Mr. Searles,
Your lack of perspective is astounding. I am not ready to concede anything to the
Met Council or anyone else who
has intentions of lessening the quality of my life and the lives of my wife and
children, which their proposal does; we
have been frequent users of the busses even though we own two cars. The Met Council
proposal depreciates your property
and your ability to earn money in a global economy - it depreciates the lives of all
of us who live in the metro area.
And by the way, your lack of perspective is also very evident in your
understanding of the possibilities of internet
access - high speed access will be available within at least five years to your house
and most of Minnesota. Wake up,
blow the gravel dust out of your head and pay attention to what is really happening on
our planet.
Dan McGuire
Ericsson
Thomas Searles wrote:
> I wish to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to reply to my
> first post (both on and off list) regarding the Transit Strike. I also wish
> more of you would have taken the time to suggest viable answers rather than
> suggest I move to North Dakota. I am not moving, my wife has a rule that she
> needs to live within a certain distance of a Target. Go figure.
>
> As I stated in my first post, do not expect additional state funding. All of
> the complaining in Minneapolis isn't going to change that. As long as you
> refuse to accept that reality, there will be striking workers without an
> income and people without alternatives to the bus missing work. Nobody wants
> that.
>
> So what are some alternatives? I've checked the Met Council amended budget
> for 2003. http://www.metrocouncil.org/resources/AnnualReport2003.pdf
> http://www.metrocouncil.org/directions/development/levy.htm
>
> The Met Council had revenue totaling $579 million of which they spent $218
> million on buses, $60 million on other transportation, $102 million on debt
> service, and $71 million on 'pass through', whatever that is. Bus fares
> accounted for $72 million of its revenue for 2003 (approximately 35% of bus
> cost portion of total transportation funding.
>
> One alternative (if you wish to meet drivers' demands) would be to lobby the
> Met Council to spend more of its budget money on buses and less on other
> transportation ($60 million). You get the idea--cut expenditures in one area
> so as to increase funding in another.
>
> Another alternative (if you do not wish to meet drivers' demands) is to
> start cutting some of the benefits. You have to admit that being eligible
> for lifetime health insurance after just 10 years of employment is very
> generous. Low deductibles and zero copay insurance plans are also very
> expensive. I realize the link below may not be the most bias-free, but it
> was easy to find.
> http://www.metrocouncil.org/labor/METCposition.pdf
>
> You are a group of smart people. Start looking for answers that are
> acceptable to all parties. Please tell us. How would YOU solve the Transit
> Strike given the resources available to you today. The only side I am taking
> is this strike is in providing a fixed amount of state funding.
>
> Finally, someone asked the question that I had hoped someone would, "Then
> why are you even reading and contributing to this mailing list?" The author
> didn't seem to appreciate my input and I found this strange. Diversity is a
> wonderful thing, particularly diversity in thought and beliefs. Quite
> frankly, I don't know how many contributers on this list come to the
> conclusions that they do based upon the informaton available. I find it
> quite interesting and I thought you, in Minneapolis, might like to know that
> people outside of Minneapolis often times reach a different conclusion that
> you. Your priorities and concerns are not necessarily the priorities and
> concerns of those who live other parts of the state (I thought that would
> have been obvious after the last election). Greater understanding can help
> all of us reach our common goals.
>
> Until next time,
>
> Tom Searles
> Waconia, Twp.
> Living on a gravel road that is graded once a month, and without hope of
> ever having a DSL connection.
>
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