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News for Senate District 66 |
| Volume 1, Issue 4, March 2005 |
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Editor's note: |
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| Sen. Ellen Anderson |
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I would like to see the Democrats propose an alternative budget that is fair, humane and invests in Minnesota’s future. A fair budget will provide all Minnesotans with the opportunity to succeed. Gov. Pawlenty’s budget proposal is mean-spirited and leads the state in a backwards direction. We need to invest in what makes Minnesota strong – good schools and universities, quality health care, transportation infrastructure, parks, and clean air and water.
Pawlenty’s budget adds insult to injury. After two years of enormous cuts to our schools, this budget does not come close to ever restoring the
Similarly, Pawlenty’s proposed $3 million for a new University in Rochester is pure political pandering. It is nowhere near enough money to even begin to start a new university. The University of Minnesota and MnSCU students have seen, in recent years, double-digit tuition increases and shrinking financial aid packages. The students that are already in the Minnesota higher education system must be our first priority.
Pawlenty’s budget ignores the inequalities of Minnesota’s health care system, and shifts costs to hospitals and insurance premiums. In my opinion, cutting 41,000 more Minnesotans off health care is not an option. The state of Minnesota needs to continue finding ways to reduce health care costs so that every Minnesotan has adequate health care. A state cigarette tax would be a good way to fund more of our health care needs.
Other key priorities in a fair budget are transportation and the environment. We need to restore cuts to mass transit and invest in future systems, such as light rail.
Minnesota has the reputation as hard working state. Not only are Minnesotans highly skilled and motivated, but we also have the highest proportion of people in the workforce in the nation and one of the highest income levels.
Thousands of Minnesotans, however, do not have the opportunity to improve their standard of living. The Minimum Wage bill would provide Minnesotans the opportunity to succeed, by raising the minimum wage floor from $5.15 to $7.
The current minimum wage has lost more than one-third of its value since the 1960s. If the wage rate had kept pace with inflation, the minimum wage would now be at $8.44 per hour. In 2001, more than half a million workers in Minnesota earned less than this inflation adjusted wage rate of $8.44. The JOBS NOW report, The Cost of Living in Minnesota, found more than one third of Minnesota’s workers are earning less than $11.41 per hour, the wage both workers must earn to support a family of four. Increasing the minimum wage is a matter of basic fairness to anyone who gets up and goes to work every day.
Professor Ann Markusen of the University of Minnesota said more than 550,000 workers will benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage has a cascading effect on the wages of workers earning up to $8.50 per hour. Likewise, raising the minimum wage will help spur the economy and increase business productivity across the state because every penny will be spent quickly. In a global economy, we can not compete with low-wage, low-environmental-standards and dead-end jobs. Minnesota needs high-road, high-quality jobs and a higher-paid workforce to continue its reputation of excellence.
Lastly, I will continue to fight for smarter solutions to Minnesota’s energy issues. The Renewable Energy Standard Bill would require state utilities to provide a specific amount of renewable energy production and sales as a part of their energy portfolio. I would like to increase the production of wind energy from 2 percent to at least 20 percent by 2020.
Currently Minnesota pays $12 billion dollars in energy costs to out of state producers, because almost all of our transportation fuel and electricity sources are imported. Investing in wind energy would help Minnesota achieve energy independence. Renewable energy provides environmental, economic and national security benefits. By investing in renewable energy, Minnesota could reduce the air pollution, reduce global warming through carbon dioxide emissions, and reduce harmful land and water impacts created by power plants. Likewise, renewable energy reduces long run energy costs to consumers through increased competition, which will lead to lower natural gas and electricity prices.
Finally, renewable energy will boost rural economies by creating new jobs in manufacturing, construction, operation, maintenance and other industries where the facilities will be located. In the long run, I hope we can attract a wind turbine manufacturing plant in Minnesota.
The 2005 legislative session is off to a great start. I have high standards for what we can accomplish this session.
As always, I welcome your ideas and questions. Please feel free to contact me at
Sen. Ellen Anderson
Room 120, State Capitol Building
75 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St.Paul, MN 55155
(651) 296-5537
or e-mail.
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| Kim Hunter |
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The conference was billed as an opportunity to organize for progressive change, so I signed up.
Though I didn’t realize it when I registered, PDA is an outgrowth of the Kucinich campaign. The conference brought together a number of interested reformers from many of the interest groups that align with the Democratic and/or Green Parties. People from the peace movement, election reform movement and progressive media were among those represented.
The conference started on a Friday, but I arrived on Saturday in time to hear Jesse Jackson Jr. speak. According to Jackson, one of the key challenges facing the Democratic Party is learning how to talk about our issues in terms of rights instead of programs. He said the way to solve our patchwork voting system is not to “have a little more HAVA (the misnamed ‘Help America Vote Act’)“ but to have an affirmative constitutional right to vote. The same could be done for health care, education and other progressive issues.
In addition to Jackson’s work, other conference sessions also focused on electoral reform. Various bills are making their way through Congress, including the important “VIVA” bill (Voting Integrity Verification Act). VIVA would require electronic voting machines to incorporate a voter-verified paper ballot. The National Ballot Integrity Project website contains current information on issues of voting reform.
Panels on unifying and advancing the progressive movement were energizing. I was disappointed, however, when one attendee asked whether the groups represented at the conference could coordinate a single email action alert list. The consensus response seemed to be that because every organization’s email list is also its fund-raising list, there’s a reluctance to fully share information.
We also broke into regional groups to plan ways to organize in our home areas. These smaller group sessions provided an opportunity to put the lessons learned at the conference into practice.
The upshot of the conference was that, through organizing, progressives can build the future we would like to see for our country.
For additional information on PDA, including how to connect with our local group, please visit their website.
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| Toni Carter |
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That’s why I want to serve as Ramsey County Commissioner. If elected, I’ll work as hard as I can toward that goal of true justice for all of us.
We are fortunate to have a good start on that sort of life here in Ramsey County. This is a place people want to come and live, one that values its quality of life. Yet we have borne too many years of shrinking resources because of heavy-handed cuts by “no new taxes” Republicans at all levels of government who play a shell game with our tax dollars. Those cuts are eroding our treasured quality of life, and now we face daunting challenges to preserve the very fiber of community.
The quality of life we treasure in this community was built on important values, values of family, work, helping one’s neighbors, building a pleasant place to work and raise children. These values are also the values of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, and that’s why I’ve worked hard many years to help and promote DFL candidates and party unity. I worked hard last year, too, for our candidates and for John Kerry, and even though I’m disappointed at the outcome of that election, I’m not going to sit back and complain. It’s time to stand and fight even harder for our values.
As chair of the St. Paul School Board, I’ve recently had a chance to stand for our values. In the face of tough issues and challenges, such as a referendum and contract negotiations, I’ve faced reality yet never lost sight of the goal of justice.
The issues that the School Board and the schools face often have deep roots in the family life of our community, and those are the issues that the Ramsey County Board deals with—social services, housing, transportation and more. We have seen over and over that students who improve most are those who have stable homes and stay in the schools over time. I am looking forward to tackling these problems from a fresh angle on the County Board, an angle that enables us to leverage resources to get to the root of citizens’ problems.
I believe it’s especially important to ensure protections for our most vulnerable citizens such as new immigrants and the elderly and to ensure there’s a safety net for anyone in a crisis situation or who is in transition and needs help.
I hope to work with all this community to change the way we solve problems, looking at comprehensive long-term solutions that will last a lifetime.And I’ve learned a lot on the School Board about balancing our priorities for access to quality services with what we as a community can afford. Even in the face of years of cutbacks, we still must meet the fundamental needs of people.
I moved into this community more than 30 years ago, never dreaming I’d be staying a lifetime, but I was captured by the vibrancy of this place, and the belief that it would be a great place to raise my children. And it has been; in fact, all three of them still live here with their families. I’ve been what’s called a community activist for all those years, even building programs from scratch when needs have arisen.
I want to help protect our quality of life in Minnesota and strive for true justice for all. I believe I have a unique combination of three essential attributes that qualify me for that role: proven leadership, connections to diverse groups throughout our community, and a heartfelt commitment to the importance of our values, our quality of life, and our neighborhoods.
If I am elected, I pledge to build a strong, unified team and to serve with passion, strength, diplomacy and innovation. And I will constantly work for true justice for all of us.
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Note: |
Tennison currently serves as an assistant county attorney with Scott County, where he tries a variety of felony cases. Previous to Scott County, he worked in Mille Lacs County where he specialized in the prosecution of methamphetamine cases. Cory also obtained prosecution experience in Wisconsin, working in Milwaukee and St. Croix Counties.
While in law school at the University of Wisconsin, Tennison and two other students helped free an innocent man serving a life sentence for rape and murder in Texas. The exonerated man, Chris Ochoa, is currently a law student.
More than 70 people participated in a fund-raiser held on March 2 at Sweeney’s Saloon. The event was hosted by State Sen. Mee Moua, Representative John Lesch and St. Paul City Council Member Lee Helgen.
If you’d like to find out more about Cory’s campaign and upcoming events, please visit his Web site.
| News for Senate District 66 |
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Links: |
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District 66 Communications Committee:
Martin Howell, Kim Hunter, Hal Keen, Wanda Lorentzen,
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Contributing writers: Sen. Ellen Anderson, Toni Carter, Kim Hunter, Kristine Stehly and Cory Tennison |
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Editor and designer:
Lee Ann Owens
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| For updated information, please join the Senate District 66 discussion group on Yahoo! |