2004 is winding down. All of the media have prepared and started sharing stories of the highs and lows of the past 12 months. Each of us can relish some of these memories, even if they aren't the same memories. Of course, all of us can identify things they wish didn't happen. St. Paul saw another stretch of the Phalen Corridor open. The folks interested in Ayd Mill and GSE witnessed another chapter in those stories. The City Council dumped my council person as Chair and installed Kathy Lantry as its Chair. The group of Council members who did this were quickly branded the "Gang of Four" by the Mayor and the former Chair. In my opinion, the Council under Kathy's leadership has been much more proactive in their attempt to provide St. Paulites good government and government services. The Mayor continues to attempt to move Tax funded services to a fee structure so he can argue Taxes haven't been raised in, what?, 12 years. All of this an effort to indirectly tax non-profit and church properties. Yet the cost of property taxes aren't falling. At the Legislature on St. Paul's Capitol Hill, we again had little action to solve the state's budget crisis. Although there are those who will argue that they have done a great job while not raising taxes. Yet most of these actions have been financial slight of hand or failure to provide enough funds to operate necessary services. Some of this has been accomplished by reducing or eliminating local community aid. Of course when those communities attempted to cover the revenue lost by this the politically active Taxpayers League produced ads urging citizens to challenge their local leadership to further reduce government services rather than raise taxes. Even as we attempt to resolve this state financial crisis, we evidently now have Conservative support for fund a couple of new stadiums on the one hand while seeking to open the Gambling revenue stream on the other. So as 2004 draws to a close, I want to wish all of you a Happy and prosperous New Year. May the poor be fed and housed. May corporate and personal greed give way to fair treatment for employees and neighbors. May our elected officials represent all of us and not just those who contributed to their campaigns. May our political appointees effectively perform their duties as prescribed by law and not as their political benefactor might otherwise expect or demand.
Mike Fratto Payne Phalen _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [email protected] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
