My Point of View by Peggy Bennet

Picture this scenario: You just got your paycheck and you put $100 of your hard-earned money in your wallet.  The next day, someone takes that hundred dollars right out of your wallet. A month later, that same person comes back and says they are generously going to give you $21 of your $100 back.

This is exactly what has happened to Minnesotans.  In 2013, Minnesota taxes went up $2.1 billion. Even after the paltry return of $440 million in what DFL representatives call “tax relief,” the increase in taxes is equal to almost $700 for every Minnesota household.

To heap insult upon injury, the taxes cut in this “tax relief” bill were the very same individual and business taxes the DFL-controlled Minnesota Legislature imposed on us the previous year.  Now, in an election year, they can claim to be tax-cutting heroes to the people of Minnesota by axing the very taxes they themselves enacted the year before. Does this even make sense?

No wonder nobody wants to start a new business in Minnesota.  No wonder many people are fleeing with their businesses over state borders to cities like Sioux Falls, S.D. This bothers me greatly, because I see families that I work with as a teacher suffering from the loss of good-paying jobs in our area.

This political game playing must stop — and it’s not just the example above to which I am speaking. It’s giving the appearance of funding all-day kindergarten — which they did fund in name — while silently lowering the funding for the other grade levels the following year to make up for the additional cost of kindergarten.

The funding for all-day kindergarten comes in an election year.  The decreased funding for the other grade levels will happen after the November elections.  Do they think we can’t do the math?  The impact of this reduction will cause significant financial hardships for our schools in the future.

It’s claiming that our Minnesota property taxes have gone down due to the extra aids sent to local governments, but the data used is from cherry-picked jurisdictions. They forget to mention the 86 percent of jurisdictions statewide where property taxes did not go down and, in many cases, went up.

How about examining the one-time “property tax relief” for farmers touted by Democrat legislators recently in the news. Farmers’ property taxes in particular have skyrocketed. I know farmers whose property taxes have risen more than $34 per acre in the past two years, and that is not out of the ordinary.

For a farmer who homesteads 1,000 acres, that adds up to a tax increase of $35,000 a year.  So, now, let’s look at the real picture and decide whether a $460 rebate is really “relief” or whether it’s because it’s an election year. Why not instead look at real relief, such as reducing the many state mandates and regulations on our communities that are driving up our local property taxes?

People are smarter than this and will see through the political bribery put forth to win elections. It seems that many of our current politicians believe their primary mission is to win elections instead of serving the people.   They have lost sight of the purpose for which they were elected.

It’s time we have government representatives who are principled, honest and are truly there for the people they represent.  We need representatives who will make governing choices, not based on winning the next election, but based on what is best for the people of their districts.

All this political game playing does is hurt people — people like you and me; our friends and neighbors; our children. The political gimmickry and game playing has to stop. I say it’s about time we start putting people before politics.

 

Albert Lea teacher Peggy Bennett is the Republican candidate in the race for House District 27A.