ISSUES

Health Care

The escalating cost of health care is the number one problem facing most of us. The cost of health insurance increases every year. More and more businesses offer less and less insurance coverage to their employees or none at all. In a shameful act, Governor Pawlenty proposed cutting 30,000 more people off Minnesota Care last year rather than agree to a small tax increase for the wealthiest Minnesotans. Nearly 450,000 Minnesotans currently do not have health insurance including 64,000 children.  

Minnesota needs to take the lead in developing a single-payer, universal health plan for its citizens. This would be accomplished by taking Minnesota Care, the State health care program for low income people and changing it into a state administered program. Then we need to open it up so anyone (farmers, small business people, seniors or young families) can all buy their health insurance through Minnesota care.  This would expand the pool of insured individuals, reduce the cost and create more bargaining power to negotiate cost of services with providers. We also need to cover Minnesota’s 64,000 uninsured children.  Rep. Greg Davids and his family are covered by the State health care plan. Rep. Davids pays only $107.32 per month for very good coverage for his entire family. He can’t begin to understand the struggles most of us face trying to pay for health care. 

Education

Education is the engine that has driven our State’s economy for decades, yet we are falling behind in public education in Minnesota. In 2003 Republicans cut funding for K-12 education for the first time in our State’s history. Every year more school districts are forced to hold divisive school referendums because the Legislature has not met the financial commitment to public education it promised during the Ventura administration.  Minnesota should guarantee adequate funding for all school districts that keeps pace with inflation; as well as fully fund special education.

In each of the last four years Governor Pawlenty and his supporters in the Minnesota House, like Rep. Greg Davids, have forced double digit tuition increases on students at our State Universities, Colleges and Technical Schools. Many high school graduates can no longer afford to go to college. College and technical schools now are so costly that most students require student loans in addition to working full-time during their college years. We are pricing an entire generation of students out of a post secondary education.  We need to roll back the tuition increases of the last four years.

Campaign Finance

Minnesota’s campaign finance laws need to be reformed. Rep. Davids, a 16 year incumbent, was fined over $6000 in 2005 for flagrantly violating our State’s campaign finance laws. To the dismay of nearly everyone, he had the audacity to pay the fine with new campaign contributions from wealthy Republicans. My opponent also used campaign contributions to pay for special interest junkets at posh resorts in Santa Fe, Scottsdale, Chicago, New Orleans, Burlington, and Orlando.  Some of the campaign money Davids misuses actually comes from Minnesota taxpayers through our system for public financing of campaigns.

I support the bipartisan campaign reform bill that is currently before the legislature.  This legislation will eliminate the loop holes that are being exploited by incumbents.  It will ensure contributions to anyone, Democrat or Republican, are used for legitimate campaign purposes and not for personal use.  In addition, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit using new campaign contributions to pay fines for misuse of campaign funds.

Environment

Let’s not forget that Greg Davids tried to force the Heartland Tire Burner on the people of southeastern Minnesota. This pork barrel project would have made his father-in law lots of money while seriously polluting our air and water. Local people fought back and defeated what would have been the largest tire burner in North America.  Rep. Davids has a history of pressuring State agencies to help special interests side step environmental regulations.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has been under funded, understaffed, and its enforcement authority has been undercut by the Pawlenty administration.  I will work hard to restore MPCA to its original mission of being an aggressive protector of Minnesota's environment.  We need to increase its funding and adequately staff the agency with people who will enforce Minnesota's environmental regulations.  Outdoor recreation, hunting, and fishing are major contributors to the State's economy.  The economic security and well being of Minnesota depends on maintaining clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment. 

Tax Dollars for Stadium  

The Minnesota Legislature ended its session last Sunday with passage of the worst legislation in the last decade, the Twins Stadium bill. Rep. Greg Davids and legislators from both parties voted to give Carl Pohlad, one of the wealthiest men in Minnesota, nearly $400 million dollars of tax payer’s money to build a stadium in Hennepin County. They did practically nothing for education, like reduce class size, or for health care, like provide insurance for the 64,000 children in Minnesota not cover by any insurance. Instead they caved in to nearly a decade of political blackmail (“the Twins will move if they don’t get a new stadium”)

In reality every tax payer in Minnesota is paying for the Stadium. Hennepin County receives tens of millions of dollars every year from the State for roads, schools, health care and social services. If the Hennepin County Board wants to raise nearly $400 million in new taxes from its residents, they can use that money in their own county and take less from the State. Of course that is not what they are going to do, so indirectly we all pay for the Stadium. 

I would have voted against a Twins stadium bill that required public funds of any kind.  This is important because a similar bill is being proposed for a Vikings stadium in the next biennium.  As a legislator I will vote against any stadium proposal that involves the use of public funds.