Is that how you "Get the Job Done???"

Rep Meli$$a Hortman is Seriously Out of Touch 

7 Years, 2 Shutdowns, 2 Stadiums (and counting), Largest Single Tax Increase in MN History, and Bills to Tax Your Underwear & Outlaw Throwing Away a Pop Can. Welcome to the Far-Left World of Melissa Hortman!

Melissa Hortman praises Obama massive "stimulus" debt as

example of "political courage" (Brooklyn Park Sun Post LTE 9/8/11)

Easy to do when your family salvage yard receives 30% of

Minnesota's Cash for Clunkers vehicles!




It Must Be Nice...

“$50 a year is not too much to pay…to be able to bill


another hour at the law firm, I mean when you’re billing
 

$195.00 an hour, $50 in gas tax is well worth it.”

Rep. Hortman, House Floor Speech 5/12/05


A Woman with Rich Tastes...

"not too rich for my taste. It's a little too light."
Meli$$a Hortman regarding a proposed 50% Gas Tax Increase KARE 11 3/18/07

Meli$$a Hortman Chief Authored a “Big Sales Tax Bill” to Tax Clothing, and dozens of other everyday items like hair cuts, prescription eyeglasses, and over-the-counter drugs. (HF 2163) 
Aren’t we taxed enough? Do we need to now tax your children’s clothes, and your underwear? Andrew Reinhardt will not tax the shirt off your back!

 

Chief Authored a Bill Making it Illegal to throw away a beverage container (HF 4048)

Brooklyn Park Police need to tackle real crime, not a beer can thrown in the wrong color bin!

 

Chief Authored $1.5 million for National Sports Center in Blaine (outside her district, BUT located across from her family’s 18-acre business on Hwy 65 (HF 3165)

I’ll fight to bring funding to projects in the District that I represent, not use my office for potential personal gain.

 

Chief Authored Deed & Mortgage Tax Increase for Anoka County (HF 362)

The home market is hurting enough. I want to reduce your Property Tax Burden, but unlike my opponent, I won’t campaign on reducing Property Taxes while increasing taxes on new property.

 

Chief Authored Bill to require Minnesota to Adopt California’s Emission Standards for Cars and Trucks (HF 863)

Meli$$a Hortman wants to add an estimated $1,000 to the cost of a new passenger car or truck (Star Tribune 4/13/08) and let 11 non-elected members of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to determine what vehicles are sold in Minnesota?  Environmentalism needs to be balanced with protecting Minnesota’s economy and sovereignty!

 

Chief Authored a Bill to Give $200,000 of Taxpayer Money ONLY to pay off the loans of Law Students (HF 1974)

State higher education dollars belong to nursing students, engineering students, all students, not just trial lawyers.

 

Chief Authored Notary Public Fee Increase of 500% (HF 144)

Why gouge small businesses & poor individuals who require notarization of documents?  

A "Fat Tax," or Taxing People by the Pound
Last Friday's legislative breakfast at the Twin Cities North Chamber of Commerce was a strange affair in many respects. State Rep. Melissa Hortman (DFL - Brooklyn Park) faced off against state Rep. Branden Petersen (R - Coon Rapids) over the state budget showdown. ...the bizarre moment in the debate came when Hortman suggested an "obesity fee" to help close the budget gap.  Hortman's logic was that plus-sized folks cost the state big dollars in health care costs and therefore should be made to pay more.

The Watchdog can only speculate as to how such a fee would be implemented.  Perhaps everyone could file on down to the nearest Interstate weigh station, where the State Patrol operates scales that can accommodate even the huskiest and big boned among us. It could even be a progressive system, where the most obese pay the most.  The top bracket could feature the morbidly obese while the next bracket could feature all who are Greater Than Caliper.  The next would contain the merely fat.

And like all good progressive systems, thin folks would pay nothing.  And in a nod to the Earned Income Tax Credit, the anorexic and those with tapeworms would get money back.
Anoka County Watchdog 6/24/11 Email Update

Tax Increase Now! Tax Increase Forever!
“I have no intention of seeing this tax go away. Ever.
Rep. Hortman, House Committee 3/9/07 (about a “sunset,” or time limit on her ½ cent sales tax increase proposal. 

 “I do hear Rep. Melissa Hortman is a contender but some people I spoke with from the district over the weekend are concerned that she’s been too outspoken on tax increases to work in the swing district.”
TPT Political Reporter Mary Lahammer 9/26/07


Does New Mexico Have Disposable Bridges?
(Rep. Melissa) Hortman speculated that 90-plus-degree heat Wednesday and the above-normal temperatures of the past two summers may have been a contributing factor. "Did the heat put extra strain on the steel?" Hortman said. "You wonder if this bridge was built to withstand the massive heat we have had this summer."
Denver Post  8/2/07 (just hours after the 35W Bridge Collapse)

Melissa Hortman, A Lawyer, not an Engineer!
Broadly speaking, structural steel does not begin to lose strength until it is heated to approximately 350 degrees (F), losing half its cool strength at approximately 1,100 degrees (F).Yes, Melissa, the bridge was designed to withstand 90-degree days. Perhaps you could stick to lawyering and let the engineers do their work.”

Anoka County Watchdog 8/17/07 e-mail update in response to  Rep. Hortman’s  inappropriate, insensitive, and uninformed political rush to judgment about possible causes of the 35W disaster.

Shamelessly Protecting Minneapolis OVER the Safety of Her Own District!
During the 2008 Session, Rep. Seifert introduced two Amendments to HF 3201that would cut state aid to cities with so-called sanctuary ordinances, “prohibiting public safety officials from undertaking any law enforcement action for the purpose of detecting the presence of undocumented persons, or to verify immigration status.”

 

The votes failed by 66-67 and 65-67 margins with Rep Melissa Hortman voting against both. Rep. Hortman’s vote deciding vote on the 66-67 Amendment was shocking considering that DFL Reps. Dittrich (Champlin) and Kranz (Blaine) said yes, as did Republican Reps. Abeler (Anoka), Tingelstad (Andover), Zellers (Maple Grove), and  Peppin (Rogers).

 

Republican and Democrat Representatives from every surrounding community to our north and west voted YES to protect their constituents, but Rep. Hortman sided with her Minneapolis bosses by voting NO. Who does Rep. Hortman really represent?

 

Andrew Reinhardt says:
“I will never protect funding for the City of Minneapolis over the safety of my own constituents. Casting the deciding vote on the “Sanctuary City” Amendment was perhaps the most shocking and shameful vote of my opponent’s entire career.  Quite simply, if you don’t know, and don’t care who is in Minneapolis today, you don’t know, and don’t care who is on YOUR suburban street tomorrow. I will never put my family or your family in danger unnecessarily.”