Central Corridor

Please vote for me November 2 for your West Side/downtown/Fort Road House Rep.
I will represent your views on Central Corridor and help end this potential
nightmare which will congest, pollute, and eventually bring more crime as yet
more retail flees, just as the progressive agenda and big downtown employers
expect.

Here is some background info which most of you already know.

http://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?NID=3881

http://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?NID=3430

[corrected links from http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/post/5Z3AgTuU7QvAPBi8xyHd4U]

History of Met Council.
Started as regional Waste Water planning and management entity in late 60's or
early 70's.

The 2008 Transportation Finance Bill created the Counties Transit Improvement
Board (as a Joint Powers Agreement entity, defined in Minnesota statute with
questionable tax authority) and the Grant Evaluation and Ranking System (GEARS)
committee under the Met Council.

Voluntary members of the Met Council's CTIB: Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey
and Washington Counties.
Carver County and Scott County, chose not to join CTIB.
Generally a county board resolution is needed to join.
[corrected from http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/post/5Z3AgTuU7QvAPBi8xyHd4U]

Among the Counties Transit Improvement Board members:
Ramsey County
Commissioner Jan Parker
Commissioner Jim McDonough
Commissioner
Victoria Reinhardt

For membership, the people you represent get to share the cost of transit.
The Met Council's Counties Transit Improvement Board involves city
"representatives" like St. Paul City Council member Russ Stark as members of
GEARS - whose city interests are opposite of those interests of the 5 county
regional board.

Grant Evaluation and Ranking System (GEARS) committee in Anoka, Dakota,
Hennepin, Ramsey and Washington Counties. The 2008 Transportation Finance.
Voluntary members of the Met Council's GEARS:

Council member Russ Stark
City of Saint Paul
Ramsey County Commissioner
Toni Carter
Commissioner
Victoria Reinhardt


The council members should be protecting St. Paul residents from the Met
Council and it's Counties Transit Improvement Board, instead city council
member Stark is applying for membership in the Met Council's
GEARS, and submitting to screening at the League of MN Cities on University
Avenue.

http://www.leg.state.mn.us/docs/2010/mandated/100155.pdf


Jamie Delton
Candidate, House Rep, West Side/downtown/Fort Road,
and a portion of Summit University
http://www.jamieforstaterep.com/

Minnesota not inspiration for Obamacare

Minnesota had nothing to do with Obamacare. If someone can argue otherwise comment below. I got this doorknocking - a sort of pride in Obamacare. Minnesota has a unique and worthy healthcare system but it is not like the federally proposed healthcare system which we must repeal. For starters there isn't a built-in, unaddressed, growing deficit in the Minnesota healthcare system that there is in the federal system. And Minnesota works closer with large companies to reduce cost for employees than the federal proposal. So when I read about democrat New Jersey US Rep Frank Pallone taking credit for Obamacare, I had to post it.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/19/in-the-reality-tv-show-called-politics-there-should-be-a-show-called-the-next-best-political-upset/
"If Pallone wants to take credit for a massive overreach of government, lets help him get that message out to the voters so they make make a real and informed choice to reject candidates like Pallone who are trying to put big government in the drivers seat of our lives."

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/bills/111/hr3590
H.R.3590: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The bill neither protects the patient nor makes healthcare inexpensive. We've seen before government efforts to control cost and reimburse doctors and hospitals fractionally for the care the doctors give to Medicare patients and Medicaid just induces doctors to charge more to those not in a federal or state program. Very few legislators read it and those who may have read it, could not have known it's final form.Pelosi admitted we would not know what's in it until it is implemented. Yet some Minnesotans, like Carlos Mariani, endorsed it before it became law (http://representativedelton.blogspot.com/2010/03/mariani-signs-internet-pledge-stating.html), and now act like Minnesota's healthcare was the inspiration in some way. I doubt this very much.

http://deltondigest.blogspot.com/2009/08/healthcare.html

I wrote this last April:

There are four (4) forces in healthcare – insurers, hospitals, doctors and government.

The patient is not being looked out for.
Non-profit healthcare providers and insurers may be thought of as private sector for-profit organizations.
People say this person I know in healthcare insurance makes over 100k, or the doctor I know built an expensive addition. The price of my healthcare is rising like inflation or the cost of education. Why?
The rise in healthcare cost is not like the increased cost to taxpayers of education or an economic
inflation.
Increased healthcare cost is caused by many things though. Increased healthcare cost is partly caused by Medicare low-ball reimbursements and doctors, hospitals or insurers increasing bills of non-Medicare patients in response.
Increased healthcare cost is partly caused by doctors' increasing insurance cost due to needed tort reform that is blocked by the trial lawyer lobby and their political allies. The cost increase is passed along to patients and insurers.
Increased healthcare cost is partly caused by accountability that is lost in the process between doctors and hospitals and insurers that can be fixed with real transparency (not phony sunshine provisions http://www.prescriptionproject.org/tools/sunshine_docs/files/Sunshine_Leg_Language.pdf) and the patient knowing all costs. Patient-centric transparency is not in HR3590. See the 10th paragraph here:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/articles/repeal
In the politics of envy, everyone in healthcare might look bad and it's not the case really - most have good intentions. Doctors, insurers, and hospitals are in a complicated free market which is driven by a $37 trillion Medicare deficit and a system that perpetuates the deficit.
In particular the healthcare insurance industry is not lucrative or high-margin - the healthcare industry is ranked 86th in profitability.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-insurance-industry-ranks-86-by.html
The government take-over of healthcare initiated by HR3950 on March 21 2010 and the reconciliation legislation is a new and important phenomena. We must identify and vote out this pernicious, destructive policy making.
Never before has the government assumed an interest in "revenue streams" like student loans or the auto industry. Never before has a sector of the economy been targeted by government for bankruptcy like private insurance.
Never before has massive debt and needless subsidies been accumulated by government on this scale with the promise of confiscatory tax of citizens and business or brutal national default.
Never before has private competition been so completely locked out of healthcare industry because of regulation or government favoritism.
Never before have the principles of free enterprise been so lost on a president and the will of the people and constitution ignored so callously.
Medicare is being destroyed by Obama and the Democrats in congress. Medicare is raided for $500 billion to pay for additional entitlements for households making $88K. Meanwhile everyone who needs healthcare is not insured.
The states are being burdened with increased federal Medicaid mandates that are federally unfunded.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/04/03/the-principle-of-repeal/

http://deltondigest.blogspot.com/2009/08/healthcare.html

1 Preserve existing Healthcare
2 Reduce the $37T Medicare deficit without distracting budget triggers and in so doing making Medicare sustainable and free from hidden dependence on future generations.
3 Allow private specialty and doctor owned hospitals.
4 Tort reform
5 Removal of mandates to make coverage affordable.
6 Nationwide cafeteria choice in insurance and HMO's to make coverage affordable.
7 Transform the employer's healthcare tax-break into an individual consumer tax-break

http://www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/bg1895.cfm

8 Market-based health care including Minute-Clinics
9 Reject Democrats' socialist policy and their idea of public insurance, public option, co-ops, HR676 single payer, etc. Possibly compromise on a heavily regulated insurance industry.
10 Reject and repeal all reform involving distracting government take-overs, reductions in Medicare, and cost-shifting to Medicaid until sustainability is addressed.

#1 is important. HR3590 begins to destroy Medicare in at least two ways - by taking away $500 billion and giving it to a new redundant entitlement, and by tying the hands of those doctors who might want to serve Medicare patients by setting the fee-for-service rates those doctors will be reimbursed by the federal Medicare program too low. In the same way, private insurance is crowded out of the industry by a promised government option. Private insurance faces regulation designed to bankrupt it by setting requirements and price caps under which profitability cannot be maintained. Democrats had planned to set up a government "public option" insurance entity with the confiscatory tax power of the federal government to handle the expected failed insurers' clients. The public option was removed by Democrats. What we are left with is a hobbled private insurance industry absorbing millions of people at federal Medicare or state-funded Medicaid rates, which, under a constitutional system, would inevitably file for bankruptcy, but which will
instead, probably solicit congress for endless taxpayer subsidies.
#2 should be the focus. Once it is accomplished modestly expand Medicare to include the 12 million or so (not 30 million) that cannot afford insurance and need it.
#4 Tort reform -caps on lawsuits - will reduce doctors' insurance costs.
#5 Mandates are items such as port wine stains, mental health service, or HIV, that the state requires (or mandates) insurance companies in MN cover include in their insurance plans. These mandates should not exist. The insurance companies should create the plans for the market.
#6 This will lower premium costs and not burden current federal or state regulators.
#7 Employer-based insurance is a remnant of the WWII era when labor was scarce and companies wanted to attract the best employees. Employer-based insurance tends to lock out smart competitors unsavvy in collective healthcare plans.
#8 Many innovations are market based.
#9 Remember Jason Lewis' ideal capitalist system - subsidies of any kind are unfair government interference and tend to lock out the recipient's competitors. Regulations also tend to discourage competitors.
#10 Repeal!!


Jamie Delton

St. Paul MN April 2010

No Mosque at Ground Zero

Let's demand equal building rights from Saudi Arabia, others.

I want a federal moratorium on building new mosques until we verify Saudi Arabia and other arab countries allow Christians and jews to build in their lands. There seems to be a hostile placement plan, insensitive to 9/11 and confrontational with opponents, Christians and jews.

Some of my concerns are illustrated in a Facebook exchange with a local lefty (http://www.facebook.com/Jamie.Delton).

Visit http://www.facebook.com/JamieforStateRep for my current positions. Visit http://www.deltondigest.com/, and http://www.jamieforstaterep.blogspot.com/ for past positions.
Read about the GZ Mosque Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf in this interview with Walid Shoebat :
http://www.fireandreamitchell.com/2010/08/14/video-ground-zero-mosque-imam-faisal-
abdul-rauf-seeks-shariah-law-in-america

Charles Krauthammer reminds us why we must follow through on the immediate issue at hand. Very simply - the developer's intransigence is sacrilege.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/12/AR2010081204996.html


Sacrilege at Ground Zero

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, August 13, 2010

A place is made sacred by a widespread belief that it was visited by the miraculous

or the transcendent (Lourdes, the Temple Mount), by the presence there once of

great nobility and sacrifice (Gettysburg), or by the blood of martyrs and the

indescribable suffering of the innocent (Auschwitz).

When we speak of Ground Zero as hallowed ground, what we mean is that it belongs to

those who suffered and died there -- and that such ownership obliges us, the

living, to preserve the dignity and memory of the place, never allowing it to be

forgotten, trivialized or misappropriated.

That's why Disney's 1993 proposal to build an American history theme park near

Manassas Battlefield was defeated by a broad coalition that feared vulgarization of

the Civil War (and that was wiser than me; at the time I obtusely saw little harm

in the venture). It's why the commercial viewing tower built right on the border of

Gettysburg was taken down by the Park Service. It's why, while no one objects to

Japanese cultural centers, the idea of putting one up at Pearl Harbor would be

offensive.

And why Pope John Paul II ordered the Carmelite nuns to leave the convent they had

established at Auschwitz. He was in no way devaluing their heartfelt mission to

pray for the souls of the dead. He was teaching them a lesson in respect: This is

not your place; it belongs to others. However pure your voice, better to let

silence reign.

Even New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who denounced opponents of the proposed 15-

story mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero as tramplers on religious freedom,

asked the mosque organizers "to show some special sensitivity to the situation."

Yet, as columnist Rich Lowry pointedly noted, the government has no business

telling churches how to conduct their business, shape their message or show

"special sensitivity" to anyone about anything. Bloomberg was thereby inadvertently

conceding the claim of those he excoriates for opposing the mosque, namely that

Ground Zero is indeed unlike any other place and therefore unique criteria govern

what can be done there.

Bloomberg's implication is clear: If the proposed mosque were controlled by

"insensitive" Islamist radicals either excusing or celebrating 9/11, he would not

support its construction.

But then, why not? By the mayor's own expansive view of religious freedom, by what

right do we dictate the message of any mosque? Moreover, as a practical matter,

there's no guarantee that this couldn't happen in the future. Religious

institutions in this country are autonomous. Who is to say that the mosque won't

one day hire an Anwar al-Aulaqi -- spiritual mentor to the Fort Hood shooter and

the Christmas Day bomber, and onetime imam at the Virginia mosque attended by two

of the 9/11 terrorists?

An Aulaqi preaching in Virginia is a security problem. An Aulaqi preaching at

Ground Zero is a sacrilege. Or would the mayor then step in -- violating the same

First Amendment he grandiosely pretends to protect from mosque opponents -- and

exercise a veto over the mosque's clergy?


Location matters. Especially this location. Ground Zero is the site of the

greatest mass murder in American history -- perpetrated by Muslims of a particular

Islamist orthodoxy in whose cause they died and in whose name they killed.

Of course that strain represents only a minority of Muslims. Islam is no more

intrinsically Islamist than present-day Germany is Nazi -- yet despite contemporary

Germany's innocence, no German of goodwill would even think of proposing a German

cultural center at, say, Treblinka.

Which makes you wonder about the goodwill behind Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf's proposal.

This is a man who has called U.S. policy "an accessory to the crime" of 9/11 and,

when recently asked whether Hamas is a terrorist organization, replied, "I'm not a

politician. . . . The issue of terrorism is a very complex question."

America is a free country where you can build whatever you want -- but not

anywhere. That's why we have zoning laws. No liquor store near a school, no strip

malls where they offend local sensibilities, and, if your house doesn't meet

community architectural codes, you cannot build at all.

These restrictions are for reasons of aesthetics. Others are for more profound

reasons of common decency and respect for the sacred. No commercial tower over

Gettysburg, no convent at Auschwitz -- and no mosque at Ground Zero.

Build it anywhere but there.

The governor of New York offered to help find land to build the mosque elsewhere. A

mosque really seeking to build bridges, Rauf's ostensible hope for the structure,

would accept the offer.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

A message to local metro PAC's who support Democrat pro-business candidates

I came across a metro PAC's statement on business.

http://www.saintpaulchamber.com/cwt/external/wcpages/public/get_involved.aspx

The PAC endorses and provides contributions to candidates running for elected office with a pro-business agenda. The PAC is an appointed Committee that is funded independently from the Chamber.

What is pro-business and what is Obama business?

It's the difference between a federal statutory line of credit for big business and the thousands of small businesses creating jobs and vitality but denied credit.
To boot their tax helps fund the line of credit for their government-allied competitor.

It's subsidy-chasing, Tax Increment Financed big business versus taxpaying small biz.

It's the possible expiration of the Internet Tax moratorium by federal Democrats in 2011 with Minnesota's long-ignored Use tax revived, ready and waiting ; versus supporting small local internet based businesses.

It's energy tax costs passed onto the small business owner by compliant energy companies thru Al Gore's fraudulently established cap and trade scheme; versus policy that decreases energy cost like facility expansion and competition.

It's large companies meeting rising healthcare costs versus small business that can't afford it.

And yes, it's PAC's in the Democrat metro area saying they only want to support a winner according to poll data they won't share with Republican candidates; versus fighting the Obama administration for the preservation of the system as we know it by backing republican candidates.

The administration's reports of the number of jobs created by government can't be trusted. They once said 2 million jobs would be created abolishing private healthcare insurance. Well the largest insurer at the time employed 69,000. So either the government report is bogus or they need 2 million to do the job of 69,000.

Challenge your fellow PAC's to support Republicans on principle - and not the phony pro-business Obama policy.

Please donate to
www.JamieforStateRep.com

Thank you!
Best Regards,

Jamie Delton
candidate, 65B Downtown St. Paul, Fort Road, West Side, capitol district neighborhoods
651-224-6564

Judicial Reform

Please visit http://www.facebook.com/JamieforStateRep for an important update to the expected 2010 ballot.

Below are my thoughts on judicial reform, which thankfully is not on the ballot this year, and the misguided federal AZ action by Eric Holder at the DOJ. Greg Wersal, who won a landmark 2002 case for the right to free association of judicial candidates, may have been a big influence on the tabling of Quie's judicial reform.

http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/stpaul-issues/messages/topic/5TArq3Jl7SFZaop71XTp2G

Contrast the two links below.

http://www.dolanmedia.com/view.cfm?recID=592187
The DFL has steadfastly declined to endorse judges on the ground that it would be inappropriate, given that such elections are supposed to be nonpartisan.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/96883114.html
Heaney [a democrat judge who passed away June 22 2010 at 92 after serving grateful Minnesotans honorably and well] helped shape political strategy for candidates, organize caucus strategies, acted as a filter on patronage jobs and got out the votes of the party faithful.


The MNGOP party contains two groups of thought on this. One group opposes party endorsement of judicial candidates out of respect for the non-partisan nature of the office, the importance of maintaining the neutrality of the office, and protecting judges from potential moral hazards; and one group supports it. As you can see there are strong arguments for each side.
We can disagree on this issue and still share and enjoy party unity - indeed it is critical to winning our races in 2010 that our party remain strong and enjoy wide support.

June 12 Cambodian Address

Here is the Cambodian Address where MN GOP Chairman Tony Sutton, State Representative Mark Buesgens (on behalf of GOP-endorsed Gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer), candidates SD67 Krysia Weidell, SD65 Rick Karschnia, me, and CD4 US Rep Teresa Collett each spoke briefly before the guest of honor, Sam Rainsy, Cambodian opposition leader, spoke on June 12, 2010 at 7000 Nicollet Ave Mpls MN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcgOS2gsDLE

According to http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2881.html China’s strongest allies in southest asia are Burma’s General Than Shwe and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hung Sen, leader of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), who is opposed by Sam Rainsy.
Prime Minister Hung Sen and his colleagues are suing political opponents, including Mr Rainsy, for defamation, when the opponents only speak the truth.
As late as 1990 Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot received chinese military assistance along the Thai border.
Vietnam threatens to take Cambodian land in a treaty supported by Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Prime Minister Hun Sen entered a disturbing agreement with China called the Comprehensive Partnership of Cooperation which included military aid, in 2006.
Hor Namhong, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, on May 2, reported that China offered a modest number of military trucks and uniforms to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces to replace US military aid, rescinded because Cambodia deported 20 Muslim ethnic Turks, or Uygur refugees, to China in November 2009, to face government punishment for witnessing and documenting the killing of 197 Chinese in Muslim protests.
In few communities in the world, is it more clear, why the US should maintain relations with it’s allies.
Obama should continue US military aid for allies, even if it’s only 200 surplus trucks and trailers, despite brutal human rights violations by china.
Indeed you might say it is critical Obama should continue US military aid for allies because of brutal human rights violations by China and other communist powers.


In the struggle for freedom, the transition from colonial royalty, and the healing of the country after the 1975-79 genocide, there are 3 things Cambodians might be proud of: your ancient culture, your love of the process, and your treatment of Cambodia’s natural resources

1

Cambodia has a culture they can be proud of dating back to the 9th century and preserved for posterity in stone inscriptions at the base of temples. We in Minnesota yearn for such a provenance, and even created our own in 1898 called the Kennsington Runestone.


2. Cambodians are advancing in the use of, and trust of, the party convention process to elect government leaders. Cambodians have a love of the political party convention process as indicated by the alliance between the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) and the Human Rights Party (HRP)
It is noteworthy and instructive, to Minnesotans, that Cambodians are willing to die for a freedom loving party that represents their country – the SRP, and that the SRP’S ally, HRP, is adapting a political party convention system like what we have here in Minnesota (made up of BPOU's - Basic Political Organizational Units).
Some here in MN occasionally dismiss our political party convention system for creating pragmatic and influential political "operatives" and thoughtless "bots" (short for robot). This a short-sighted criticism of a basically transparent and impartial convention system which both Cambodians and Minnesotans value.


3
The 3rd thing Cambodians can be proud of is
The protected Mekong River rain forest and the giant catfish - the world's largest freshwater fish. It is a joy to look at the wonderful pictures of this great fish and it’s beautiful river. I imagine the unique Mekong tributary, Tonle Sap, flow in reverse from june to september, from the royal palace in Phnom Penh, to the site of the ancient Angkor Wat temple, 200 kilometers away.


In conclusion I hope for Cambodians' continued success in Minnesota and in business through hard work, productivity, and commerce.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Party_(Cambodia)

The Uygur refugee issue represents probably the one issue we can potentially agree on with China. China supported us against Islamic terror in the very beginning on UN resolution 1441. We should support them when 197 of their people are killed by Muslim protesters. Obama is 180 degrees wrong on this of course, punishing impartial Cambodia for returning the Uygur refugees. We must however verify that the culprits get a transparent fair trial and are treated according to international standards.

Here's why it is important we support the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2009

Here's why it is important we support the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2009 (USl House HR 1560)

http://www.hawaiisenatemajority.com/2010/03/04/in-support-of-streamlined-sales-tax-proposal/

"In 2003, Hawaii became a participant in the national Streamlined Sales
Tax Project by enacting the Hawaii Simplified Sales and Use Tax
Administration Act (Act 173, Session Laws of Hawaii 2003). In 2009, the
State Legislature passed streamlined sales and use tax legislation by
wide margins (23-2 in the Senate, 42-7 in the House) but Governor Linda
Lingle vetoed the measure. Twenty-three states representing over thirty
percent of the nation’s population have already been certified as being
in compliance with the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement:
Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota,
Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont,
Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin."

http://salestaxbuzz.org/2009/03/27/internet-sales-tax-cowgirls/
The well-established multistate Streamlined Sales Tax Project (“SSTP”)

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=327202
"Minnesota: Similar to Hawaii and New York, there’s the late January
introduction of a Minnesota bill (S.F. No. 282) to tax Internet sales.
Rep. Loren Solberg and Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee
proposed an expansion of the tax on Internet sales that currently
applies to sales of over $770 per year to include all Internet sales.
If this bill passes, it will go into effect June 30, 2009. But will
this one pass? Word on the Sales Tax Street is that Governor Pawlenty
just doesn’t like it very much . . . we’ll have to all wait and see"

http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/bs/86/HF0401.html

HF0401 Status in House for Legislative Session 86
Bill Name: HF0401
Bill Text Companion: SF0282
Senate author Tom Bakk
Senate Search Revisor Number: 09-1384
House Authors Solberg ; Lenczewski

The socialist liberals accomplish two things: 1) they establish 33% of the states as having passed something related to an internet sales tax to make it look like widespread support and expectation exists.
2) They talk about existing Use laws such as section 297A.14, subdivision 4, which allows a personal use tax exemption for up to $770 in purchases per year, as if they were ever actually applied which they weren't, because of the 1998, 2001, 2004
and 2007 Internet Tax Freedom Acts (IFTA).
The Federal Internet Tax Freedom Act is set to expire in Nov 2011.
It is important H.R. 1560: Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act of 2009
is passed to renew the Internet Tax Freedom Act permanently.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1560&tab=summary

H.R. 1560
[Good !!]
Rep. Anna Eshoo [D-CA14]hide cosponsors
Cosponsors:
Geoff Davis [R-KY4]
Virginia Foxx [R-NC5]
Jane Harman [D-CA36]
Lynn Westmoreland [R-GA3]

[Bad !!]
HF0401 Status in House for Legislative Session 86
Bill Name: HF0401
Bill Text Companion: SF0282
Senate author Tom Bakk
Senate Search Revisor Number: 09-1384
House Authors Solberg ; Lenczewski

H.F. No. 401, as introduced - 86th Legislative Session (2009-2010)
Posted on Jan 28, 2009
1.1 A bill for an act
1.2 relating to taxation; sales and use; defining solicitor for nexus
purposes;
1.3amending Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 297A.66, by adding a subdivision.
1.4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
1.5 Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2008, section 297A.66, is amended by adding a
1.6subdivision to read:
1.7 Subd. 4a. Solicitor. (a) "Solicitor," for purposes of
subdivision 1, paragraph (a),
1.8means a person, whether an independent contractor or other
representative, who directly
1.9 or indirectly solicits business for the retailer.
1.10(b) A retailer is presumed to have a solicitor in this state if it enters into an agreement
1.11with a resident under which the resident, for a commission or other consideration, directly
1.12or indirectly refers potential customers, whether by a link on an Internet Web site, or
1.13otherwise, to the seller. This paragraph only applies if the total gross receipts from
1.14sales to customers located in the state who were referred to the retailer by all residents
1.15with this type of agreement with the retailer is at least $10,000 in the 12-month period
1.16ending on the last day of the most recent calendar quarter before the calendar quarter in
1.17which the sale is made.
1.18(c) The presumption under paragraph (b) may be rebutted by proof
that the resident
1.19with whom the seller has an agreement did not engage in any solicitation in the state
1.20 on behalf of the retailer that would satisfy the nexus requirement of the United States
1.21 Constitution during the 12-month period in question. Nothing in this section shall be
1.22construed to narrow the scope of the terms affiliate, agent,
salesperson, canvasser, or other
1.23 representative for purposes of subdivision 1, paragraph (a).
2.1(d) For purposes of this paragraph, "resident" includes an
individual who is a
2.2 resident of this state, as defined in section 290.01, or a business
that owns tangible
2.3 personal property located in this state or has one or more employees
providing services
2.4 for it in this state.
2.5 EFFECTIVE DATE.This section is effective for sales and purchases
made after 2.6June 30, 2009.

Bill Summary
House Research Department
File Number: H.F. 401 Version: As introduced
Date: March 2, 2009
Authors: Solberg and Lenczewski
Subject: Defining “solicitor” for sales tax
nexus purposes

Analyst: Pat Dalton
"The bill defines a “solicitor” as a person who enters into a contract
to directly or indirectly refer potential customers to a business or
the Web site of the business. States that a business is presumed to
have a solicitor in this state, and therefore has a duty to collect the
state sales tax, if it has at least $10,000 annually of sales into
Minnesota based on referrals from residents of this state or businesses
with a physical presence in the state. Provides for a rebuttal of that
presumption. Effective beginning with sales made after June 30, 2009.
This law is based on a law recently enacted in the state of New York.
The law is aimed at establishing a duty to collect sales tax on
out-of-state Internet businesses, such as Amazon.com, that enter into
contracts with bloggers to put links from their sites to the company’s
website. The contracts often specify payment based on the number of
“referrals” or the amount of sales generated through these links.
Amazon challenged the New York law in a state court as violating the
interstate commerce clause. The New York court upheld that law. "

More caselaw (not part of MN analysis):
http://www.disco-tech.org/2007/01/strengthen_the_internet.php
http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/personal-income-taxes/internet-tax-freedom-act.htm/printable