Brondum snares Spotty!

For his letter in the Wednesday Star Tribune, Jack Brondum of Minneapolis wins a Spotty™:

A win-win solution

Neal St. Anthony's column on retired TCF CEO Bill Cooper ("TCF's Cooper flies the coop to Florida," April 28) gives new meaning to the term "cut and run."

Having raked in eight (or was it nine?) figures here year after year, Cooper now feels it's time to turn his back on the place that made him filthy rich and retire to where he won't have to pay what he considers excessive income tax. By the way, didn't Halliburton just do that in Dubai?

Cooper's tale is reason enough to make the proposed 9 percent state income tax on joint filers earning more than $400,000 into law. Minnesota will get more badly needed tax dollars for education, health, transportation and other programs, and/or we'll get rid of super-wealthy, self-serving creeps like Cooper -- a genuine win-win situation.

And Minnesota election officials take note: If this guy tries to vote here again, arrest him.

JACK BRONDUM, MINNEAPOLIS

Remember, boys and girls, a Spotty is awarded to the author of a letter to the editor, an op-ed piece, or a blog post or comment that Spot wishes that he has written.

Charlie at Across the Great Divide also disses Cooper's flight a little more clinically:

We'll hear some point to Cooper's departure as retribution for Minnesota's high income taxes, and a great loss to the state. Just the beginning of millionaire flight. But Cooper is doing what retirees frequently do, heading to climes in the south and west that are kinder to old bones. In Naples, he can hang with his conservative peeps, never have his pet ideas questioned in the newspaper, and still play king maker as he entertains visits from Minnesota's GOP politicians looking for a contribution.

Meanwhile, someone else will be paying the property taxes on his $11.5 million Lake Minnetonka mansion and presumably taking up the tax slack created by Chairman Bill's departure.

See, that's what happens if a state continues to invest in all its people, and not just the fortunes of a few.

Spotty, why did Brondum win a Spotty™ but not Charlie?

That's a good question, grasshopper. Charlie is already the world's only living double Spotty™ winner, and Spot is going to make him work really hard for the hat trick. Charlie's post also does not have the same level of invective found in Brondum's letter, a characteristic found in most Spotty™ winners' work.

Tags: William Cooper, Minnesota tax policy