Comments on: Got Political Refund Program appeals? http://minnesotaindependent.com/37236/political-refund-unallotment-pawlenty News. Politics. Media. Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:48:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Minnesota Central http://minnesotaindependent.com/37236/political-refund-unallotment-pawlenty/comment-page-1#comment-32549 Minnesota Central Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:10:53 +0000 http://minnesotaindependent.com/?p=37236#comment-32549 Does the Governor have the legal authority to terminate this program ? If the program was created by statute, doesn’t he have to change the law ? IF this is temporary for the next two years, should he have deferred the payment until 2013 ? IF he feels the funds will be unavailable, why didn’t he immediately announce the end of the program … and allow any unpaid (or not applied for) requests to be treated the same as those after July 1st ? It seems stupid to tell everybody to get your donations and refund forms in before the program which will only run the deficit higher. And what’s wrong with voluntary compliance … why not “shame” candidates into not promoting this refund program. Now, let’s get to the politics of this … isn’t this largely going to impact “challengers” since incumbents already have name recognition and know the lobbyists that will donate monies without regard to this program ? Second, won’t this impact “grassroots” interest groups – like MCCL and NRA – in which individuals would be encouraged to make donations to particular candidates ? If I am correct, that means the MN-GOP could be hurt more by this since they are in the minority and are typically supported by special interest groups. Any interest in researching past payments to see if I am correct ? Does the Governor have the legal authority to terminate this program ? If the program was created by statute, doesn’t he have to change the law ?

IF this is temporary for the next two years, should he have deferred the payment until 2013 ?

IF he feels the funds will be unavailable, why didn’t he immediately announce the end of the program … and allow any unpaid (or not applied for) requests to be treated the same as those after July 1st ? It seems stupid to tell everybody to get your donations and refund forms in before the program which will only run the deficit higher.

And what’s wrong with voluntary compliance … why not “shame” candidates into not promoting this refund program.

Now, let’s get to the politics of this … isn’t this largely going to impact “challengers” since incumbents already have name recognition and know the lobbyists that will donate monies without regard to this program ? Second, won’t this impact “grassroots” interest groups – like MCCL and NRA – in which individuals would be encouraged to make donations to particular candidates ? If I am correct, that means the MN-GOP could be hurt more by this since they are in the minority and are typically supported by special interest groups. Any interest in researching past payments to see if I am correct ?

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