Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget proposal, unveiled Tuesday, includes a tax hike for the wealthy, cuts to health care for 7,200 low-income adults, an increase in spending for K-12 education, a 6 percent decrease in the state workforce,and steady funding for local governments. “I have always said that a budget is about values and priorities, as well as dollars and cents,” Dayton said. “My budget represents my values and priorities, one of which is to keep my promises that I made to the people of Minnesota last fall.”

Dayton’s budget would cap state subsidized health insurance at 200 percent of the poverty level, a 75 percent reduction, and would result in 7,200 adults losing state health care services. The Department of Human Services would see a 2.8 percent decrease. There would also be a reduction to nursing homes and home health care services.

“I respect those who would prefer that I make no cuts,” Dayton said at a press conference. “To the critics I say, ‘Where would they come up with a better alternative?’”

He said, “I’m not willing to make barbaric cuts in essential services.”

Local government aid will be held steady which Dayton said will hold the line on property taxes.

Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak praised the budget and the funding for local governments.

“In my nine years as mayor, this is the first time that a governor has delivered a budget that helps hold the line on property taxes,” he said in a statement. “Governor Dayton inherited a fiscal mess that was made far worse for the middle class by years of the State’s passing the buck onto local businesses and homeowners. In proposing no more crippling cuts to Local Government Aid, Governor Dayton has drawn the line.”

St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman said the funding for local governments would help the core cities continue to be the economic drivers for the state.

“Saint Paul and other core cities are the economic engines of Minnesota,” he said in a statement. “With Governor Dayton’s bold leadership, Saint Paul will continue to be a prime location for job creation and economic development.”

Dayton also proposed an increase funding for K-12 education, and much of that increase would go to statewide all-day early education. The shift in aid payments to schools that was implemented by former Gov. Tim Pawlenty would continue, but would be repaid at 10 percent per year starting in 2014.

Higher education funding, particularly for state college and universities, will see a 6 percent reduction. Public safety will be maintained at current levels.

The proposal will also contain a 6 percent reduction in the state workforce. “There are gong to be layoffs,” Dayton said, though he predicted many of the estimated 800 jobs lost would come through early retirements and not filling positions once vacated.

The proposal increases taxes for the “4th tier” of taxpayers, the most wealthy Minnesotans. That rate will increase to 10.95 percent for joint tax-filers who make over $150,000 and head of household filers making over $130,000. Dayton is also proposing a 3-year temporary 3 percent tax on people whose taxable income is $500,000.

And the proposal would close loopholes on “snowbirds” who file taxes in other states but live in Minnesota five months and 29 days a year.

“I believe this budget proves that I am a man of my word,” Dayton said of the tax increase pledge he made during his campaign in 2010.

Dayton said that the top tax rate has gone down in Minnesota over the last two decades from 12.5 percent to 9.8 percent.

He hopes that he and Republicans can come to an agreement on the budget in the next few months. “I expect to have to give up some of this proposal as a way of finding common ground with the legislature,” he said, adding, “We will both be unhappy with different aspects, and that’s the process.”

Republicans blasted the budget proposal. Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch said, “This is the highest income tax in the country.”

House Speaker Kurt Zellers said, “This is a feeble and pathetic attempt to go back in time. It will not work. It’s not what governors across the country are doing.”

He added, “Don’t worry, we are not going to let Mark Dayton tax our jobs out of our state.”

Koch said, “We will work to find common ground, but the tax increases are not going to be accepted by the House and Senate.”

Sen. Geoff Michel added, “What he chose was to put together his campaign platform and that’s fine; I’ll give the governor credit for being consistent, however, I don’t want to say it’s dead on arrival but I don’t think its got much of a heartbeat.”

“This law sets a dangerous example for the rest of the country. It will create a culture where racial profiling is acceptable, and will create a dangerous wedge between police officers and the communities they serve,” said Coleman. “We are a country of immigrants — and SB 1070 is an affront to our constitution and the values we hold dear as Americans. It’s not worthy of who we are as a people — and it’s certainly not worthy of the investment of any city dollars being spent in Arizona.”

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning … 

ST. PAUL: Okay, let’s talk … but very late this week. And I’m not giving no stinkin’ budget address to the state Legislature, says Gov. Pawlenty to top DFLers. [Associated Press; Minnesota Public Radio]

ST. CLOUD: Ladies and gentlemen … Norm Coleman! Fresh off his election loss (sorta), the former U.S. Senator will speak at a GOP state Senate District 15 fundraiser Saturday. [Hot Dish Politics]

SIXTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Grand Old Tea Party. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann says the GOP should embrace the upstarts “with full arms.” [ThinkProgress]

BURNSVILLE: A mayor’s mayor. Burnsville Mayor Elizabeth Kautzman leads the U.S. Conference of Mayors starting today. [Minnesota Public Radio]

ST. PAUL: Mayor leans on white pine metaphor. Chris Coleman’s choice of tree for his inaugural address wasn’t entirely apt — not gnarly enough. [City Hall Scoop]

MINNEAPOLIS: All business in metaphor-free mayoral address. Better to play it safe, as R.T. Rybak did, with bullet points. [CIty of Minneapolis]

The first to fall was St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. In late August he hired an impressive campaign staff vastly overqualified to help him walk to re-election. “But with a primary barely two weeks away and little buzz about the race,” Jason Hoppin wrote at The Political Animal, “there’s no doubt the team is in place to help with Coleman’s expected bid for governor.”

Then, barely six weeks later, Coleman announced he wouldn’t run for governor after all.

Next was Brian Sullivan. On Election Day, Mary LaHammer wrote on her TPT blog “There’s a lot of talk (PIM and MPR) that businessman Brian Sullivan may indeed enter the race for governor.” LaHammer’s headline: “Brian Sullivan Buzz.”

Now, seven days later, Sullivan has emphatically declined to run.

That gives a different cast to Charley Shaw’s headline at Politics in Minnesota last Friday: “Buzz about a Norm Coleman run for governor is getting louder.” To make matters worse, Shaw writes that “journalist Barry Casselman told PIM he has noticed the uptick in buzz about Coleman.”

Could a Norm Coleman non-candidacy be the next shoe to drop in the great gubernatorial buzz-kill of 2009?

The board announced the rulings today, but reached its decisions at a meeting on Thursday — the same day Rybak registered a gubernatorial campaign committee. He won re-election to a third term as mayor on Tuesday. The rulings were prompted by complaints filed by the Republican Party of Minnesota.

The board also heard evidence about Rybak driving to events around the state meant to showcase candidates for governor — with mileage costs that Rybak bore personally but that the Minnesota GOP said constituted an in-kind gift.

But it was the survey costs that the board focused on, and they didn’t buy Rybak’s defense that the polling work was on behalf of his mayoral campaign against much lesser-known challengers:

The response on behalf of Mayor Rybak contends that the survey was to support a re-election bid for Mayor of Minneapolis. But this response does not persuasively explain why a survey to support the Mayor’s re-election would have a geographic calling area that included metro area residents that are not eligible to vote in Minneapolis.

The board found the survey questions revealing:

As an example, the survey asks if the respondent voted in 2006, (the last time the office of Governor was on the ballot), and if the respondent intends to vote in 2010. The office of Governor is on the ballot in 2010, the office of Mayor of Minneapolis is on the ballot in odd numbered years (2005 and 2009).

The board ordered Rybak to form a gubernatorial campaign committee (which he did), which must transfer to his RT for Minneapolis mayoral campaign the cost of the conducting the survey last May.

The board also ruled (pdf) on whether St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman violated state statute by failing to register a fundraising committee while exploring a bid for governor. The complaint from the Minnesota GOP noted that Coleman had participated in gubernatorial forums with other candidates and openly discussed his plans for the state if elected to the office. The board determined that Coleman was indeed a candidate for governor earlier this year and spent personal funds in excess of $100 to support his campaign.

The Board considered possible reasons why Mayor Coleman would travel to locations throughout the state to participate in gubernatorial candidate forums and present information on what actions he would do if elected Governor. In the Board’s view the only reasonable explanation for those actions is that Mayor Coleman was seeking nomination or election to the office of Governor.

But the board also ruled that Coleman did not improperly use funds from his mayoral campaign to support a gubernatorial bid. Coleman has since announced that he will not be running for governor, but the board stated that that decision did not alter its findings in the matter. The administrative body ordered Coleman to submit a detailed accounting of his expenditures on behalf of his gubernatorial campaign by February 1, 2010.

“Our work is not done here,” Coleman told supporters gathered in a ballroom at the St. Paul Hotel shortly after the polls closed. “We’re on the verge of something great here in old St. Paul.”

Coleman’s margin of victory was almost identical to four years ago, when he ousted incumbent Randy Kelly. Ng was endorsed by the Republican party — a mark of dubious distinction in a town dominated by Democrats.

Coleman openly flirted with a run for governor next year. But he surprised supporters and political observers last month when he announced that he would not seek the state’s top post.

In St. Paul’s school board contests, incumbent Elona Street-Stewart was the top vote-getter, with support from 22 percent of voters. She’ll be joined by fellow Democrat John Brodrick and newcomer Jean O’Connell. Incumbent Tom Goldstein fell fewer than 400 votes short of retaining his post. O’Connell was the only candidate in the field to be endorsed by the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, a distinction that likely helped put her over the top.

In the contest to fill a two-year post on the school board created by the departure of Tom Conlon midway through his term, Democrat Vallay Moua Varro defeated Republican Pat Igo by a 59-40 percent margin.

St. Paul residents narrowly voted to adopt instant-runoff voting for municipal elections. The ballot measure drew support from 52 percent of voters. Given how contentious the contest was between the pro- and anti-IRV advocates, it seems likely that the result will be challenged. Minneapolis utilized the instant-runoff system, whereby voters rank candidates in order of preference, for the first time on Tuesday.

Photo: governor.state.mn.us

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman caps off the long version of his new TV ad by quoting hockey great Wayne Gretzky’s advice to skate to where the puck will be. It’s a quote Gov. Pawlenty has been using for years, as Brian Bakst of the Associated Press notes. Indeed, it’s a favorite among consultants, businessmen and politicians, including former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. But Gretzky wasn’t the first to say it, and in any case it’s of dubious value as advice, according to people who know their way around a rink. 

Here’s how Coleman rephrases Gretzky’s maxim (at the 3:54 mark):

I really feel like the mayor of the City of St. Paul has to be a leader of all the people. We need to look to the future. We need to think about where the puck is going to be.

Pawlenty has been using the quote at least since his first year as governor. He found global meaning from Gretzky’s words in 2003, according to the University of St. Thomas Aquin (pdf):

Pawlenty compared the progress of Minnesota to his favorite hockey player, Wayne Gretzky. Pawlenty said Gretzky attributed his success to the fact that he didn’t care where the puck was; it was where the puck was going that mattered. “It’s a great metaphor for the times we live in,” he said. “We’re living in a world with enormous change, and it’s an exciting time.”

St. Paul’s other mayor named Coleman, Norm, said Gretzky’s wisdom could help the nation defeat terrorism. He cited them in 2006 to open two days of hearings as chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on investigations:

In the words of the hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, a good hockey player plays where the puck is; a great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. In other words, we cannot safeguard a post-9/11 America by simply using pre-9/11 methods. If we think that terrorists are not plotting their next move, then we are mistaken.

Given how frequently Gretzky’s words are repeated, it’s surprising a key fact about them is often overlooked: they’re actually his father’s, according to an extensive 2000 investigation by Fast Company magazine’s Consultant Debunking Unit.

Walter Gretzky’s original version: “Go to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

Fast Company probed further, asking the elder Gretzky whether the adage is actually advice he’d give to pros, or the movers-and-shakers who like to cite it.

“Mama mia, no!” Walter says. “That advice is strictly for little kids. It’s just simple basics, like the ABCs. You have to know the alphabet before you can write. And naturally, going to where the puck is going is something that pros take for granted — or they wouldn’t be playing professionally.

The younger Gretzky wouldn’t give Fast Company the time of day, but his idol Gordie Howe took a swipe at the quote:

It’s not really the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever heard. Besides, sometimes you don’t want to be where the puck is going. One time, I was anticipating a pass from [Ted] ‘Teeder’ Kennedy and was leaning over to get in the way of it, when Kennedy, following through, swung his stick in my eye. I had double vision for two months and had to sit out the rest of the season.

A clear-eyed look at the saying by the late Herb Brooks, who coached Minnesota’s Golden Gophers and North Stars, resulted in a similar conclusion:

You’d have to be a real idiot to skate to where the puck used to be. On the other hand, if everyone skated to where the puck is going, you’d have one big train wreck. Sometimes your job on the ice is to take the pressure off of the guy who’s headed for the puck by drawing players away. And sometimes you want to skate to where the puck is, not to where it’s going. When you shoot the puck into the zone, it’s up for grabs — and you have to chase it.

Photo: wikipedia

Twenty years ago, a dream of being inside a movie-studio limousine when revolution breaks out made filmmaker Michael Moore swear off limo rides. It was a similar wrong-place, wrong-time nightmare that led St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman to swear off gubernatorial pursuits. ”I had a vision of me at a bean feed somewhere while the Central Corridor was collapsing,” Coleman told KSTP-AM today.

A sense of mayoral obligation to see the Central Corridor light-rail transit project through is one of the main specifics Coleman has been offering for his surprise decision yesterday: to leave outstate bean feeds to the remaining gubernatorial contenders and stick to current his job in St. Paul, for now.

But on KSTP, Coleman had another, newly minted explanation: “I thought that I’d be winning the Nobel Peace Prize.”

It was supposed to be a “done deal,” Coleman joked, that would leave him too busy running around the world on Peace Prize business to attend to affairs back home — a possible jab at Republicans who griped that Coleman listed statewide travel as mayoral rather than gubernatorial campaign expenses.

GOP complaints had no role in his decision not to run for governor, Coleman repeated on the radio. He also denied that his dropping out of the race was meant as any kind of shot at Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who remains a candidate (unannounced) in the field for governor in 2010.

Coleman said he probably wouldn’t back another candidate for governor in advance of the DFL Party endorsement.

As for whether he would agree to another debate with his Republican opponent Eva Ng (besides an election-eve public radio date), Coleman said, “We’ll see.”

Then in commenting on Ng, he mistakenly slipped back into statewide-campaign mode for a moment: “She needs to present her vision for the state — er, the city.”

“My work is here,” Coleman told reporters during a press conference at City Hall.

There were abundant signs that the Democrat was seriously entertaining a gubernatorial bid. He hired the DFL’s communications director to oversee a re-election campaign that looked to be a cakewalk and brought on high-powered political consultant Mandy Grunwald to assist with the effort. His lawn signs conspicuously failed to mention exactly which office he was seeking. And Coleman participated in a couple of candidate forums with the 10 other potential Democratic candidates.

But apparently he will be content to seek a second term as mayor. Coleman claimed to have only made the decision not to run for governor this morning. He will face Republican-backed Eva Ng in next month’s general election.

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

ST. PAUL: Bachmann hard on ACORN, easy on birthers. She asks Gov. Pawlenty to investigate the community-organizing group but won’t diss people who doubt President Obama’s American birth. [Associated Press; CNN]

SAUK RAPIDS: Did he need a photo ID to file? Then how do we know it’s the real Republican state Rep. Dan Severson who is eyeing DFLer Mark Ritchie’s secretary of state post? [St. Cloud Times]

ST. PAUL: Mayoral rivals debate. Republican Eva Ng attacked Mayor Chris Coleman on taxes and fees, which she’d freeze “right now.” [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: “Nothing like a pissed-off woman.” That’s how city council candidate Lennie Chism explains away an assault charge as a setup. [Star Tribune]

ST. PAUL: One in five, baby. A state report agrees with Jim Morrison of the Doors: That’s the proportion of Minnesota banks and credit unions on a watch list for failure. [Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal]

MINNEAPOLIS: “It’s like the Metrodome is an obsessed girlfriend, refusing to let the Twins leave.” Sports-romance analogies: You can’t live with ‘em, you can’t live without ‘em. [WCCO-TV; @DeRushaJ]