I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I had a candidate’s forum scheduled for this morning. It was put on by the Chamber of Commerce at 8AM.
Roger and I were both there as well as candidates for Roger’s House seat. The forum lasted an hour and will apparently be available in full on the internet before the day is out.
Chamber forums are always fun and the emcee’s work hard to keep the discussions lively and fluid. Very few of the Red Plan fans were there this time which I found a little surprising. Perhaps now that it is within the range of completion they no longer worry about anyone derailing it. Or maybe they are now embarrassed by their previous blind support of the project. Or maybe its just summer and no one is paying attention.
The key concern of the Chamber is to make sure that the state’s six billion budget crisis is not solved on the back of business. Roger and I probably don’t have any huge disagreements on figuring out a solution. Because he’s just been in the legislature after serving for a couple years on the City Council whereas i’ve been preoccupied with the Red Plan his jargon was better than mine. Between us there is a fair amount of experience about how government works.
Here’s what I recall telling the sparse audience. I generally back progressive taxes. I pointed out that the Red Plan was based on a regressive tax. (inserting a little Red Plan into the discussion) I explained that if all school districts were to do what Duluth’s district has gotten away with the cost would be about $43 billion which would dwarf the state’s budget crisis. I explained that I had been a long time Republican who’s final exit from the party had a lot to do with its abandonment of the sensible fiscal policy of paying for goodies today rather than sticking the costs onto future generations. I explained that I was a supporter of measures that would force the government to set aside money for future promises so that it would shy away from over promising. In answer to one question I explained that the public employees union was a powerful force in St. Paul and Duluth pushing for more spending and that in some cases we would be wise to promote private industry instead of governmental management. I explained that when it came to spending local communities had better insights on the wise use of money than the state with its mandates.
Apropos this argument I mentioned that the first mate on the charter fishing boat I chartered yesterday was a recent Duluth high school graduate who told me his smallest class last year had 36 students. His largest had 41. I said that if the School Board felt that this was the best way to deal with their resources it was more sensible for them to make these decisions than the state. (I know, I know. I don’t trust our current school board majority to do anything sensible but this is still my general philosophy)
I pointed out that governmental decisions on the state level often have repercussions that are unanticipated. I mentioned the quarter billion dollars of pollution abatement upgrades forced on Minnesota Power that the rate payers are not happy about paying for. They are a form of taxation. I explained that businesses simply pass taxes onto their customers or go out of business. Since, as I told them, small business is the backbone of job generation over taxing them would endanger the economy.
You will have to watch the video to see what the other candidates said although there will probably be a synopsis of the debate in tomorrow’s DNT. That’s because reporter John Myers was there. He called me later in the day to get a couple biographical facts straightened out…….was I 58 or 59? I’m 59. We had a cordial conversation for fifteen minutes before I let him off the phone.
There was one last piece of political theater that caught me by surprise. As I grabbed another cup of coffee in an anteroom off the main hall after the debate a reporter asked if I would return and do a short interview. I was happy to comply.
The reporter stood in the cramped room’s aisle while I positioned myself in front of her camera which required me stand next to the auditorium’s bolted down seats. As I clipped on my microphone the CEO of the Chamber, David Ross, playfully pushed me aside to stand in my place before the camera. Having a chair at my immediate right I had nowhere to go but tumble awkwardly into the seats. As he stepped back out of my way allowing me to stand again I told him, all in good fun of course, that he had always been a “publicity hog.” David laughed at that. A little dose of the truth is always good leavening for a joke.
