St. Paul’s Highland Park Water Tower opens a panoramic view of summer in July

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St. Paul’s Highland Park Water Tower will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 20 and July 21. Admission is free.

Since the tower stands at 127 feet tall, guests must climb a 151-step staircase to reach the observation deck. A view of the Highland Park golf course to the Mississippi River can be seen from the tower.

The open houses are designed to inform residents about municipal water and the efforts of the utility to preserve and protect water resources, according to the tower presentation.

The water tower was designed by Clarence Wigington and completed in 1982, making it a historic place icon for the city. Wigington also designed structures like the St. Paul Public Safety Building and the Como Park Pavilion.

The St. Paul Regional Water Services will host another open house on Oct. 12 to Oct. 13 for a fall colors viewing.

Guests can ask and learn about the tower’s history at the open house or online at stpaul.gov.

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Newer crop of tax writers prepares to take on legacy 2017 law

posted in: Politics | 0

Caitlin Reilly | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — Member turnover on the tax-writing committees and in Congress broadly has given rise to a feeling on and off Capitol Hill that nothing is off the table in next year’s tax deadline negotiations, including provisions made permanent by the 2017 tax law.

The effects of this turnover are likely to be felt more deeply in a Republican sweep or divided government next year, as churn has been more dramatic on the GOP side of the dais. The lineup changes pose two primary challenges for those who would like to see the 2017 law extended: the need to educate new members on the policies and trade-offs included in the law, and adapt to shifting political winds less friendly to wealthy individuals and big corporations.

“The political dynamic today is different than it was in 2017,” said Senate Finance Committee ranking member Michael D. Crapo, R-Idaho. “There are different approaches and philosophies about tax policy that may be stronger or weaker today than they were then. And I think that that just makes it more incumbent that we understand exactly what we did and why and how it worked.”

Lower tax rates on individuals, relief from the alternative minimum tax, treatment of money U.S. companies make abroad, small-business deductions and other provisions established by 2017 law are set to expire or become less generous at the end of next year.

Eighty percent of the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee and a little over half on Finance joined the committee after enactment of the 2017 law. There are only five Ways and Means and six Senate Finance Republicans remaining on those panels from that time.

Republicans on both committees have started member education efforts with topic-specific working groups.

There has been less turnover among Democrats on the House and Senate panels since 2017 and substantially less since 2021 when they worked on legislation that eventually became the 2022 health care and clean energy budget law, a closer corollary for Democrats when it comes to next year than the Republican-passed tax law.

Peter Roskam, a partner at BakerHostetler and former Ways and Means member who helped write the 2017 law, said given those dynamics stakeholders should start engaging lawmakers now, rather than waiting until after the November elections.

“Everything’s on the table. And I think it’s a real strategic mistake to make an assumption that says, ‘Hey, we’re good. We’re fine. Nobody’s going to touch this,’” the Illinois Republican said. “I just don’t think that’s true in this environment, and that some of the choices that members are going to be forced to make will end up being very uncomfortable.”

Shifting politics

The turnover has brought with it a shift in politics, including a growing populist vein within each party. The change has K Street preparing to play defense on behalf of business-friendly tax breaks, particularly the 21 percent corporate tax rate that the law made permanent, unlike other breaks aimed at households.

President Joe Biden has said he’d like to increase the rate to 28 percent. Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said members of his party have asked why the rate, which sat at 35 percent before the 2017 law took effect, is so low. In the wake of those comments, some Republicans have floated lowering the rate further, including former President Donald Trump.

“That’s an earthquake,” Roskam said, referring to Smith’s remarks. “That is shifting grounds underneath long-held assumptions, which means that clients really need to be articulating what they’re doing through the lens of quote, ‘the forgotten man.’ How does this have an impact on folks that are far away from Washington and whose economic interests are not articulated necessarily on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal?”

Some Republicans are also growing more hostile toward corporations, which they see as pushing socially progressive political messages, Roskam added.

“I think some members are looking at this saying, ‘This is an opportunity for me to extract a price from corporations who are promoting a value system that I don’t agree with, sort of ‘woke Wall Street,’” he said.

Aharon Friedman, director and senior tax counsel at the Federal Policy Group, dismissed the idea of a major shift among Republicans on the corporate rate, but said the politics around trade policy have changed significantly since 2017.

“Most Republicans believe that cutting the corporate rate was something that spurred enormous economic growth,” said Friedman, who was senior tax counsel for Ways and Means Republicans in the lead-up to the 2017 law. “There are definitely different ways of looking at trade policy now in the mainstream Republican Party than there was 10 years ago.”

Trump has proposed a 10 percent tariff on all imported goods if he wins in November, which could be viewed as an offset for tax cuts though some analysts say such broad tariffs would sap economic growth enough to wipe out the revenue gain.

Some tax provisions due to become less generous at the end of next year deal with money U.S. companies earn abroad, including from intangible assets like patents and trademarks.

Aruna Kalyanam, a principal at EY’s sustainability tax practice, said the estate tax could also be a target amid shifting politics. The 2017 law nearly doubled the amount of inheritance exempt from taxation.

“It’s a provision that’s incredibly important for people with constituents that have a whole lot of land wealth, and things like that they may not consider liquid,” Kalyanam said. “It’s far less important for districts where huge swathes of their constituents live under the poverty line.”

Understanding trade-offs

Kalyanam, who spent two decades working for Ways and Means Committee Democrats, said part of member education will have to include understanding the trade-offs baked into the 2017 law.

“Here’s a way to think about it: if you touch this, this is another thing you have to touch,” she said, citing the 2017 law’s changes to personal exemptions, the standard deduction and the child tax credit as an example.

The 2017 law suspended the use of personal exemptions, which could be used to lower a taxpayer’s liability based on how large the household is, including a spouse or dependent children. The nearly doubled standard deduction and child tax credit boost were intended to offset the pause on personal exemptions, Kalyanam said. The three provisions are due to expire next year.

“You can’t really think about those policies in an isolated way, if you’re talking about maintaining distribution, social equity and things like that,” she said.

George Callas, executive vice president of public finance at Arnold Ventures, said member turnover risks overlooking those trade-offs, especially if lawmakers examine each provision individually. Callas spent 15 years working on the Hill, including as senior tax counsel in the House for the Ways and Means Committee and former Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis.

“The turnover really risks Congress not understanding how the pieces fit together, and just viewing them as a bunch of one-offs that were cobbled together in a bill,” he said at a Tax Foundation event last month.

“These members and their staffs look at all these provisions, I think, kind of in isolation,” Callas said. “‘Oh, they made the child credit bigger. Do we think that’s good or bad? Oh, they repealed personal exemptions. Do we think that’s good or bad?’ And they don’t know that there is a trade-off there.”

Another trade-off involved imposing a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions and rolling back the alternative minimum tax, which now impacts just 0.1 percent of households, concentrated among those earning over $500,000, the Tax Policy Center estimates. Both changes will expire at the end of next year.

The so-called SALT cap is deeply unpopular among members from high-tax states, but the alternative minimum tax, which removed some exemptions for wealthier taxpayers including SALT deductions, was also complex and unpopular, Callas said.

“So do we want to get rid of the SALT cap, but keep the AMT almost-repeal?” Callas said, referring to the alternative minimum tax. “Because that would provide a SALT deduction even more generous than anybody’s ever had.”

___

State trooper charged with criminal vehicular homicide in Rochester fatal crash

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ROCHESTER — Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem announced Tuesday that criminal charges were filed against Shane Roper, a Minnesota state trooper involved in a fatal crash that resulted in five people being injured and the death of 18-year-old Olivia Flores.

According to an Olmsted County Attorney press release, Roper is charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminal vehicular homicide in addition to other charges of criminal vehicular operation.

In total, Roper faces five felony charges and four that are either gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor charges.

The release said Rochester Police Department found that Roper activated emergency lights and exited the Sixth Street Southwest ramp onto Highway 52 at 98 miles per hour in an attempt to catch a traffic violator before exiting onto 12th Street Southwest. He then turned off his emergency lights and sirens and accelerated to full throttle, reaching 83 miles per hour, approaching the north Apache Mall entrance.

The speed limit on 12th Street Southwest is 40 miles per hour.

The release said the Minnesota State Patrol has specific guidelines and policy related to high-speed driving.

“Over the course of his 8-year career, Trooper Roper has attended approximately 13 driving training courses for a total of 107 hours. Investigation revealed that at least four times earlier in the day on May 18, Trooper Roper engaged in high-speed driving without emergency lights, in one instance reaching a speed of 135 mph, other times over 99 mph. Each of these instances Roper either did not initiate emergency lights or turned them off while maintaining extreme speeds,” the release said.

Olmsted County Attorney Mark Ostrem said in the release Roper’s “conduct cannot be tolerated.”

“Trooper Roper, violating his duty in such a gross fashion, caused the death of a young lady celebrating her impending graduation from high school. Several other persons suffered serious injury. Roper’s conduct violated the State Patrol’s Core Values,” Ostrem said in the release.

This is breaking news and will be updated when more information is available.

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Biden looks to make the case at the NATO summit that he is still up to the job of president

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By AAMER MADHANI Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — NATO leaders gathering in Washington starting Tuesday plan to shore up transatlantic support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia. But for host President Joe Biden, the summit has become just as much about demonstrating he is capable of meeting the grinding demands of the presidency for four more years.

Heads of state from Europe and North America are confronting the prospect of the return of NATO skeptic Donald Trump as Biden tries to save his reelection campaign, which has been in a tailspin following a stumbling June 27 debate performance against Trump.

The president said his work at the summit, where NATO is celebrating 75 years, would be a good way to judge his continued ability to do the job. He points to his work rallying NATO members in its stiff response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a prime example of his steady leadership and among the reasons he deserves another four years in the White House.

“Our allies are looking for U.S. leadership,” Biden said in an MSNBC interview Monday. “Who else do you think can step in here and do this? I expanded NATO. I solidified NATO. I made sure that we’re in a position where we have a coalition of … nations around the world to deal with China, with Russia, with everything that’s going on in the world. We’re making real progress.”

Biden is straining to persuade voters and donors that he’s still up to the job. He’s been making his case on the campaign trail, in a defiant letter to Democratic lawmakers and during friendly media interviews over the last several days. Still, he faces skepticism from some longtime allies.

Six Democratic House members have publicly called on Biden to quit his campaign; other lawmakers in private conversations have urged him to step aside, and several high-profile donors have raised concerns about his viability in the race against Trump.

The White House hopes to display to wobbly Democrats that Biden still has what it takes during what’s expected to be a busy few days of formal summit meetings, sideline chats with leaders, long diplomatic dinners and receptions, and a summit-ending press conference.

Several senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations say the president displays a strong grasp of the broader issues — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the threat posed by China — but on specific and incremental actions that countries or groups may take when it comes to these conflicts, Biden has appeared to be at worst confused at times or has not seemed to have a keen grasp on how to handle them.

However, the officials say there isn’t — at least not yet — a crisis in confidence over Biden’s general mental state.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters Tuesday before departing Berlin for the summit that he did not have any concern about Biden’s health. “From the many conversations I have had with the American president, I know that he has prepared this summit very well and very precisely together with us,” Scholz said.

The summit will give Biden his first chance to meet face-to-face with new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Biden called Starmer last week to congratulate him on his win and plans to host him Wednesday for talks at the White House.

The Labour Party leader had no concerns about Biden’s mental acuity during their phone call, according to a spokesman for the prime minister who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private call.

The head of Italy’s anti-migrant League Party, deputy premier Matteo Salvini, offered that Biden’s “health condition does not seem very good to me.” “Being healthy for the head of the USA seems very important to me,” added Salvini, a junior member of Premier Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government.

The gathering of the leaders from the 32 NATO countries — plus Pacific partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, as well as Ukraine — is expected to be one of Biden’s last appearances at an international forum before Election Day and comes before next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Biden has sought to spotlight his commitment to the alliance while making the case to voters that Trump would turn his back on NATO if he were to return to the White House.

Trump has repeatedly criticized fellow NATO members who failed to meet an agreed-upon goal of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product on defense. European anxiety was heightened in February when Trump warned NATO allies in a campaign speech that he “would encourage” the Russians “ to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that don’t meet defense spending goals if he returns to the White House.

Trump has criticized Biden for providing an “endless flow of American treasure” to Ukraine. The Republican more recently has expressed openness to lending money instead and has said Ukraine’s independence is important to the United States.

Biden aides have pushed back, noting NATO’s announcement last month that 23 of 32 member nations are hitting the alliance’s defense spending target this year. Nine member nations were meeting the goal when Biden took office in 2021.

Biden also has taken credit for the expansion of NATO. Both Finland and Sweden have joined in the aftermath of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“That’s not by accident,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. “That’s because of leadership. That’s because of a constant stewardship of the alliance and other partnerships around the world. The president’s record speaks for itself.”

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NATO is expected to announce details of Ukraine’s pathway to membership into the alliance during the summit. NATO, which is built around the foundational agreement that an attack on one member is an attack on all members, has maintained it will not bring Ukraine into the fold until after the conflict with Russia ends.

Kirby said leaders also will discuss efforts to create a coordination center in Germany to help train, equip and coordinate logistics for Ukraine forces for its expected eventual accession into NATO.

The U.S. and allies plan to unveil steps during the summit to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses and military capabilities to help it deter Russian aggression, Kirby said.

As for Biden’s health, Ian Brzezinski, a senior fellow at the Washington think tank the Atlantic Council, said he needs to use the summit to “significantly reverse the impression” that he left with his poor debate performance.

“This is an immense opportunity for him to lead with vigor and energy, to underscore his commitment, the administration’s commitment, for that matter Congress’s commitment to the alliance and to underscore that he brings to the table the resolve that has made NATO so successful,” Brzezinski said.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Jill Lawless in London and Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.