Dear Neighbor,
Please join me this Memorial Day in taking time to honor the men and women of our armed forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. Let’s be sure to thank the families for giving us those who put the defense of our colors ahead of all else. For me, every day became Memorial Day on June 28, 2005 when fellow soldier Manny Hornedo joined those who have given their life for our great nation. He is just one shining example of the true American heroes who shall forever be remembered and honored.
As for the latest news from St. Paul, Gov. Mark Dayton made some poor decisions this week in vetoing omnibus tax conformity/school funding and supplemental budget bills. As I have been saying, Dayton’s legacy will be the mess he is handing over to our citizens. Our schools will continue not to be as safe, taxpayers will be damaged and more unfortunate situations will result because the governor decided to play politics with these bills.
In the final week of the legislative session, legislators addressed nearly 70 percent of the specific concerns outlined by the governor. We also provided up to $84 million in new funding for schools ($225 million in total when flexibility measures are added), meeting the governor more than halfway on his key priorities and concerns.
In fact, it’s hard to imagine how embarrassed the governor must have been during Wednesday’s press conference when he failed to provide a coherent answer when reporters asked for specific provisions which led him to the vetoes. Any governor worth his salt would have provided a rock-solid list of indisputable reasons to make decisions with such heavy consequences. The non-answer probably says as much as anything regarding why the governor did this.
The list of Minnesotans who now will suffer is rather long. Here is just a sampling:
- Victims of elder abuse
- Victims of opioid addiction, and medical professionals
- Victims of distracted driving
- Special education and Head Start students
- People dealing with MNLARS hassles
- Deputy registrars whose businesses are floundering after MNLARS
- People who need mental health support, particularly farmers and students
- Farmers and agribusinesses that need Section 179 conformity for equipment depreciation
- People who live in rural areas without high-speed internet
- Students who need help to afford college
- People who need job training and businesses that need skilled workers
- K-12 students who won’t benefit from school safety funding
- Taxpayers who will have a heck of a time filing their taxes next year
- Voters concerned about election security
- Minnesotans concerned about privacy, data breaches, and cyber security
- CPAs and tax professionals who will be dealing with very complex tax filings
- Parents looking to find the best school for their children
- Low-income working families who rely on federal child care subsidies
- New teachers who need licenses, and schools who want to hire them
- Children enrolled in Head Start programs
- Schools that need adjustments to fully fund special education
- Patients who care about transparent pricing for health care and prescription drugs
- People with disabilities, and their caretakers, who would be affected by a 7% cut to the Disability Waiver Rate System
- Startup businesses that depend on the Angel Investor Tax Credit to grow
The governor is personally a nice guy, but it is inexcusable for him to take action that will hurt the people of Minnesota because he didn’t get everything he wanted. Dayton’s behavior is the kind of stuff that turns people off to politics. The best thing we can do now is resolve to work even harder in the 2019 session, with the benefit of a new governor in place who actually wants to achieve results that serve the people.
Good luck,
Jeff