Priorities
Jobs, Jobs, and more Jobs:
I believe that the growth in commercial and industrial development
in Central Minnesota is critical for creating jobs and keeping
our residential property taxes flat.
Currently in Central Minnesota approximately 36,000 people are out of work. That is eleven people for every job that is available. It is not the role of our state legislature to create jobs. In fact, when government creates jobs it ends up creating another layer of expenses for the taxpayer to fund. Jobs are created by the private sector.
It is the role of the private sector businesses and individuals with creative ideas to create jobs in Minnesota.
As your Senator I would do the following:
First, we need to ask our legislators to hold spending increases to the current rate of inflation and population growth and live within our means.
Second, we need a state government to have a balanced budget to eliminate the uncertainty that people have about taking risks on their creative ideas and expand new or current businesses in our current economy.
Third, we need an equal playing field for the small businesses that compete throughout the Midwest. If the costs of doing business in Minnesota are higher than surrounding states then our good jobs will move to other states. The state legislature should accomplish these three things and move out of the way. Only then will the creative and hard working people of Central Minnesota get back to work and create the good jobs that our economy needs right now.
When I graduated from college in 1990 and got my first full-time job at Amcon Block our state budget was approximately $15 billion. Today, (just 20 years later) our 2010 state budget is projected to be $36.7 billion. That is double digit growth per biennium with single digit growth in the private sector economy. Can you imagine if Minnesota families like yours and mine allowed our expenses to increase in this manner (10-15%) when our increases in wages are 3-5%? It would be unsustainable and it is not sustainable for our state government either.
If our state legislature would have had the discipline to maintain our state budget at the same levels as the growth in inflation and population our state budget would be around $20 billion. Almost, $17 billion less than it is projected to be in the 2010 budget. These are how Minnesotan's live every day and deal with their family budgets and it how the state legislature should handle our tax dollars at the State Capital as well.
K-12 Funding:
The state legislature needs to work to develop a funding formula that takes away the conflicts between the Boards of Education (taxpayer representatives) and our education workforce (teachers and staff). It is reasonable and fair to ask the State, who is responsible for determining the level of funding, to be responsible for developing solutions to workforce contracts and to provide the funds for fair and equitable compensation offering "qualified economic offers". I believe that school districts (our taxpayers) should receive special education funding based on how many students LIVE in the district, NOT on how many students are ENROLLED in the actual school district. This is fair and reasonable because our residents are required to pay to educate ALL students with special education needs. It seems reasonable to allow the school districts to collect the state dollars (approx. $5700/student) for every student in the school district.
Transportation Infrastructure Funding:
I am still doing research on this topic. On a weekly basis I am trying to review the best ideas to meet the needs of our resident's ability to get to work and conduct business throughout the state on our roadways. I do like the idea selling highway construction bonds. This process is used now by municipalities to finance projects like waste water treatment plants. This would require our residents to raise enough cash for a down payment on the road projects and the rest of the money would be raised by selling bonds on the open market. I believe this would help hold our taxes down in regard to road construction but still allow us to meet the needs of our state which will be critical through our economic recovery.
If you have any additional thoughts in regard to this information I have provided to you on my thoughts on these topics listed above. Please let me know. I would be grateful for any additional information you could provide for me. I would like to talk about these topics or any other issues that are important to you. I will always welcome your input and will look forward to hearing from you.
