On The Issues:
Health Care Costs:
Our local economy and our national economy suffer when a large percent of the disposable income of our middle class needs to go for necessities. Health care is a necessity, and the cost of it is far, far too high. The simple truth is that we will go without adequate care for a large portion of our people if we don’t find a way to bring those costs under control. About one quarter of our state’s budget now goes to health care costs. Single payer insurance and consolidating the state’s health care programs can save the government and the people a great deal of money, and that’s a goal that many of us in the legislature are working toward. That money can then be spent and invested in our local economy and our future like it should be. I’ve supported and authored several bills to try to lower our health care costs, and that will continue to be one of my priorities as long as I’m in the legislature.
Education:
“Our kids are our future” isn’t just a catchy slogan; that’s how it is. It’s the state’s job to adequately fund our schools, and the Republicans simply haven’t done that in the past. They SAID they did, but that’s not close to the same thing. In this past session, we put money back into early childhood education and special education; areas that were cut too heavily a few years ago. We put the money there because that’s good sensible spending....give kids a good start and you don’t have to spend lots more money later correcting their problems. In this next session, we’ll be looking at major overhauling of education funding, with two goals in mind; to take education funding out of property taxes, and to be sure that our rural districts have the same level of funding that other parts of the state enjoy. College costs have already risen so high that many qualified people can’t go. Leaving college with a 50 -100 thousand dollar debt doesn’t let people live a normal life or be a normal consumer. We were able this past session to limit tuition increases at our MNSCU colleges and universities to 2 to 3% next year; that’s a big improvement over the huge increases we’ve seen for the past several years.
Transportation:
The transportation bill we passed this year was an important step forward for Minnesota, and for property tax payers. Few people understand how serious the situation was. MNDOT’s debt payments had risen 650% in the past few years as a result of paying for everything with bonding. The head of MNDOT District 3 said that before we passed the transportation bill, the list of road and bridge projects needed in our area would have taken 70 years to complete. There were 1100 bridges in MN that scored the same or less on inspections than the I35 bridge that collapsed. We would have had insufficient funding to receive matching federal funds for our trunk highway system. We had no clearly organized long-range goals for mass transit in the state. Millions of dollars were wasted across the state in extra fuel costs and waiting time. Property taxes were raised to take care of County State Aid Highways. ($300,000 in Morrison Co. alone) It was an unacceptable situation. It took an over-ride of a Pawlenty veto, but the bill we passed will bring in about $30,000,000 to Morrison and Crow Wing counties over the next 10 years to take care of our CSAH roads and bridges. Those are dollars that would have come from property taxes otherwise. Do the math, and you’ll see that’s more than we’ll be spending here for the increase in gas taxes, and that’s just what’s coming in to us for our county road system. In addition, our state highways, rural and metro transit, and our bridges will also receive more funding, and we included the debt service on bonding in the gas tax increase so we’re not passing the bill on to our kids and grandkids any more. Our parents and grandparents spent 3 times as much % of their income as we do now on gas taxes when they built the interstate highway system for us. They believed it was an investment that would pay off for all parts of our country, and they were right. For the first time in 20 years, we’re planning ahead again, and it’s the right thing to do. Those who complain about “the gas tax” would be better served by directing their complaints to the dollars that gasoline has increased, instead of the pennies the tax has increased.
Long Term Care:
The baby boomers aren’t just coming anymore; we’re here. Lots of us. In a very few years we’ll hit retirement age, and a few years after that we won’t all be taking care of ourselves and living at home any more. Long Term Care can be a big industry or a big expense. I’m proud to have supported and authored bills that will allow our senior citizens to stay in their own homes longer, and make sure that our nursing homes receive enough funding so that the homes and their wonderful workers will be there for us when the time comes.
Energy:
Except for water power, we’ve lagged way behind for years in developing alternative sources of energy; the result is our dependence on foreign oil. We finally made big strides to change that during this past session. We’ve set goals for 30% of our electricity production from renewables by 2025, and 20% biodiesel by 2015, and we’re looking at new sources of renewable fuels and how to keep the profits with local producers. Again, I was proud to support and author bills to help us reach those goals.
Right to Life:
I choose to be pro-life, but I know from history that legislation isn’t a very effective way to change people’s hearts or minds. We’ve let this become a divisive issue that some use for political benefit, when we should all be working together to lower the number of abortions and unwanted pregnancies. I received a 100% rating from the MCCL, not because I’ve sworn to vote with them no matter what (because I won’t do that), but because I believe the votes I took were the right thing to do. I authored several good bills which would help protect our most vulnerable, from conception to natural death and in between. Like it should be. During the last campaign, some individuals tried to substitute their words for mine on this issue, and I’m sure that will happen again. When that happens, I hope you’ll check out what I’ve really said, and look at how I’ve voted, and make up your own mind. That’s how it should be, too.
AT RIGHT:
Al at Prolife Day 2008
Campaign reform:
The amount of time and money needed to get elected to even local office has become ridiculous, and most so-called reform measures allow loopholes for the “big money” to slip through. While no candidate can control what other groups choose to say, either for them or against them, I’ve chosen to accept the spending limits that come with a public subsidy agreement. By far most of the money that funds my campaign comes from local people who use the public subsidy refund program. I only accept money from PACs that represent people or issues in my district, and I return those that don’t. I don’t sign pledges that bind me to support a group or their policies without even seeing what that might be. I think those are good rules to follow, and they mean that I owe nothing to anyone except the good people of 12B who elected me.
Property taxes:
Property taxes were actually begun because they were the only way to tell who had the ability to pay back in the old days. You could hide anything but real estate, so that was a sensible approach to taxation....then. It’s time to recognize that is no longer true, and they’re a terrible burden on our low to middle income people. The Republicans pushed many people over the edge these last couple of years when their “no new taxes” pledges forced reductions in LGA payments to local governments. The only way to provide even necessary local services then became through property tax levies. We need to first get the level reduced and second, tie all taxes to the ability to pay. I’m proud to have supported and authored bills to do just that. We made a good start on that last year, but it was vetoed. We made another good start this year, and we’re going to keep going until our young families and seniors on fixed incomes don’t have to worry about being able to afford to live in their own homes any longer.
Agriculture:
The Governor’s Livestock Task Force started us in the wrong direction a few years ago.....basically it says eliminate some environmental regulations and the input of local residents so that we can increase the number of livestock. They don’t get it....it isn’t about the number of cattle in 12B, it’s about the number of farmers. A farm can only expand when its owner buys out the neighbor. Then we have fewer people sending their kids to our schools and shopping in our local businesses, and wanting to live next to a huge feedlot. Those are neighbors, not cows, shopping in our stores, filling our church pews and school desks.
I sponsored some good legislation to help family farmers make a living, and I supported many other good bills to do that. One of my main goals is to ensure that our rural economy remains stable so that those who want to stay here to farm can do it.
Environment:
12B is basically two distinct areas; the dairy farming South and the Lakes area North. Environmental protection is critical to both. Our farmers know that they need to take care of their land or it won’t be worth passing down to their children or selling. They need information and help from the state to carry out some of the best practices, but let’s give them credit for understanding the need. The same logic applies to our lakes....of course home and cabin owners want to protect their lakes and their lakeshore. Give them the information and help they need to do that and also give them credit for understanding the need. We came a long way this past session in getting funding for clean water and protecting folks from bad air. More importantly, we’ve begun planning for future years; preventing problems is much, much cheaper than cleaning up afterwards. We made progress learning how to use what we need and still leave a usable planet for those who come after us. It’s about time.
Balanced budget:
Our budget for the past four years has been “balanced” by counting inflation when looking at future revenue, but not future expenses. Our governor actually vetoed a pretty good tax bill just to keep that method of bookkeeping! I think it’s important to simplify the collection, simplify the distribution, and give the citizens who foot the bill a chance to understand what’s going on. I’d also like to see state owned and operated casinos at a couple of locations become a priority. The current situation has all of us spending our money and only a small group benefiting, and there is no public disclosure of payout compliance or any other information. We shouldn’t take a single thing away from the current tribal casinos and we shouldn’t pretend that adding state casinos would be an “expansion of gambling”. It’s already exploded, not just expanded, and that’s continuing.
Gun Control:
I’m a life member of the NRA. I’m an avid hunter (and fisherman); I’ll reject any proposal to take away our enjoyment of these favorite Minnesota activities, and I’ll fight to protect our water and habitat. I supported the bill to let MN voters decide whether to increase their sales tax to benefit conservation and the arts.
Veteran’s Affairs.
I’m a member of all three House committees that deal with veteran’s affairs, and I serve on the Citizens Advisory Council for Camp Ripley. I asked for those committees because I want those who sacrifice for us to get the benefits they deserve.
I was chief author of bills to increase education benefits to veterans, to bring 5 million dollars to Camp Ripley to fund a public safety training facility, to create a fund to allow our state to spend money on recreation for our guards, and to bring more dollars into the State Military Museum located in Camp Ripley. I was proud to participate in the program dedicating the long overdue Minnesota WWII memorial last summer, and I try to attend as many local Memorial Day and Veterans Day activities as I can.
Members of my generation who came back from serving during the Vietnam War weren’t welcomed home. That’s a mistake this country....and this state....should never make again. We made a lot of progress this last session toward making it easier for returning veterans to get back into civilian life, and we have more work to do.
The “issues”:
Everyone wants to know from a candidate or party “what are your main issues?”.....that’s always one of the first questions you get. Then they’ll give you a whole list of problems to choose from; health care costs, education, environment, abortion, taxes, transportation, crime, farm prices, etc, and call those “issues”. Those aren’t issues; those are problems that a legislator has to work on for his district. There is only one ISSUE, and that is.....which candidate is best qualified to work on those problems? There is one issue, and many many very difficult problems, and the people deserve a representative who understands the difference. You’ve had two years to see how I vote and deal with constituent problems. I’ve done a good job for 12B. That’s the issue.
Please check out my Legislative website HERE.
(http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/members.asp?district=12B)
RE-ELECT AL DOTY
Together we can turn things around!
© 2008 Prepared and paid for by the Committee to Elect Al Doty, 302 N. Hickory St., Royalton, MN 56373
