Commentary: Consider what the Legislature accomplished

To the Editor:

Years ago I heard a story of a country that required cities using water from passing rivers to have the outflow of their used water to be upstream from the intake. Without any other rules, the rivers became cleaner. People who live in the environment their actions create seem to take care of the environment better.

With a city like Goodview losing $130,069 in Local Government Aid and $104,587 in market value credit in past legislative actions, it was fortunate to have $100,000 restored this past legislative session. It still seems like Goodview will need to reduce services or increase local property taxes.

There was an attempt by the Legislature to cause a cash shortage for state on by paying back the school shift without a method of replacing the cash the state needs to pay for insurance, parking lots, payroll and all the other costs associated with running an organization the size of Minnesota. It almost seemed like there was a plan to cause a financial problem for someone else to deal with.

During more than 30 years as a school district superintendent I have had to remove ineffective teachers from the classroom on a few occasions. Most superintendents I have spoken with have had to remove ineffective teachers. It is not a matter of seniority, tenure or budget cuts; it is a matter of being effective in the classroom or not.

Teachers have legitimate concerns about a system that might cost them their job because they didn’t play someone in a basketball game; school administrators have legitimate concerns about a requirement that every teacher and principal get evaluated every year, because that is a labor intensive and would require more administrative personnel at a time when funding for education has seen minimal increases.

There shouldn’t be any question about the additional $398 million added to bonding for the stadium, not because it is good or bad but because the revenues and expenditures associated with the stadium for the past decade could have been put into a special account. If that had happened we would know if the sales taxes, income taxes and other revenues including sales and income taxes from events such as a Rolling Stones concert, as well as the Vikings, generated enough money to pay for the expenses.

It is not clear why anyone would think that if corporations had more cash on hand they would create more jobs. People go into business to make money, not jobs.

The New York Post reports that corporations have more than $2 trillion in cash on hand, which is the highest corporate cash on hand has ever been and it hasn’t resulted in more jobs. We don’t need a Minnesota Trickle Down Theory or Minnesota Supply Side Economics program to know it doesn’t help the economy as a whole.

Bruce Montplaisir

Altura, Minn.

Tags: opinion, commentaries