Am 1500 Kstp

Joe Soucheray: Soak the rich? That's Dayton's trust fund talking

Repeated again the other day in a letter to the editor by Ron Schally of Stacy, Minn., was the contention that Gov. Mark Dayton's family trust sits in South Dakota, avoiding much of his " 'tax the wealthy' pitch." I sympathize with Mr. Schally, although I can't quite nail down the location of Dayton's trust, how much it is worth and what exactly it means for the trust to be sitting in South Dakota.

I called the guy who does my taxes, but being a smart fellow, he was out enjoying the few days of summer we might get this year. I was going to ask him what it means for somebody to have a trust fund sitting in South Dakota, as opposed to, say, Peru or Nebraska.

The Dayton trust is Minnesota's own version of the Obama birth certificate controversy. Obama has made available for display a copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate, which I am entirely prepared to accept, despite a host of conspiracy theories regarding the typeface on the document. I don't believe Dayton has showed us any paperwork. His financial statements certainly show him paying income taxes in Minnesota, income presumably received from the trust, but I am unclear as to whether he has ever sat down with an ink-stained wretch and laid the whole Dayton financial plan out on the table.

During Dayton's campaign for governor, his spokes-woman, Katharine Tinucci, told reporters that there is no Dayton trust in the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands.

OK.

More recently, on Friday, Tinucci said: "The bank moved the Dayton trust to South Dakota. Mark has no control over the trust. He makes no decisions regarding investments."

OK. We're getting somewhere. There is a Dayton trust in South Dakota, perhaps as many as three. Tinucci said there was a trust established before Mark's birth, one when he was 4 and one in the 1960s. These trusts, of course, are understandable and legal and all flowed from generations of us buying our Madras shirts at Dayton's.

And yes, I certainly understand that Mark didn't climb behind the wheel of a 1976 Chevrolet at some point in his life and drive a bag of money down to Sioux Falls for purposes of sheltering it from Minnesota taxation. When you are a scion, you end up with people, bankers, lawyers, accountants and financial advisers.

Kirk Possehl gets a shot behind the microphone with AM1500 KSTP ...

Shoreview resident Kirk Possehl is getting a shot at filling the 5:30 to 8:00 pm slot at AM1500 KSTP radio . He’s got two shifts, one yesterday and another today at 5:30 pm to talk his way into a radio gig.

Many local friends helped Possehl get his foot in the KSTP door. They sent emails to KSTP program director Steve Konrad in support of him.

“It was quite the humbling experience as the program director said he received several handfuls of emails,” said Kirk Possehl. “I didn’t know I had that many supporters!”

Possehl said his experience behind the microphone started twenty-two years ago when he was calling bingo in a sports bar. He worked with the Saints radio broadcasts and a couple local radio stations before moving to Chicago where he announced minor league hockey games for the Chicago Wolves of the IHL and the Chicago Freeze Jr A team. He also did minor league baseball working for the Kane County Cougars, a Florida Marlins affiliate plus a couple more local radio stations. After that Possehl moved back to Minnesota where he has worked over 900 hockey games in the past eleven years as well as eight different sports, and with the University of Minnesota. Possehl has had two auditions with the Minnesota Wild which could be referred to as “a cup of coffee in the bigs”.

I asked Kirk how it feels to be on the air at a major radio station.

“Very nice!  It’s good to have a local flavor to bring to the show.  I truly love this state and love talking sports.  I hope to bring a “couple guys sitting in a sports bar”  mentality to the air,” said Possehl. “Herb Brooks said it best, “Joe six pack.” “

Possehl’s favorite part of his first night on the air was talking with callers and great guests like Bert Blyleven.

“How do you not enjoy a conversation with Bert Blyleven!” said Possehl. “But the callers were the most fun to me!”

The hardest part of the first night for Possehl was just getting acclimated to the surroundings. Possehl is used to announcing in front of thousands of fans, but he did have lots of adrenaline pumping the first night.

This evening from 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm Possehl will take to the microphone for shot number two with AM1500 KSTP radio. Former Viking  Matt Blair will join Possehl in the six o’clock hour to talk blocking kicks and football. Mike Hoeffel of the Gopher’s Hockey team and North Oaks will join Possehl in the seven o’clock hour with insight into the Gophers season so far and what it will take to turn this season around and make a run at the NCAA’s.

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