Bulletin letters to the editor

Talk about it

Team thankful for support

The Under-14 United boys traveling soccer team would like to thank Park Place for their wonderful support and to the families and friends who help make their taco feed a success.

Also, thanks to Cub Foods and the customers who let the U-14 boys bag their groceries. Our team greatly appreciates all of the support.

Cindy Lanik

Cottage Grove

Reject GOP redistrict map

I just checked the redistricting proposal by the Republican-controlled Minnesota House and it is downright intolerable and blatantly biased by splitting up Senate District 57. Newport, St. Paul Park and Grey Cloud Island would get pushed into a Senate district with the east side of St. Paul.

Also, Cottage Grove is split into two Senate districts and not by east and west but by north and south, and one of them goes all the way into Red Wing and beyond. Only my portion of the district which merges all of South St. Paul with West St. Paul as part of a northern Dakota County district makes sense. I think this is all meant to give Rep. John Kriesel a safer seat by pushing him in with more conservative Woodbury and to make it tougher for state Sen. Katie Sieben to win re-election. Gov. Mark Dayton should veto this plan as soon as possible.

William Labovitch

South St. Paul

Labovitch is outreach

director of Senate

District 57 DFL

Need more like Kriesel at Capitol

I was surprised and amazed at the recent letter (“District deserves more from Kriesel,” April 6) written by William Labovitch, outreach director for the Senate District 57 DFL. The letter is just another classic example of a hyper-partisan mentality that has been standard operating procedure for too long in St. Paul.

Rep. John Kriesel ran on a platform of changing how government does business. That doesn’t mean authoring a bill just to author a bill. That type of publish-or-perish approach to governance and budgeting is a major reason our state faces another mammoth budget deficit.

Labovitch clearly believes that only the “elite” should represent us in St. Paul. Apparently, the Senate District 57 DFL officer believes that serving our country and working in blue collar jobs makes you unfit to hold public office. Sadly, this is also another prime example of the reason why we are where we are with our state budget. I, for one, think we need more everyday people like Kriesel working for us in St. Paul.

Kriesel has authored legislation dealing with public safety, one of the core functions for our government. He has also authored legislation that would protect South Washington County Schools from having its reserve accounts raided by the state (a bill relating to education and one that is co-authored in the Senate by Sen. Katie Sieben), as well as legislation to help the city of Newport deal with flooding issues (another example of Kriesel and Sieben working together). These are real issues dealing specifically with areas Kriesel was elected to represent.

Kriesel has done a wonderful job so far in his first term and I look forward to seeing him continue to work for us in St. Paul.

Tamera Chapman

Hastings

Votes kill jobs,

side with wealthy

They ran on jobs, jobs, jobs. But every vote this session from Rep. Denny McNamara and Rep. John Kriesel is for job elimination.

For instance they both voted for: 20,968 job losses in the health and human services bill; 5,000 job losses in the state government bill; 1,735 job losses in the tax bill; 1,221 job losses in the higher education bill; 754 job losses in jobs and economic development bill; 608 jobs in the transportation bill and another 500 in the environment, energy, and commerce bill and public safety bill.

I am amazed at how they will tell us one thing and then do the complete opposite. They think we are not watching what they are doing – but we are.

At the same time they are killing jobs here in Minnesota they are offering tax breaks to the wealthiest 5 percent and to corporations. Why? Their argument is to create jobs? Show me the numbers. How many jobs will these cuts create?

McNamara and Kriesel stand on the Minnesota House floor and at town hall meetings and tell us we must all “share in the sacrifice” to bring down the deficit. If this is true, then why haven’t they included the wealthiest 5 percent? Why do they target the most vulnerable and middle income to balance the budget?

Mary Larson

Cottage Grove

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