Cara Letofsky sez: "The fact that 7 of the 13 votes in the house to sustain the Governor's veto of the budget proposal came from Minneapolis legislators, I think makes a strong case that the state budget crisis is very much a Minneapolis issue. Any thoughts out there about why this might be? Are our legislators just a bit smarter than non-Minneapolis legislators? Does Minneapolis get particularly negatively affected by the proposed budget?"
Don adds: Thanks to Minneapolis Senators Linda Higgins, Larry Pogemiller, Linda Berglin, Julie Sabo and Myron Orfield, and Reps. Karen Clark, Phyllis Kahn, and Margaret Anderson Kelliher, all of whom were smart enough to vote to override, we have avoided Jesse's massive proposed cuts in aid to the Minneapolis School District, as well as his proposal to cut aid to the city itself by $15 million. Failure to override could have resulted in cuts to Mpls much greater than that, because if Jesse had to turn to unallotment, he would have had to cut K-12 and local govt aid by even greater amounts, since we wouldn't have passed his tax increases. Speaking of which, Jesse's proposal to extend the sales tax to auto repair would have hit low-income inner-city Minneapolis residents hard, since they have to get their old cars fixed, whereas if you live in Maple Grove and drive a Porsche like he does, you got a HUGE cut in your license tab fees from Jesse. Don Jorovsky Senate staff (where we proudly overrode the veto 60-7) P.S.: In case you're worried, no, I didn't imply that those who voted otherwise weren't "smart." It was a light-hearted answer to Cara's query about whether Minneapolis legislators who voted with Jesse were smarter than the average legislator! It's the first time in a long while I've heard Jesse called smart! _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.; _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
