It’s too good to be true. Shockingly so. And yet, here it is:
It’s no longer a crime in Minnesota to carry fruit in an illegally sized container. The state’s telegraph regulations are gone. And it’s now legal to drive a car in neutral — if you can figure out how to do it.
Those were among the 1,175 obsolete, unnecessary and incomprehensible laws that Gov. Mark Dayton and the Legislature repealed this year as part of the governor’s “unsession” initiative. …
“We got rid of all the silly laws,” said Tony Sertich, the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board commissioner who headed Dayton’s effort.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen…the state lawmakers of the state of Minnesota have actually cleaned out the crap. Legislatively speaking, of course, but maybe there’s not a whole lot of difference anymore. Still, it’s not just a question of old useless laws:
…the state also cut several areas of red tape for businesses, implemented a requirement that its agencies communicate with residents and businesses in plain language, slimmed down its tax code, and got rid of a handful of obsolete bureaucratic minutiae:
Under a new law, the Pollution Control Agency and Department of Natural Resources must attempt to issue environmental permits to businesses within 90 days. The administration estimates 11,000 of the 15,000 permit requests it receives each year will meet that goal, and more complex permits will be issued within 150 days. …
A $447 million tax cut bill that Dayton signed in March not only provided income tax relief but also simplified filing returns by making state tax law conform to changes in the federal tax code. Those revisions “made tax forms easier to understand and less time-consuming to prepare” for more than 1 million Minnesota taxpayers, the governor said. …
Legislators launched an initiative that got rid of more than 30 advisory boards, councils and task forces that had outlived their usefulness.
W.O.W.
Actually cutting back the bureaucratic morass of government? Actually clearing away red tape and making it easier on businesses? I know it’s hard to imagine. This is the sort of thing that is so rare that I cannot recall the last time it happened on a large scale. In terms of the federal government, I’m not sure it’s happened in my lifetime.
Sure, this is a small step…but Minnesota has proven that it can be done. Who’s next?
There’s my two cents.
I'm a gun-owning, Bible-thumping, bitter clinger conservative in the heartland. You can disagree with me if you want (you do, after all, have a right to be wrong)...just don't be rude or stupid and we'll get along just fine! :)
There's My Two Cents 
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