A dubious sales tax request
With all due respect, the sincerity of requests by Minnesota state Sen. Pappas, St. Paul Mayor Carter and the St. Paul city council asking for the right to hold a referendum to raise St. Paul’s sales tax by 1% is questionable. As a St. Paul native and small-business owner here, who has worked with the public for 30 years, it is also my opinion most St. Paul residents do not support yet another tax increase.
Saint Paul’s budget has grown massively, from $500 million in 2013 to just under $800 million in 2023. Our elected officials’ accompanying year-after-year tax increases have harmed many people. The ongoing repair and maintenance of our “roads” and “parks and recreation facilities” are supposed to be coming from existing property tax revenue. Instead, St. Paul’s elected officials have — for years now — been diverting massive amounts of property tax dollars to pet projects. Subsequently failing massively in their fiduciary responsibilities to St. Paul. With all due respect, Sen. Pappas, as a resident of St. Paul, knows this and should not have sponsored their request.
St. Paul’s widespread road disrepair, and the neglect of sidewalks, plazas, trails, parks and recreation facilities and public lands is a “crisis” – of their making. Further, they have fostered an environment here where crime has become normalized, which is further weakening our economy.
Sen. Pappas, Mayor Carter and the city council know a referendum held during St. Paul’s “odd-year” elections will almost assuredly pass, since voter turnout is very low – 80% or more simply do not vote during these years. Their plans to increase our sales rate to highest-in-the-state status (tied with Duluth) is reckless and will only further our economic disadvantage, reward their past fiduciary misconduct and allow it to continue.
If the Minnesota Legislature is to grant a sales tax referendum here, I hope they can agree that in absolute fairness to St. Paul, it should be a part of a proposed metro-wide referendum to be voted on during an even-year election. Sen. Pappas’ recent Pioneer Press comment to this scenario, “To do a metro-wide tax takes a lot of consensus from a lot of people. I don’t know that we have the support to get there. In the meantime, we have some immediate needs — things like potholes.” is revealing.
Again, pothole repair is supposed to be funded by the city budget not sales tax receipts.
Sen. Pappas, Mayor Carter and the city council only fear this possible metro-wide sales tax referendum because their plans to maintain and even accelerate their pet-projects spending in St. Paul may be curtailed if there is not an exclusive St. Paul sales tax referendum held during our upcoming odd-year election.
Bill Hosko, St. Paul
The genius of democracy
I appreciated George Will’s Thursday piece, (“How, ‘I despise, therefore I am,’ locks in the political status quo“), in that I think I actually understood most of it.
What is happening to American politics? It is like the IQ of our elected officials has plummeted to a level moronic. I have seen better reasoning in operation with my preschool grandchildren. People keep trying to reassure me that it’s no worse than usual.
Thank goodness we live in a democracy, whose true genius, I have come to think, is that no one gets their own way for long enough to do much harm.
G.J. Mayer, Forest Lake
Financing health care
My heart goes out to the people described in your article, “States confront medical debt that’s bankrupting millions.” What a burden it must be to face financial ruin after being arbitrarily stricken by a medical condition. The article points out that half a million Americans experience that nightmare every year.
The solutions under consideration by some states, such as controlling the interest rate on bankrupting medical debt, seem like pointing a water pistol at a house fire.
It may be time to reconsider how we finance health care in the United States. Rather than our hit-or-miss collection of policies and programs, we could decide that every resident will be covered. If all are included in one pool offering complete coverage, we will have achieved maximum efficiency and ability to control costs. Insurance payments could be determined by ability to pay. And doctors could remain independent of the provider of insurance.
It is unlikely that any of the individuals described in the story are Medicare participants. That is because Medicare financing follows these principles. Why not expand what works?
Joel Clemmer, St. Paul
No road-use tax?
Prior to 1900 the primary mode of transportation was by horse-drawn wagons and buggies. Even into the 1940s many deliveries were still being made with horse-drawn wagons – ice, milk, food, recycling, and more. The federal government had improved roads to facilitate free rural delivery of mail, improved access for agriculture, and to aid in military preparedness.
With the advent of the internal combustion engines and mass production of cars and trucks, the economy dictated the changes in transportation. The industry created huge private investment opportunities for the required support infrastructure for freight terminals, sales showrooms and service stations. This also led to the rapid expansion of the petroleum industry in the United States. The state of Minnesota enacted the first gas tax in 1925 and the federal government followed with the Revenue Tax Act in 1932 expressly to pay for road maintenance.
Today we are being mandated by the government to scrap our internal combustion vehicles for less desirable electric vehicles. In exchange the government will reimburse the buyers $7,500 for buying the vehicle. They are also paying to install an insufficient number of charging stations to handle their demand for power. The electric vehicles are 20–25% heavier than comparable vehicles and pay no road-use tax.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Larry Langer, North Oaks
Do you have a current health-care directive?
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has declared April 16 to be national Health Care Decisions Day. Its purpose is to encourage all of us to have a health care directive or living will.
We each make our own health care decisions. This works well until we lose consciousness or become demented. Then doctors search for someone to represent our wishes for end-of-life care. Those of us with health care directives have appointed a health care agent and backup. We have indicated what is to be done and provided the information to our hospital. We have discussed this with our family and health care agents. The gut wrenching end-of-life decisions are made as we wish. There is much less stress on our loved ones who must otherwise muddle through this emotionally difficult time without health care directive guidance.
My health care directive states that I wish medical care to prolong my life if recovery to a good quality of life is reasonably possible. If not, I wish to have care for comfort at the end of my life. I do not wish a prolonged death. I prefer my last days to be with my loved ones rather than in an intensive care unit if this is not overly burdensome for them. I wish palliative care and hospice as appropriate to minimize suffering. In my long career as a St. Paul primary care physician, the majority of my patients had similar end-of-life requests. Some patients requested every possible medical intervention to prolong life if there is even a slight chance of success. Some patients view this as prolonging dying, others view it as a sacred duty.
Please ensure that you have a current health care directive. Please discuss this with your family, health care agents and doctor, giving them a copy of your document. Current Minnesota Health Care Directive forms are available online at Light the Legacy website. Doctor A. Stuart Hanson has recently published an excellent book on end-of-life issues, “A Senior’s Guide for Living Well, Dying Well.” Consulting an elder-law attorney is another excellent option. For those in a nursing home or with major chronic health issues, a POLST (Provider Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) is another important document.
David Klevan, St. Paul
Keep the sub-minimum wage
Many thanks to Amy Lindgren for her column, “In Defense of Subminimum Wage” (April 9). It truly is “blatant discrimination” to eliminate this employment option for people with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is correct that legislation is brewing in the current session of the Minnesota Legislature, but it is in a precarious situation right now.
The Human Services committees in the House and Senate are in the process of finalizing their omnibus bills. Will this controversy end up being a poker chip in the give-and-take game of consolidating to one omnibus bill? As a parent of a 35 year old son whose employment is made possible because of the special minimum wage provisions, let’s hope not.
Frankly, this issue is not nearly as important and urgent as many other issues and topics found in both bills. The provisions in the current omnibus bills pertaining to long-term Care, direct care and treatment, and the healthcare workforce crisis deserve all of the focus and attention by our Legislature. I hope our Legislature keeps the special minimum wage option available for people with significant disabilties and makes serious progress in resolving the many critical issues contained in their omnibus bill.
Jim Clapper, North Oaks
The writer is a parent of a person intellectual and developmental disabilities
