Comments for My Minnesota | mymn.org http://www.mymn.org Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:19:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= Comment on What can state lawmakers do to stretch our tax dollars farther? by Andy http://www.mymn.org/2010/09/what-can-state-lawmakers-do-to-stretch-our-tax-dollars-farther/#comment-35 Andy Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:19:41 +0000 http://mymn.wordpresswebsitedesigns.com/?p=220#comment-35 Stop spending so much money! Stop spending so much money!

]]> Comment on Minnesota State Fair: great food by Taylor http://www.mymn.org/2010/08/minnesota-state-fair-great-food/#comment-27 Taylor Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:39:33 +0000 http://mymn.wordpresswebsitedesigns.com/?p=130#comment-27 My favorite Fair Food is the London Broil Steak Sandwich from Butcher Boys. They're right next to the Grandstand and it's the first stop I make every year! My favorite Fair Food is the London Broil Steak Sandwich from Butcher Boys. They’re right next to the Grandstand and it’s the first stop I make every year!

]]> Comment on What should schools do to increase the number of students who graduate ready for college or a career? by Dee http://www.mymn.org/2010/08/what-should-schools-do-to-increase-the-number-of-students-who-graduate-ready-for-college-or-a-career/#comment-41 Dee Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:00:52 +0000 http://mymn.wordpresswebsitedesigns.com/?p=228#comment-41 I see little to no interaction between K-12 educators and higher education folks. I think that the first step is for the K-12 system to understand what the students need to be able to succeed either in higher ed or a career. Many high school students have not made the connection that what they are doing in high school is preparing for life as a functioning citizen. They get to their junior or senior year and find out that they haven't taken rigorous enough courses to even get into the field of their choice. They move on then to a liberal arts education and 4 years later still cannot get a job. I see little to no interaction between K-12 educators and higher education folks. I think that the first step is for the K-12 system to understand what the students need to be able to succeed either in higher ed or a career. Many high school students have not made the connection that what they are doing in high school is preparing for life as a functioning citizen. They get to their junior or senior year and find out that they haven’t taken rigorous enough courses to even get into the field of their choice. They move on then to a liberal arts education and 4 years later still cannot get a job.

]]> Comment on MN families have to balance their checkbooks, why can’t the government? by Dave http://www.mymn.org/2011/05/mn-families-have-to-balance-their-checkbooks-why-cant-the-government/#comment-725 Dave Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:54:30 +0000 http://www.mymn.org/?p=974#comment-725 I'm a city councilmember and know something about taxes and budgets. Property taxes are comprised mostly of three elements; County, School District and City budgest. Add in some additional items like the $80 I pay for light rail that doesn't exist in my town or the $800 my business pays for libraries. Govenor Pawlenty did not raise property taxes, The state does not tax real estate, your local government entities do. In Lino Lakes we have reduced the cost of goverment the past two years and lowered the taxes of our residents. The county (and Met Council mandiares on the county) increased. Has anyone seen the school leves reduced? Proof, that government can trim waste and work smarter to save the taxpayers unneccessary expense. The police you see most, who protect your home or business are either city police or county police officers. The fear mungering of the union paid attack ads on TV are dead wrong. A state government shut down will not effect the finances of the local police. Our city's budget is balanced, sound and getting smarter (smaller) every year. Don't let the attach ads fool you into thinking local police will not be able to protect you as the do every day. I’m a city councilmember and know something about taxes and budgets.

Property taxes are comprised mostly of three elements; County, School District and City budgest. Add in some additional items like the $80 I pay for light rail that doesn’t exist in my town or the $800 my business pays for libraries. Govenor Pawlenty did not raise property taxes, The state does not tax real estate, your local government entities do.

In Lino Lakes we have reduced the cost of goverment the past two years and lowered the taxes of our residents. The county (and Met Council mandiares on the county) increased. Has anyone seen the school leves reduced? Proof, that government can trim waste and work smarter to save the taxpayers unneccessary expense.

The police you see most, who protect your home or business are either city police or county police officers. The fear mungering of the union paid attack ads on TV are dead wrong. A state government shut down will not effect the finances of the local police.

Our city’s budget is balanced, sound and getting smarter (smaller) every year. Don’t let the attach ads fool you into thinking local police will not be able to protect you as the do every day.

]]> Comment on IF a stadium is built to host the Vikings, should it be in Minneapolis or St. Paul? by FirstDave http://www.mymn.org/2011/05/mymn-poll-if-a-stadium-is-built-to-host-the-vikings-should-it-be-in-minneapolis-or-st-paul/#comment-724 FirstDave Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:34:46 +0000 http://www.mymn.org/?p=963#comment-724 Flood the Dome to make the first indoor lake in Minnesota and rent the sky boxes as lakeshore cabins where everyday is sunny. Sound goofy? So does the public financing another stadium that could be empty in the future. If a stadium is such a great investment, have a private firm build it and lease it back to the Vikings on a 99 year lease. Investors, how about the players pension funds? My business will never have the government build a building for us. I create jobs. I create products that benefit others. I would never expect the government to provide me a building. Certaintly the well paid players could invest in their business as many employees invest in their employers business through 401k's, etc. Governments role here should be to provide infastructure like roads,sewer, water, easements and zoning which gets repaid through property taxes on that property. There are many ways to finance a business facility. Public taxation isn't the answer. Flood the Dome to make the first indoor lake in Minnesota and rent the sky boxes as lakeshore cabins where everyday is sunny. Sound goofy? So does the public financing another stadium that could be empty in the future.

If a stadium is such a great investment, have a private firm build it and lease it back to the Vikings on a 99 year lease. Investors, how about the players pension funds?

My business will never have the government build a building for us. I create jobs. I create products that benefit others. I would never expect the government to provide me a building. Certaintly the well paid players could invest in their business as many employees invest in their employers business through 401k’s, etc.

Governments role here should be to provide infastructure like roads,sewer, water, easements and zoning which gets repaid through property taxes on that property.

There are many ways to finance a business facility. Public taxation isn’t the answer.

]]> Comment on Thank you for holding the line on state spending by Karlo http://www.mymn.org/2011/06/thank-you-for-holding-the-line-on-state-spending/#comment-723 Karlo Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:59:15 +0000 http://www.mymn.org/?p=1035#comment-723 There are no cuts in either health or eduction in either the democratic or republican budgets from the last biennum, that's the fallacy. I do not appreciate either party pushing deceitful information, republicans want to increase spending 6% and democrats want to increase it 12% over the last budget cycle. We as citizens need to know the truth and we will not get it from politicians. Justify your budgets to the people, prove it! If you can't, you shouldn't be in charge of the budget. People actually think one parties budget is cutting the amount of money we are spending......they are not! And we should be in a number of areas, so those monies can be spent in areas that need it more, like education and programs that help people that are in transition from circumstances beyond their control. Mary is right that if we do not have an educated work force we will not be able to compete in this new world. In fact our education system needs serious updates, for what business needs. If businesses in this country can not get employees with the skills it needs....the businesses go to where they can find those employees and that is getting painfully evident. The next 5 to 10 years are just critical that we have people with technical skills that businesses need. All politicians need to come together to do what is right in this economy or we will be filing for bankruptcy as a society in 10 to 15 years. There are no cuts in either health or eduction in either the democratic or republican budgets from the last biennum, that’s the fallacy. I do not appreciate either party pushing deceitful information, republicans want to increase spending 6% and democrats want to increase it 12% over the last budget cycle. We as citizens need to know the truth and we will not get it from politicians. Justify your budgets to the people, prove it! If you can’t, you shouldn’t be in charge of the budget. People actually think one parties budget is cutting the amount of money we are spending……they are not! And we should be in a number of areas, so those monies can be spent in areas that need it more, like education and programs that help people that are in transition from circumstances beyond their control. Mary is right that if we do not have an educated work force we will not be able to compete in this new world. In fact our education system needs serious updates, for what business needs. If businesses in this country can not get employees with the skills it needs….the businesses go to where they can find those employees and that is getting painfully evident. The next 5 to 10 years are just critical that we have people with technical skills that businesses need. All politicians need to come together to do what is right in this economy or we will be filing for bankruptcy as a society in 10 to 15 years.

]]> Comment on Thank you for holding the line on state spending by Mary http://www.mymn.org/2011/06/thank-you-for-holding-the-line-on-state-spending/#comment-722 Mary Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:34:10 +0000 http://www.mymn.org/?p=1035#comment-722 I learned of this website from an ad in the Grand Rapids Herald thanking Rep McElfatrick for holding the line on spending. I thought I could access the names of Coalition of MN Businesses by coming to this website, but apparently these businesses wish to remain anonymous. I agree that government needs to stay within budget as a family does, but personally , I would never have balanced our family budget by denying health care or educational opportunities to one or another of our children. It was our belief that providing a good education and health care for our children would reap benefits ( both spiritual and material) in the future and that has born out to be true. No civilization has ever continued to thrive when the gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen, as is happening at an alarming rate in our country today. To the Coalition of MN Businesses, I say: We don't know who you are, but we do know we cannot afford to patronize your businesses or supply you with a good work force in the future if the proposed spending cuts are enacted by our state legislators. I learned of this website from an ad in the Grand Rapids Herald thanking Rep McElfatrick for holding the line on spending. I thought I could access the names of Coalition of MN Businesses by coming to this website, but apparently these businesses wish to remain anonymous.
I agree that government needs to stay within budget as a family does, but personally , I would never have balanced our family budget by denying health care or educational opportunities to one or another of our children. It was our belief that providing a good education and health care for our children would reap benefits ( both spiritual and material) in the future and that has born out to be true.
No civilization has ever continued to thrive when the gap between the rich and the poor continued to widen, as is happening at an alarming rate in our country today.
To the Coalition of MN Businesses, I say: We don’t know who you are, but we do know we cannot afford to patronize your businesses or supply you with a good work force in the future if the proposed spending cuts are enacted by our state legislators.

]]> Comment on Thank you for holding the line on state spending by Karlo http://www.mymn.org/2011/06/thank-you-for-holding-the-line-on-state-spending/#comment-721 Karlo Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:41:04 +0000 http://www.mymn.org/?p=1035#comment-721 A spending problem is when you spend more money than you take in. Our Govenor is asking us to increase taxes so we can spend more than we are projected to take in. Yes, Everyone needs to pay taxes to live here. Problem is not everyone is paying taxes....on a Federal level it is 50% of the people who have taxable income that are not paying taxes, the state of Minnesota may even be higher, I'd like our revenue dept. give us that number....and the rich according to our Govenor only make up 2%, so do the math 48% are not paying taxes. The problem is in the next biennium we will run into this very problem again because have not solved the core problem. The state government (and federal) have not been able to reduce their cost of delivering it's services to us citizens. Can it? You bet. Should it? You bet . Lean and improving delivery systems cuts wasteful dollars out of the budget that can be used for other good things....namely a better education to compete with other countries. Our Govenor and many politicians think it means only cutting programs or services. Think about it, if we keep providing services in the same manner and cost structure, our Govenor will be back in 2 years for another tax increase of equal portions because nothing has changed in the cost structure. We need to take those wasteful dollars that can be taken out and use them more productively. Business has a cycle of continuious improvement processes to help develop new and improved strategies to do this, if it doesn't the next recession will help them in this process to change or else prepare to go out of business. I as a taxpayer do not think it makes any sense to increase taxes to support a 12% increased budget when I at home will not have a 12% increase in income over the next 2 years and and no business will increase its expense budget by 12% over those 2 years while supporting the same services. Our politicians need to come up with direction of viable ways of delivering government services at a lesser cost, as well as looking at program usefulness, wage and benefits for all government employees and long term liabilities such as pensions. A spending problem is when you spend more money than you take in. Our Govenor is asking us to increase taxes so we can spend more than we are projected to take in. Yes, Everyone needs to pay taxes to live here. Problem is not everyone is paying taxes….on a Federal level it is 50% of the people who have taxable income that are not paying taxes, the state of Minnesota may even be higher, I’d like our revenue dept. give us that number….and the rich according to our Govenor only make up 2%, so do the math 48% are not paying taxes. The problem is in the next biennium we will run into this very problem again because have not solved the core problem. The state government (and federal) have not been able to reduce their cost of delivering it’s services to us citizens. Can it? You bet. Should it? You bet . Lean and improving delivery systems cuts wasteful dollars out of the budget that can be used for other good things….namely a better education to compete with other countries. Our Govenor and many politicians think it means only cutting programs or services. Think about it, if we keep providing services in the same manner and cost structure, our Govenor will be back in 2 years for another tax increase of equal portions because nothing has changed in the cost structure. We need to take those wasteful dollars that can be taken out and use them more productively. Business has a cycle of continuious improvement processes to help develop new and improved strategies to do this, if it doesn’t the next recession will help them in this process to change or else prepare to go out of business. I as a taxpayer do not think it makes any sense to increase taxes to support a 12% increased budget when I at home will not have a 12% increase in income over the next 2 years and and no business will increase its expense budget by 12% over those 2 years while supporting the same services. Our politicians need to come up with direction of viable ways of delivering government services at a lesser cost, as well as looking at program usefulness, wage and benefits for all government employees and long term liabilities such as pensions.

]]> Comment on Thank you for holding the line on state spending by Dave http://www.mymn.org/2011/06/thank-you-for-holding-the-line-on-state-spending/#comment-720 Dave Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:32:20 +0000 http://www.mymn.org/?p=1035#comment-720 Curtis and Phillip: Please feel free to donate any or all of your financial resources to the state. Do not feel free to do the same with mine. Curtis and Phillip: Please feel free to donate any or all of your financial resources to the state. Do not feel free to do the same with mine.

]]> Comment on Thank you for holding the line on state spending by Marty http://www.mymn.org/2011/06/thank-you-for-holding-the-line-on-state-spending/#comment-719 Marty Sat, 04 Jun 2011 05:11:39 +0000 http://www.mymn.org/?p=1035#comment-719 I love the fact that this website --created by a coalition of business-friendly interest groups with the intention of fomenting neo-con tax fears-- gets the most 'thumbs-up' on comments from reasonable people who aren't afraid to raise taxes on those who can afford to pay them. GO MINNESOTA!! If I wanted to live in a low-tax, low-standard-of-living state, I'd move to Louisiana or Arizona. I choose to live in Minnesota. I love the fact that this website –created by a coalition of business-friendly interest groups with the intention of fomenting neo-con tax fears– gets the most ‘thumbs-up’ on comments from reasonable people who aren’t afraid to raise taxes on those who can afford to pay them. GO MINNESOTA!!

If I wanted to live in a low-tax, low-standard-of-living state, I’d move to Louisiana or Arizona. I choose to live in Minnesota.

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