The Jeopardy category of “Strange but True Facts About Minnesota Pro Athletes” just got a little thicker.  To the recent revelations that Vikings star quarterback Brett Favre is, ahem, an aspiring photographer, comes evidence that Twins star catcher Joe Mauer isn’t exactly a “hometown hero.”

That’s right, according to real estate tax records, Mauer has been a legal resident of Florida, not Minnesota, since 2006.  While some may view this as evidence that Mauer’s well-burnished image is a fraud, I suspect most will conclude just the opposite – that Mauer’s residency status only makes him even more All-American than anyone realized.

You see, Mauer moved his legal residency to Florida for the same reason that LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Shaquille O’Neal, and many other star athletes and celebrities have done so – to benefit from the fact that Florida has no personal income tax.

In fact, fittingly, Mauer bought himself a place on a street named Prosperity Way.

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Jesse ‘Jacko’ Jackson is accusing Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert of behaving like a slave master.

“He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave.

Jacko is responding to an open letter Gilbert wrote to Cleavland fans in response to learning his star basketball player will departing for Miami. Here are some excerpts of that letter, which is available in full here.

…. You simply don’t deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.

….This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown “chosen one” sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And “who” we would want them to grow-up to become.

It might be a poor business decision to write such a letter. You might even fairly characterize Gilbert of being a poor sport, but is there any evidence at all whatsoever that Cleveleand Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is a racist? Has he ever purposefully insulted/attacked/or otherwise denigrated anyone based on their race? If Gilbert is some kind of Marge Schott of basketball, he should be outed.

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LeBron James has decided to move to Florida and play for the Miami Heat rather than bear another season with the Cavaliers.

Everybody is piling on: How could a dude with a tattoo of the word loyalty on his chest abandon “the mistake on the lake?”

But LeBron is only doing what more than half of Cleveland’s population has done over the in the last 60 years: Getting the hell out of the place.

He didn’t leave because of money, though some analyses show that he can take home more in pay in Florida despite a lower salary. Ohio used to be one of the lowest-tax states in the country. Now it’s one of the highest.

That’s what Clevelanders should be outraged about. Their economy has enough to deal with already without being put in a full court press by high taxes.

Cleveland needs to get rid of its savior complex. LeBron James could never have saved Cleveland–no single sports star or entrepreneur or bailout can–but there are definite, proven steps that any city can take to improve
life for its citizens.

Reason.tv highlighted a whole host of possible steps in our series “Reason Saves Cleveland” available at www.reason.tv.

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…if you match up what James’ salary would be for the first five years in Cleveland and the five years in Miami, you find that the Cavaliers are only offering him $4 million more. That advantage gets erased — and actually gives the Heat the monetary edge over — when you consider the income tax difference. …Playing in Cleveland, LeBron would face a state income tax of 5.925 percent, plus a Cleveland city tax of two percent. Over the first five years of a new contract with Cleveland, James would give back $3,953,060 combined to the state and city for the 41 games each season he’d play at home. But James would have to pay none of that for home games in Miami since Florida doesn’t have an income tax. Athletes have to pay income taxes to states that they play in on the road, so the games he’ll play away from home — whether he played for Cleveland or Miami — are essentially a wash. But there are, on average, 11 away games per season where James would have to pay Ohio and Cleveland taxes. Why? Because he has to pay when he plays in the six areas – Florida, Texas, Washington D.C., Illinois, Toronto and Tennessee – that have no jock taxes. That’s another $1,061,128 he’ll have to pay in taxes that he wouldn’t have to pay in Miami.