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State Representative Tom Hackbarth
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-2439
For more information contact: Austin Bleess 651-296-5529
NEWS COLUMN
A REPEAT OF THE DO NOTHING LEGISLATURE
By Tom Hackbarth
State Representative
I am the type of person who likes to be doing things. Whether it is working in St. Paul, working outside, or being out hunting I like to be doing something. I cannot stand to just sit around, especially when there is work that needs to be finished.
This legislative session there is a lot of work to be done. Since November we knew the state was facing a huge budget deficit. The Legislature convened in early January. January came and went and nothing happened. February we sat around doing some listening and informational hearings on bills, but we took no action. Now that March is almost gone all of the issues we were facing in January still need to be dealt with. So far this session we have had seven bills signed into law. It is one of the slowest legislative sessions I can remember!
We have less than 2 months to finish our work, and we haven’t even started it yet! With the constitutional deadline for adjournment staring us in the face, I have to ask “When are we going to do something?”
There are plenty of bills that could be acted upon. Let’s debate my proposal to build a new Vikings Stadium without using taxpayer money! That proposal would create jobs which are desperately needed. It would also keep the Vikings in Minnesota, which a lot of people want. Best of all, it would not cost the taxpayers a dime. It is a good plan we could enact for our entire state.
Instead of work, we simply get talk from the Democrat Majority. The only talk we get is focused on raising taxes. But the Democrats are so unwilling to do work around here they won’t even say what taxes they want to raise. Perhaps they will raise the sales tax. Or maybe they will start taxing our clothes and food. They may tax your income even more, no matter how much you currently make. But it’s too much work for them to be specific and name a tax so we will just have to wait and see.
The last thing we should be doing is raising taxes right now. Tax increases would kill even more jobs in this already broken economy. There are many more important things that demand our attention in these tough economic times. We should be focusing on and passing legislation that creates private sector jobs, gets our economy back on track, and balances our state budget.
Let’s get busy. Let’s get to work. Let’s do something good!
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