From our Press Secretary Ryan:

This weekend, the silent film The Artist won several of the highly coveted awards at the 2012 Oscars. And with any award show, we started to wonder what could have been?

• What could have been had Chris Rock, instead of Billy Crystal, hosted the 2012 Oscars?
• What could have been had Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) not upset Viola Davis (The Help) for Best Actress?
• What could have been had Bridesmaid won Best Original Screenplay instead of Midnight in Paris?

Unlike The Artist, though, legislative Republicans weren’t so silent when it came to handing out tax breaks for millionaires and big corporations during last year’s budget debate.

Legislative Republicans could have put a stop to some of the many tax giveaways for big corporations and kept property taxes from rising 7.4% on small businesses – the real engine of our economy. They could have asked the richest Minnesotans to pay their fair share of taxes, but legislative Republicans chose to protect 7,700 millionaires at the expense of middle-class Minnesotans.

And with today’s release of the February economic forecast, it got us thinking, again, about what could have been? What would Minnesota be like today had legislative Republicans not protected millionaires and big corporations over the middle class?

Let’s take a look:

• If legislative Republicans had done the right thing instead of protecting millionaires over the middle class, we wouldn’t have a $1.3 billion deficit forecasted for 2014-15 and would instead have a $35 million surplus. (Nov. 2011 MMB forecast)
• If legislative Republicans had done the right thing instead of protecting millionaires over the middle class, we wouldn’t have borrowed $2.2 billion from our children.
• If legislative Republicans had done the right thing instead of protecting millionaires over the middle class, we wouldn’t have cut Local Government Aid (LGA) by $101.9 million. LGA funds critical local services such as police, firefighters and first responders.
• If legislative Republicans had done the right thing instead of protecting millionaires over the middle class, we wouldn’t have seen the elimination of the Market Value Homestead Credit and an increased burden on local property owners.
• If legislative Republicans had done the right thing instead of protecting millionaires over the middle class, we wouldn’t have seen a rise in property taxes by five percent statewide as a result of drastic cuts to LGA and the elimination of the Market Value Homestead Credit.

So, in short, had Republicans done the right thing instead of protecting millionaires over the middle class, we wouldn’t have a deficit, we wouldn’t owe our school children billions of dollars and property taxes wouldn’t have risen by over five percent in Minnesota.

And so, without further adieu…

THe Oscar for Best Tax Breaks for Millionaires and Big Corporations goes to…

Legislative Republicans!