have a complaint", he did it with "I have a dream!". Our mayor has laid out
various scenarios and choices. I think we all need to think about what our
dream of St Paul is. What is your dream of fiscal responsibility for St Paul?
How limited should government be? Where should our funds be coming from? What
should be our priorities be in spending?
My dream of St Paul good government is wise and frugal investment of all
incoming tax funds, with very limited use of credit. I believe in fiscal
responsibility. Our previous Republican or Republican Supporting mayors
violated fiscal responsibility through
1) giving money to developers to build buildings that made developers rich,
with little if any positive effect for the community
2) raided emergency funds to balance the budget and other accounting tricks
3) had the highest real property tax increases of all time due to rising values
of homes
4) publically supported the reduction of state and federal contributions to our
city government.
5) proposals of stadiums, where we would have been spending money on
entertainment instead of necessary government real responsibilities.
This was a very wrong policy for fiscal responsibility. According my dream of
fiscal responsibility, we need to refocus so
1) Small strategic funding is used for small businesses, no more big giveaways.
We should have a rule that no project receives more than $20,000 in aid under
any name or label (like tax increment financing - TIF). This priority must be
currently funded (no credit) only after all basic government funding needs are
covered.
2) The amount of property tax payments should be stable, so the formula for
property tax should remove variations due to the federal government's mucking
with interest rates.
3) Restore emergency funds and prompt payments.
4) Politically pressure the state and federal governments to pay their fair
shares, allow a progressive city income tax.
5) Stadiums should be provided only when we have totally publically owned and
controlled teams as a last investment priority. Real government priorities
should be funded before entertainment. All funding for entertainment should be
non-binding so this lowest priority item can be dropped when funds are scarce.
Our St Paul financial health is in a downward talespin, due the lack of state
and federal direct financial contributions or investment in improving St Paul.
(Note we are allowed to bring federal and St Paul actions as long as we keep
the St Paul focus in the forum, so be careful in your responses to keep St Paul
focus).
Federally owned and state owned transportation in this city greatly affects our
well being. And Minneapolis's fallen bridge has directly affected traffic
conditions here on the west side of St Paul. We are not an isolated island. Our
Republican governor promised to do what it takes to bring transportation back
to safe normal maintenance, with big corporate media coverage. Now our
Republican governor has basically just reneged on that promise, with hardly any
corporate media coverage. The same Republican governor raised taxes for
stadiums, for entertainment, and yet is unwilling to raise taxes for real
government needs like transportation. I think he should just reallocate those
sales taxes from stadiums to bridges, just spend the current funds more wisely!
Also note how corporate media is NOT willing to hold the Republican governor
responsible for his proposed reckless use of the government credit card use on
everyday road maintenance. Well we should be asking every person and every
politician to be putting the pressure on, so we don't suffer more consequences
of another fallen bridge here in this city.
Federally funding should shift the 50 percent of discretionary spending away
from wars (which we are forbidden to discuss on this forum) to real government
needs like the federal highway system. Fortunately. our Democratic leadership
continues to push for St Paul federal investment, even in the face of
Republican power.
After years of missing federal investment, there is some good news! We do have
political representatives fighting for federal investment in St Paul. From
Demoratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar's press release: "Minnesota will receive
over $306.5 million for 10 major Minnesota initiatives as part of the
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill, H.R. 3074, that passed the
Senate today by a vote of 88-7...secured $35 million for the preliminary
engineering activities for an 11โmile Central Corridor Light Rail line serving
downtown St. Paul, downtown Minneapolis via the State Capitol, Midway, and the
University of Minnesota. The project is expected to serve over 40,000
passengers each day by 2030. Additionally,...$1 million for the Union Depot
Multi-Modal Transit Hub Project in St. Paul, Minnesota." Unfortunately, this
awaits presidential approval, where focus is more on names like "Anbar" instead
of "St Paul".
I dream of fiscal responsibility in St Paul
1) where homeowners have stable property tax bills
2) where real government responsibilities are funded first
3) where credit is rarely used
4) where when we have money, we currently finance small grants to promote
multitudes of small businesses
5) where when we are really flush with cash, we finance stadiums for publically
owned and controlled teams
That is my dream of fiscal responsibility in St Paul. What does your dream look
like?
Grace Kelly nicknamed Kelly
Still hoping and dreaming curmudgeon in Merriam Park