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Mike Schumann

St. Paul, MN
Commenter for
4 years 9 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 05/03/13 at 11:03 am in response to Nonprofits nervous about proposed Minnesota tax change on charitable contributions

This is an absurd proposal. Does anyone in government care about the complexity of filling out your tax forms????? I'm much less concerned about how much tax I pay than how much time it takes to fill out the forms!!!!

Posted on 04/17/13 at 09:08 pm in response to Minneapolis’ DFL precinct caucuses: ‘Wedge’ issues — and complications in the 10th Ward

The DFL Gender Equity Rules are completely absurd. What this creates is a situation where you are forced to vote for delegates who you disagree with just so that you meet the rules. This is completely undemocratic.

These rules may have served a purpose many years ago when women were underrepresented in the political process, but these days are long passed.

Posted on 04/08/13 at 11:06 am in response to Frustrated air travelers feel the pain of sequestration

This situation has nothing to do with sequester and a lot to do with TSA incompetence.

1. If you are short staffed, why are TSA people wandering the lines talking about sequester rather than working on checking passengers. I'm sure the airlines would have been happy to explain what was going on to free up the TSA folks to do what they are suppose to be doing.

2. I fly a lot. It's been 10+ years now and the TSA still hasn't figured out a way to do a one time security check...

Posted on 01/29/13 at 02:31 pm in response to Dayton’s controversial ‘snowbird tax’ may not fly

The Governor and the legislature should think long and hard about the unintended consequences of this type of tax. What about out of state people who have no other connection to MN except owning summer homes here? This kind of tax would put a quick end to that.

If you want to tax non-residents who spend time in MN, you are much better off using a broad based sales tax. Most of the snow birds I know wouldn't have a problem with that.

Posted on 12/21/12 at 02:20 pm in response to 7 best planning moves in Twin Cities history

What saved Grand Ave and the historic areas of St. Paul was not so much government intervention and financing, but the fact that the city ran out of money to finance "Urban Renewal" projects before they could destroy the historic neighborhoods around Grand and Summit. Many other cities bulldozed their historic neighborhoods and replaced them with suburban track housing.

You can see the 1960s city planning vision in the area just north of I94 and West of Western Ave. If it wasn't for...

Posted on 12/13/12 at 01:10 pm in response to Do proposed laws need a ‘poverty impact statement’?

Just another new government bureaucracy that will make everyone's taxes go even higher. The only winners from this are the consultants that will be churning out a whole bunch of new studies and paperwork that no one will ever bother to read.

Posted on 12/07/12 at 01:08 pm in response to At its core, the issue in the MN Orchestra lockout is values, not budgets

Maybe the lesson here is that the State shouldn't be handing out loans to businesses or organizations without running a credit check and looking at their financials first.

Not only are you not doing someone a favor by encouraging them to invest non-essential capital expenditures when their core business is in trouble, but you would think that the state would also have an interest in ensuring that the loan gets repaid.

Posted on 12/06/12 at 12:23 pm in response to ‘A Minnesota Without Poverty’: Proposals from anti-poverty conference

Poverty Impact analysis???? A code word for another government bureaucracy that will increase our tax rates and push more of us into poverty.

Posted on 10/23/12 at 11:34 am in response to Summer interns, armed with iPads, save Minneapolis $250,000

The article missed the really interesting question: What was the federal mandate and why was this necessary?

There's a reason that we have these huge tax deficits and out of control taxes. Why is the federal government involved in your average Mpls street intersection???? Why is Mpls suppose to fork out some $500K to fill out a bunch of federal forms? How much more of this mindless stuff is going on that we don't even hear about?

Posted on 08/13/12 at 03:38 pm in response to Loss of ‘daily’ newspapers accelerating

The trend is already starting in the Twin Cities. I got an offer last week from the Pioneer Press for a subscription for Wed, Thur, and Sunday only for a total of 25 cents / week with a 1 year commitment ($13 / year).

Needless to say that was too good of a deal to pass up, so I am now a 3 day a week subscriber.