them?

Neither looks very good.

Posted on 04/19/13 at 04:36 pm in response to Minneapolis Gateway redevelopment planted seeds of revival

Of "for a time" to cleanse the palate of four decades of parking lot desert.

There is no way to tell whether the flattening of the Gateway helped or hindered downtown's development. Nonetheless, let's try not to do it again.

Posted on 04/17/13 at 12:11 pm in response to Gov. Dayton needs to support his own proposal to expand the sales tax

Completely fails to offer any argument for it's premise. Why should revenue be generated in even proportion from the three forms of taxation? What's magic about that policy choice?

And doesn't "every shares" mean "this way, we can get tax revenue from the poor too?" Is that a value we should be concerned about?

Posted on 04/16/13 at 03:36 pm in response to Minneapolis ramping up efforts for a re-imagined Nicollet Mall

Then call it whatever you want.

Posted on 04/04/13 at 11:16 am in response to Civil unions: It looks like an uphill fight for compromise idea

Is that there are thousands of federal laws that refer to "marriage" and "married" not "those in a civil union."

So while I agree with the sentiment, the issue is that there is necessarily a civil law definition of "marriage" that need not be the same as the religious definitions of the same word.

The Catholic church, for example, has been getting along just fine with a separation between those definitions (e.g., no marrying the divorced) for a long time. Why is this any...