It’s probably not any different “back home” in Minnesota than it is here in Florida when it comes to political advertising. Even during a non-presidential race, I’ve grown so tired of the ads. One candidate’s ad will say his opponent is bad for our state because he will raise taxes, raise insurance costs, and raise the cost of living. His opponent’s ads will claim candidate one is a liar and that he plans to lower our insurance costs by 60%. He also claims he will not increase taxes and points out that opponent number one was arrested for purchasing drugs, among other things.
A hot topic here is called “Amendment 3” – if passed, this amendment will significantly reduce our real estate taxes by reducing our assessed value. Our current reduction, because we filed for homestead credit, is $50,000. If Amendment 3 passes, our homestead credit will increase by $100,000 in 2027 and another $150,000 in 2028 – that will significantly reduce our tax liability. There are advertisements meant to scare us into voting “no” on Amendment 3, claiming a yes vote will increase fire department response times, increase ambulance response times, and decrease the number of police officers available to respond to calls for help. It’s interesting to me that those ads don’t tell the complete truth in that our reduced taxes under the proposed amendment will affect only the ad valorem (value-based) taxes and not the non-ad valorem (taxes not based on value) – so we’ll still be paying fees for maintenance, fire, etc.
This will be an interesting election because we’ll be electing a new governor and voting on the proposed amendment, but I’m still looking forward to the day all those political advertisements end
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I’ve been watching, with interest, the investigation of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Supporters will say this is simply a vindictive case brought on by Republicans, but when 15+ subpoenas are issued, there has to be a substantial amount of information pointing to fraudulent activity – I’m guessing it may be a while before any of us hear what evidence (if any) is uncovered. I’ll keep reading the daily news feeds I receive about this federal investigation and wait for the outcome to be reported.
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Gas prices finally dipped below $4.00/gallon here. Everybody is talking about how great that is – in my opinion the price has a lot of falling to do before I’ll get too excited.
Have A Good Week!
