DFL Spending Orgy: Real Consequences.
The following writer makes a great point. She, who is required to "brown bag" her lunch every day, is forced to "pay for a better Minnesota" by those who have happily raised their own unaccountable per diems to $95 per day!
Today is not a day that I am proud to call myself a Minnesotan. As the economy in this state already in dire straits, it greatly saddens me that as a taxpayer in this state that I am forced to stretch my already thin budget even further. Over the past 5 years or so, due to the cost of housing increasing exponentially, many people moved out of the city, howeverin order for a decent paying job we must commute into the city for work.Are you hearing this, Tarryl Clark? Are you listening, Larry Haws, Larry Hosch and Bud Heidgerken; while you sit in your smugness, proud of the fact that you've "duped" the Minnesota taxpaying public into having to re-prioritize their own expenses, so that you yourselves are freer to move our state closer to your version of "the werker's paradise?"
I live near Princeton, but work in Minnetonka. Like those who need to commute in orderto survive, we are the ones who are going to feel even more pain with this bill. For instance, my monthly gas costs are about $340/month, I drive a very small economy car and have pretty much cut out any unnecessary driving. This includes going home to my mother’s for holidays. With this vote, I will need to fork out yet another $100 per month just for gas. I’ll have to update my bankruptcy attorney with this new fact. Yes, bankruptcy attorney. Have you looked at your local newspaper and counted how many foreclosures are listed?? Elk River paper has 10 pages plus of foreclosures. My development alone has had 3 foreclosures and 4 near or impending foreclosures in the last 3 years – the humbling fact is that there are only 18 homes in my development.
As workers, we have already started to “brown bag” lunch everyday, because we simply cannot afford to eat out anymore. Fact: You have voted to increase your lunch expenditures to $95/day! How many times do you eat every day? That is my grocery bill for the entire month for my family!
Also, where did the money go that was generated by the last transportation bill? Many people now wish that they hadn’t voted “yes” to that one now that another has been forced into existence.
MN is one of the most heavily taxed states in the nation (as I’m still paying last year’s tax bill, despite the thousands I’ve already paid out). With this bill, MN will also be proud to boast that it is one of the highest gas tax states as well. The taxpayers would be happy to pay more IF and only IF there wasn’t so much wasteful
spending being done by our “leaders.”
From the arguments for this bill:
1) It will create 33,000 jobs. Question: What about all the people that will loose their jobs or will not get a reasonable raise this year (one that would not even keep up with the cost of living in the first place) due to increased overhead of already suffering businesses? Won’t the money end up in the construction company’s
pockets instead of the worker due to the increased overhead costs??
2) A million people will be coming to MN in the next year.
Question: Are these going to be taxpayers or tax suckers? Taxpaying as in working, paying state income tax, not being on any government assistance (welfare, food stamps, daycare assistance, health care)?
With the rising costs of running a company; small businesses have already cut many benefits to their workers including health care. These workers are either uninsured or insured by PMAP or GAMC. As an individual who works in the health insurance industry and has worked in the metro area hospitals, I see the incredible amount of waste that the general person who is on state health insurance causes. An example:
Going to the ER for pink eye! Who takes the cut? The hospitals - who then pass on the loss to the paying people. Some ways to cut expenses of the welfare system in this state is to: 1) Every able-bodied person will not automatically receive welfare benefits – Get a Job! The system has made it more beneficial to stay on welfare than to get a job.
2) Only people who actually live in this state full-time are eligible to receive benefits, there are many people that drive to MN to pick up their check, committing crimes while they are here. Check the paper.
3) Many workers need to take a drug test in order to have a job, why not require drug testing for a welfare paycheck? That would eliminate a lot of money that goes out the door.
4) As workers, we need to drive to work and complete our job in order to collect a paycheck. Why don’t welfare recipients have to expend some time and energy in receiving their monthly stipend? Go stand in line - you’re not doing anything anyway (this would cut down unnecessary MD visits). Let’s make these people put some effort in receiving their handout.
Unfortunately, I have personal experience (through a friend) with several drug dealers in the Minneapolis area, they drive nicer cars, have more toys and do nothing all day for their effort, BUT they get a free ride from our state who is not willing to stand up against these thugs and even prosecute them effectively for their crimes which costs mthe taxpayers about $10,000 each time they are arrested.
In light of the tragedy in Cottonwood, how many illegals are getting my tax money directly or indirectly? Get them out of the state, prosecute them and send the bill to the country in which they came from. This needs to stop. I’ve even considered leaving my own country over this.
I believe that part of the “yes” vote was in order to preserve your own status as well as your friends that are in the ancillary government offices. I am tempted to run for office myself so that at least one more person would stand up for the citizens of MN. I do want to thank each person who did such thing, including both of my representatives who did not bend to meet their own needs.
The sum of it is, if you going to force MN taxpayers, who are already in extreme financial distress, pay more daily just to be able to live in this beautiful state then first cut the wasteful spending that is being done. We fly coach (if we can even afford that) because we can’t afford otherwise, so as leaders, you should also fly coach and pay for your own trips if you have made your own choice to go somewhere. If we have to “tighten up our boot straps” then you should be required to
as well. That is what the general public’s plea to you is. Our health care benefits, retirement funds, and income are going down while everything we pay for is going up (premiums, cost of living in every way).
If you force us to pay even more in taxes, then do as you say! We want to see actual results of our hard-earned money that is being taken without being asked. It seems that every other “temporary” tax has never gone away, the question is: Is this ever going to go away or do I have to leave my home state in order to be able to afford to
live?
This is not only my views, but of many Minnesotans. Just open your ears and listen to the public's outcry.
Personally, my esteemed elected representatives, I was going to buy two new cars this spring. But with the extra grand and a half or so you've now tacked on for the privilege of buying a new car, I've decided to go with a couple of used vehicles. Guess what. You've just taken $40,000 out of the marketplace; and there's a local dealership in St. Cloud who's going to be stuck with two new cars he would otherwise have been able to sell to me; multiply that by how many countless others who have made that same decision based on your dunderheaded decision to raise our taxes.
Some "job creating" bill ya got there.
Any other bright ideas, nimrods?
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