Rice County Republicans

A recent LTE in the Belle Plaine Herald caught our eye. We need to keep the dialog going, keep those letters coming.

To the Editor.
The 2009 legislative session is over, but it failed to accomplish the one basic task that it was convened to do — create a balanced budget for Minnesota. The people of Minnesota have been let down. Our legislators let the people of this area down and are clearly out of touch with the difficulties facing the hard-working people of the Belle Plaine area.
To those individuals and families struggling with health issues in Minnesota, the DFL lead legislature felt giving St. Paul $32 million for a hockey arena was more important than your needs. For nursing home residents, staff and caretakers, the DFL led legislature felt it was more important to fund ‘indigenous earthkeepers’ than it was to fund your needs. For school students, teachers and staff, the DFL legislature felt it was more important to implement signs to keep dogs from eating cocoa bean mulch than it was to work out a meaningful method to fund our schools.
Minnesota, as well as our Nation, has changing demographics. The ‘baby boomers’ are aging and may be requiring more government support. At the same time these people will be lowering their incomes, and as a result, paying less in taxes. The DFL mantra of ‘tax the rich; is a plan that will not work and simply sets up class warfare. It is a ponzi scheme as in a short time there will not be enough ‘rich’ people in the state to feed the insatiable DFL demands for more and bigger government in every area.
Minnesota’s economy is struggling and with it many families and individuals are facing financial uncertainty. At a time like this the DFL advance some truly amazing new tax plans. During these tough times the DFL wanted to tax home heating fuels, increase taxes on beer and tobacco products, eliminate home mortgage deductions, eliminate child and dependent care tax credits, and yes…even tax organ donations.
Minnesota and most other states have seen revenue decline dramatically. The DFL response to this is to say “tax people more” to fund continued government growth. The more sensible plan, and one advanced by many Republicans, is to live within your means and create a budget that fits within your existing revenue. Enough is enough…we need to make changes and elect legislators that understand basic finance and budgeting and are committed to fund Minnesota’s government by expanding job opportunities and business growth, not by adding new expansive taxes on current residents.

Ray Cox
Former State Legislator
Northfield