Column: Robin Brown, My Point of View

Democrats, you’ve gotta love ’em. Or at least respect where they’re coming from.

Fair taxes, the opportunity to earn a living wage, a well educated public, equal rights for all, a strong public infrastructure, a clean environment our great-grandchildren can enjoy, access to affordable health care, the recognition that corporations are corporations and people are people, and an open political discussion. How can anyone be against any of the above?

But the fact is, there are many who do disagree with such reasonable philosophies. Philosophies that are so natural that it would seem they are a part of our national DNA.

Who could possibly be against tax fairness? And how is it fair that those with a household income of less than $11,000 are paying over 22 percent of their income in state and local taxes while those with a household income of over $482,000 pay just under 9 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes? (Source: MN Department of Revenue 2009 Tax Incidence Study.)

According to the Common Good, “If people earning more than $250,000 paid their fair share of income taxes, we could raise $1 billion to save the vital services that Minnesotans want and need during this economic crisis.”

And how is it fair that children attending public school in Wayzata receive more overall funding than students attending public school in Albert Lea?

As our wealthy communities continue to pass referendum after referendum supporting their public schools, our property poor communities continue to cut jobs and programs as they try to make ends meet with stagnant state funding.

Granted, a few swing districts are thrown the occasional legislative bone that temporarily quiets the beast, but the long-term effects of such neglect are inevitable.

If we still believe, as did our Founding Fathers, that education is the essential lynch pin to the health and longevity of our nation, should we not be funding public schools with that in mind?

When addressing other public infrastructure, consider our transportation system, a network of roads and bridges our government is well suited to plan, build and maintain. Whether it is a low-maintenance rural road, a two-lane highway or a multilane interstate, a government entity (local, state or federal) planned and paid for the building and maintenance of it.

Because of this, our interstate highway system is consistent from state to state. The specs on a 10-ton-road in Freeborn County are going to very similar to those of a 10-ton-road in Koochiching County. The general public can move safely and freely from their home to work without fear for their personal safety.

This is how government should work and does work when we fund it appropriately and are all paying our fair share — in this case through the usage taxes we pay on the gas we purchase for vehicles.

Democrats have never believed that government should do everything for us. We simply believe that there are certain things in the public interest that are better organized, funded and maintained by an entity whose purpose is solely serving the public. Translation: I’d rather have my roads owned and managed by the government than a profit-seeking corporation.

Our government recognizes the importance of corporations to provide the jobs that put food on American’s tables and to make the loans necessary so that families can own their homes. For example, the previous two administrations (both President Bush and President Obama) supported legislation that would bail-out selected corporations and banks. The expectation was that the corporations would create jobs and the banks would loan money — both expectations were in the public interest.

But the corporations and banks acted as corporations and banks do – they held onto the money, continued to pay their executives multi-million dollar bonuses and refused to make needed loans to American families.

And now multi-billion dollar corporations are able to fund political campaigns, with million dollar contributions nearly impossible to trace. This has happened at the same time that the Minnesota Political Contribution Refund program is no longer available. How is this fair? How does this support an open political discussion in which the very wealthy and the very poor (and all those in between) are fairly represented? The answer is — it doesn’t.

No wonder people are protesting on Wall Street. No wonder the protest is going viral with similar demonstrations in cities across the nation. Is it not our responsibility to point out the vast unfairness in the tax code where multibillion dollar corporations are able to hide profits to such an extent they may pay no taxes at all?

Is it not in the public interest to address the enormous wages received by corporate executives compared to the person working three jobs to support his/her family, the teacher who spends weekends grading papers and summers writing curriculum, or the heart surgeon who saves lives every single day?

President Kennedy said, “Most problems are man-made, therefore they can be solved by man.”

Let’s solve the unfairness that currently exists in America.

Former DFL state Rep. Robin Brown resides at 27667 Mower-Freeborn Road in Moscow Township.