Wednesday, August 20, 2025

My Dad, William J. Hempel, chaired the "Minnesota Miracle" Citizen's League education tax plan putting him in an "awkward spot"

 Citizens’ lobbies are a real force. The most no table is the Twin Cities Citizens League. Funded by membership fees, foundation and business grants, it includes lawyers, bankers, laborers and company vice presidents. Each fall, the league settles on a variety of projects to study. Committees are formed and meet once a week to hear an expert on the subject under scrutiny. Among the league’s pioneering recommendations that became law: the Twin Cities metropolitan council creating an urban regional government and also a tax-sharing program in the seven-county metropolitan area. Through the tax reforms, the effects of new development in one part of the area are shared by all, thus eliminating the pockets of poverty and boom that characterize other urban sprawls. Quite aside from its other accomplishments, the council signals the end of a long and frequently childish rivalry between St. Paul and Minneapolis.

 

In the general elections, Anderson faced an attractive liberal Republican, Douglas M. Head, the incumbent attorney general. There were two pivotal points in the campaign. One was Anderson’s appearance in TV spots. He is a startlingly effective TV performer, one of the best since John Kennedy. His frank blue eyes, framed by a rugged, rectangular face, came across and reversed the polls that had favored Head. The second crucial point was his endorsement of a tax-reform program suggested by the Citizens League, a plan calling for the state to take over a large share of the school-financing burden from local districts, mandating a huge increase in the state budget.

The Republicans thought that Anderson had blundered fatally. That they were wrong is an excellent example of the sophistication of the Minnesota voters. They were willing to elect a man who promised to raise some of their taxes in return for larger overall gains. When he took office, Anderson proposed a $762 million boost in state taxes—roughly a 30% increase in the biennial budget. Eventually, he got through a $588 million compromise package, with substantial increases in the taxes on liquor and cigarettes, and in corporate and personal income taxes, along with a 1¢ rise in the sales tax. With such state revenues he increased state aid for education from 43% to 63% in the first year, and now to 70%, thereby decreasing the real estate tax burden by an average of 11.5%.

https://time.com/archive/6841507/american-scene-minnesota-a-state-that-works/ 

Minnesota elementary and middle schools in the 1970s were the envy of the nation, because they had incredible funding due to Gov Wendell Anderson's reform of property taxes in "the Minnesota Miracle". Didn't last, unfortunately

Someone posted this on Bluesky and I remembered my dad being involved in this issue...

https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2025/04/wendell-anderson-pulls-off-the-minnesota-miracle/ 

Sure enough the Minnesota Miracle was based on a report my Dad "chaired"!!

https://citizensleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/236.Report.New-Formulas-for-Revenue-Sharing-in-Minnesota.pdf 

So I mentioned this to my mom - and I had no idea this was such a big deal. She said they did realize it was a big deal at the time and it put my dad in an "awkward spot" in regards to Doug Head's campaign for governor.

This is what I had posted in reply to the above Bluesky comment:

 Wow - my dad served as Doug Head's Chief Deputy Officer from 67-68. I was born 1971 - and my dad served in that education Citizen's League research. I had no idea about this context and I was proud of my 70s elementary public education. citizensleague.org/wp-content/u... My dad chaired the report!

 https://libguides.mnhs.org/publiced

 https://irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/564352d7/files/uploaded/Gilje_HOW_COULD_YOU_DO_THIS.pdf

 


it.

 

  In September 1970 the Citizens League issued another report on
local government finance, this one with a much broader coverage and
greater impact in that immediate time frame.123 The report became the
focus of a campaign for governor between DFLer Wendell R. Anderson
and Republican Douglas Head. The candidates were featured at the 1970
Citizens League annual meeting at the Saint Paul Hotel,
with Anderson,
who ultimately was elected, supporting the report and Head, opposing

 wow!!

Later Doug Head had my dad as his 2nd partner - "Head, Hempel" law firm....

 My mom just said this put my dad in an "awkward spot" and later Doug Head hired my dad as "Head, Hempel" law firm. Just for a few years in the 90s. irp-cdn.multiscreensite.com/564352d7/fil... Wow - mentions the Head-anderson Citizen's League debate! Awkward indeed. hahaha.

 https://www3.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/thing/minnesota-miracle-legislation

 https://www.americanexperiment.org/dfl-deficit-high-income-taxes-and-higher-property-taxes-is-the-minnesota-miracle-dead/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment