Minnesota Senate Budget Discussion

35 Comments on “Agriculture and Veterans Budget”

1. robert redden
   osseo
   January 15th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

   There should be no cuts in any Veterans programs. The veterans has taken enought cuts over the years.

2. Natalie Grace
   New Hope
   January 16th, 2009 at 10:31 pm

   The corn subsidies are stripping our land of nutrients and causing fertilizer runoffs which poison our water supply. The genetic modifications within the corn are potentially hazardous to the environment. Processed corn items (corn syrup, corn starch) are presently being linked to health concerns. Our local community requires healthful food staples grown in a sustainable manner. Please end corn subsidies and drop the failed ethanol experiment.

3. Richard Mosley
   Carver
   January 17th, 2009 at 6:18 pm

   Cut ALL Ethanol Funding; it is a detrimental and inefficient method to trying to produce fuel. If the state wants to fund Energy programs; they should focus on Nuclear.

   Make sure the Veterans get the money that is owed to them for their service; but cut the bureaucracy that is not needed to support the programs.

4. Charles Swope
   Saint Paul
   January 18th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

   Get rid of the per gallon ethanol subsidy.

5. Charles Prokop
   Hugo
   January 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm

   It seems that the money being spent to subsidize corn to ethanol should have served its purpose long ago and I believe that now is the time to justify having it stand on its own or have it drop out of sight. The subsidy is costing us plenty and could be better used elsewhere such as educational needs.

6. Bob J. LF, MN Jopp
   LITTLE FALLS
   January 22nd, 2009 at 5:48 pm

   Part of the solution to fixing the economy, our defense, our military, and our world reputation is very simple. Bring our troops home to provide national security here at home. This would protect our borders, decrease need for police/fire, and would have our soildiers and our military buying goods and services here in our own country instead of overseas. This is the solution… I hope you are listening and that you stop putting the taxpayer and the soldier in harms way.

7. Kent Johannes
   St.Cloud
   January 23rd, 2009 at 10:37 am

   Veterans have been cut enof, from years past.

8. David Bruning
   Minneapolis
   January 23rd, 2009 at 12:49 pm

   Streamline Administration. Do we really need all these folks making $80,000+ a year while those who provide direct services see vacant positions not being filled, thus having people do the job of 1.5+ without an increase in pay because the governor wants to freeze or keep wage increase well below the national average. How about this one, in one year I have seen 3+ administers come through, each with there own plan to restructure our Veterans homes. Is this an effiecient use of our tax dollars?

9. Lee Taylor
   Gibbon
   January 26th, 2009 at 8:22 pm

   1st–Who believes that the Legislators will do their jobs and LISTEN TO THEIR constituents like they are supose to and vote the way we want.

   2–Get rid of the corn subsidies.

   3–Get RID of ALL Perdium and Extra Benifits that ALL public and county employees are getting. They get a pay check on the tax payers why are they getting paid to eat ( to the tune last I knew of $90/day )which means they are getting another $2,000 a month to eat on OVER what they are getting paid to do their work and then they get Mileage to drive to work. Why are they getting that money they are getting a salary and its more than a lot of WORKING people are getting now a days, let alone what the people who LOST their HOMES due to them not listening to the majority fo their consituents like they are legally supose to, and the lost jobs because they didn’t listen to the majority.

   4-Pull funding of the Twins stadium. Its The Polads Business let them pay for their place of work. Insted of charging charging the people that use their entertainment and then trying to get everyone to pay again for what the fees they already collected paid for.

   5-Pull Funding from the Gophers new Stadium until they name it for the taxpayers that paid for the majority of it. Its a public school and unless the stadium is totally privately funded then it should have a different name that goes with the campus.

   6-Cut school administrators pay and school subsidy of teacher retirement.

10. Alan Roebke
    Alexandria
    January 27th, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Read—-Ethanol Subsidies Crookston Daily Times

    Mon Jan 26, 2009, 12:02 PM CST

    ——————————————————————————–

    Alexandria, Minn. - Alan Roebke

    I ask all concerned citizens of Minnesota to view the facts on ethanol subsidies at http://www.congressionalchange.com and demand an immediate end to a subsidy program that has more than fulfilled its mission.

    As you can see at this site, we have already given these plants $300 million of our tax dollars. Yet our legislative leaders are still lobbying hard to insure $55 million more, all for a privileged group of ethanol plants that enjoyed the ethanol/energy boom, yet still want more tax dollars. All the while the new plant at Janesville stands idle, yet doesn’t receive a dime. So I ask you to contact your legislators, to end this wasteful program before Feb. 14th, when the next checks are scheduled for delivery to St. Paul’s fermented friends, insuring more “political whisky” will flow in the halls of St. Paul.

    While the rest of us swallow the bitter pills of reality.

11. Jane Miles
    Inver Grove Heights
    January 28th, 2009 at 7:19 am

    I’m all for investing in substainable alternative fuels. Unfortunately we know that subsidize corn to ethanol is neither substainable or cost effective. In fact it has a negative impact on the global economy and necessary food production at the cost of providing ethanol. These subsidies should be stopped.

    Veterans programs should not be cut.

    Education should not be cut…but any funding for sports arenas/stadiums should be eliminated.

12. David Hoden
    maple grove
    January 28th, 2009 at 9:41 am

    The time has come to end ethanol subsidies…we should only be using subsidies to jump start new business and technology. This industry needs to figure out how to move towards a more sustainable source for making the ethanol. Why not look at the nuclear side of things…I don’t believe we’ve ever lost a life due to an accident, and France produces 80+ % of their energy this way…yes, the waste is still a problem, but there are no silver bullets to our energy needs. Clean coal is a misnomer…there is no such thing, and MN. should not support any of these plant projects. How about some real tax credits for consumers, not corporations. Demand is the problem with the economy..people either don’t have the money or are scared to spend it…giving corporations tax breaks is totally backwards…they are not going to hire more people to sit idly in factories building nothing until the demand (people’s ability to pay for items they want and need) is stimulated. The credit market needs to be freed up for everyone, not just those with a credit score of 700+, otherwise we will only keep adding to the growing list of bankruptcies and foreclosures.

13. Judith Wills
    Cloquet
    January 29th, 2009 at 10:06 am

    In this department I would like to see cuts made in oil based research in favor of emphasizing local food growing and natural fertilizers that are not oil based. Veteran’s should be left alone. They need our help no matter how poor our state is.

14. Janet Malone
    New York Mills MN
    January 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am

    I agree that all perdiums be stopped, public offic is a service to the public; not a self-serving office. However, it’s time all citizens take responsiblity for the crisis at hand; the root of the problem looks like shortfalls in dollars; but the real truth is discontentment and greed on the part of American’s.(public and priviate).
    If Euorpean’s can live on a 32 hour work week suppose we Americans can be thankful and content to do likewise; this means government must set an exmple.
    I work within a governement building and I know that the work that needs to be done could be done in 32 hours, by elimainating excessive breaks, and socializing. We all must carry the burden; not just those who have lost a job or live below poverty level. The second greatest commandment God has asked of us is to love our neighbors as our self;with the first loving him. The time of testing has come; do we trust in God as our currence states or do we trust in government hand-outs. Was it not JFK who said “it’s not what my country can do for me, but what can I do for my country” So what can you and I do and what can our governmental officals do to serve the country and not serve self? A democarcy only works if we are other-centered and not self-centered.

15. Michael Tierney
    Dellwood
    January 29th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

    The pleas to not cut Veteran’s funding may make sense. But maybe they should explain how they spend the roughly $60 million on military and Veteran’s. What is the administrative cost vs. the direct benefits to the veterans?
    Another place to cut costs is to go with a unicameral legislature and impose term limits on all elected officials. Elections are now career referendums instead of service opportunities as they should be. Leadership posts are granted based on political favors, not competency.
    We don’t need more life time government people at state or federal levels. Two terms and out!
    But you will never see that proposed by any legislator. They love the benefits and the power.

16. Tom Seelen
    Buckman
    January 29th, 2009 at 9:47 pm

    I am with the general consensus on the board, cut off the funding for ethanol. This absurd fuel has been crammed down our throats for decades and all we end up with is more expensive food, inefficient fuel and subsidised farmers and ethanol producers. I say cut off all funding of these projects. If an alternative fuel is found that is more efficient than gas great bring it to market, but stop using the budget to gain votes, do what is best for the majority of the citizens not just the farmers.

17. John Lurquin
    Prior Lake
    January 29th, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    It is time to solve some very important problems. We MUST abandoned partisan politics and work on the real issues.All viewpoints must be considered.Majority rules only means majority DICTATES. That is not acceptable. We elected all of you people to get a job done. You don’t always get everything you want. Let’s work together and fix this mess that we all had a part in creating.

18. Mike Palmer
    Cottage Grove
    January 29th, 2009 at 11:55 pm

    The combination of Ag and Vet Affairs is a bit odd, but typical. Pit Swords against Plowshares. We need both.

    Ethanol - Turning food into fuel is right out of the Twilight Zone. Limit the production of food and run up the price of EVERYTHING edible. Great idea if your goal is to destroy the economy.

    Veterens Affairs - Eliminate waste. Just like with Education, which is always for the kiddddzzzzz, not the assistant assistant deputy co-comissioner of attendence on Wednesday afternoons at a buck 20 a year, our Vets should get the best, not the people that administer the programs.

    Seriously, at my place of employment we were mandated to run lean in 2009. I expect and demand the same from my elected officials.

19. Scott Senske
    Crookston
    January 30th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

    The State in this case needs to reduce its spending. That of course means making cuts that are going to hurt. I think it is going to mean reducing or cutting off special interest groups. It is going to mean making unpopular decisions in a hard time.

    Cutting the pork and even cut some of what appears to need immediatte attention. Use those funds to pay towards the deficet. Personally I want to see progress in the right direction. When I have experienced financial difficulty I cut back, I redefined my priorities and made personal decision for REAL CHANGE! That did NOT mean spending more money!

    Quite frankly I think it will mean cutting some programs all together. Some of which I am sure I like. However it is necessary in order to get back on our feet and get our state and country on its feet again.

20. Colin Lee
    Lakeville
    January 30th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    Convert all ethanol subsidies to cellulosic ethanol and cellulosic “green” gasoline subsidies or research grants. There is no excuse for making fuel from food. The industry has received more than enough assistance already.

    Want to lower veterans’ health costs? Properly test them for depleted uranium exposure, so that we can show if we need to ban its use around unprotected soldiers and civilians. We already paid enough for the chronic health complications of Agent Orange victims, so we musn’t allow a sequel to continue afflicting more servicemembers who are fighting and suffering for this country today.

21. Richard Iten
    St. Cloud
    January 30th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

    I agree with all of the ideas of cutting ALL of the ethanol programs state wide.
    As for the Veterans programs, leave them alone. Active duty military and retired active duty should not have to pay state taxes. To many of these troops are living out of the state of Minnesota because other state don’t tax them. Keep them here at home!

22. Terry Olsen
    Saint Paul
    January 31st, 2009 at 5:11 pm

    I drive E85 because it has cleaner emissions than gasoline and keeps my money for fuel local rather than overseas. It also leaves more gasoline available for the traditional consumer. I encourage further research to replace ethanol sourced from corn to prairie grasses or algae. I would be happy to pay the same or a little more than gas, as I did when E85 was available in 2003, and I continue to use and advocate mass transit. Drop the corn ethanol subsidies to the petroleum companies who receive money for using it (they already have record-breaking profit).

    I would like to propose another biofuel that has not received much attention: captured natural gas (methane) from Anaerobic Digestion. This is a great way to reduce landfills through compost collection and generate a renewable fuel. Dispose of waste food items as well as farm animal manure and create natural gas. I caution anyone who believes Nuclear is clean and green. We still have not solved the waste problem, which poses a human and environmental risk and a potential terrorist threat, and it has a half-life that may outlast the concrete storage containers. We are not thinking of our grandchildren if we propose nuclear. Also, there is nothing clean about “clean coal”.

    Regarding veterans - the previous administration spent trillions sending our best and brightest overseas basically for a war on oil - it’s time to bring them home.

    The first energy source we should be investing in is CONSERVATION! Turn it down, turn it off, unplug it, walk, take the bus, etc. You know the mantra, now let’s live it! It is up to US, not just the politicians.

23. Carol Robbins
    St. Paul
    February 6th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

    Why doesn’t the governor allow what is called “leave for salary savings” - in tough budget times employees are allowed to take off time unpaid and not lose their vacation and sick leave accruals - this would be hours that the state wouldn’t need to pay and while not every employee would take advantage of it MANY would… if even 25% of the workforce took advantage of that at a rate of one day a month that would be a huge savings… but the bottom line is you can’t balance the budget by cutting state workers because we are simply such a small piece of the budget pie you won’t even notice the difference…

24. Lars White
    Duluth
    February 8th, 2009 at 7:51 pm

    Perhaps legislative action could open a future where Minnesota farmers can grow cash crop ‘industrial’ hemp, as we did very profitably prior to 1943. David Monson, a conservative Republican legislator in North Dakota, led this change there. In the Public Broadcasting P.O.V. documentary film ‘Standing Silent Nation,’ two South Dakota Lakota Nation farmers of the White Plume tiospaye at Pine Ridge reservation researched the most marketable and efficient cash crop their poor prairie soils could grow. The non-narcotic hemp fiber they tried to grow led them to file a Federal lawsuit challenging the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration, who sent teams of gun-toting narco-terror agents wearing body armor to cut down the fiber crop just as it matured. These penniless sovereign nation farmers have suffered great hardship and are about $300,000 short of the necessary legal funds to ‘fix’ the Controlled Substance Act, which makes no distinctions between the enormously varied strains of cannabis and apparently preempts Native American law. I think lucrative cash crops might raise considerable sums at this time when more Minnesotans are beginning to resemble the dirt-poor tribes that lived a subsistence existence with flint arrowheads before the west was won, and the plight of the White Plumes is very instructive. There is a Veteran tie-in to this also. In Afghanistan, harvested crops of the narcotic opium poppy finance tribal warlords and terrorists so effectively that not even the military superpower of the Soviets could defeat them. I do not think that the world’s most expensive military investment, the United States armed forces and National Guard, will be enough to overcome them either. Meanwhile, our bravest and finest soldiers are squandered in a thankless nation building job where more of them snap and commit suicide than are killed in action. The stark pragmatics of our harsh economic situation dictate top to bottom review of all laws, even laws that a half century ago seemed to advance an incontestable ethical and moral good.

25. Leah Thomason
    Fergus Falls
    February 10th, 2009 at 6:54 am

    I dont have the eloquence in speaking that our president does, so I will just say this; the above ideas are a start but I think what our president wants is for all of us to take part, not just point fingers at a few programs to cut on the behalf of others. There are programs to downsize everywhere that beholden tax payers and feed the well-to-do. Review all programs, slice and dice. With the main word being “accountability”, the job will get done with wasteful spending.
    But what about each of “us”? We have to take part too. Our bad habits cost the taxpayers money too. For starters, each of us should take better care of ourselves. Three out of four folks are overweight. Which leads to medical issues. Which costs money. We all need to cut the sugar and fat, make healthier choices and move. Here in my small town, people drive to a store that is two blocks away. We each must take on a different attitude about driving everywhere. Making healthy life-choices will be a good example to our kids, too. We’ve allowed a nation of kids who jump in their car to drive a few blocks to school holding a Dew for breakfast.
    Here’s another idea. How about learning to share resources. Our Public Library here in town needs money. Viking Library system here in town needs money. The new highschool library needs money. Why not combine resources in a case like this and build-to-share. One building, all resources within it. It is no different than the VFW and Legion and other Veterans’groups combining their efforts a few years back due to low-membership. After a few kinks everything worked out fine and these groups get more, with less. I know there would be attitude out there about sharing resources but thisis what our new president is talking about; everybody works at remaking America.

26. Dale Nick
    Princeton
    February 10th, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    I think there should be a committee of just plain ordinary citizens to be able to come down to the Capitol and go over the budget and cut the pork whether it be state money or money coming in from the feds.

    There is so much Pork going on in the budget that if it was cut and money just go for necessary projects I believe the budget would be closer to the Black than Red.

    Cut the subsides for Ethanol and see how far it gets on its own. Why should the citizens have to pay for an inefficiant fuel when it takes away from the food supply? It has been proven that it is less efficient and more expensive than gasoline per gallon. If it is so good it ought to be able to make it on its own.

    Also, let’s build new Nuclear Plants and Clean Coal Technology Plants. Nuclear is clean and safe and we have more coal in the U.S. than the Saudies have oil. Let’s start using it!

    Us “ordinary” citizens don’t get mileage for driving back and forth to work. Our government shouldn’t either. I worked in Hopkins and drove 55 miles each way 5 days per week and couldn’t deduct it. I also had to pay for my own food while at work.

    Doesn’t about 1/2 of the State’s budget go to schools now? How much is enough?

    I’ve got an Idea! Why not tax us all at 100% and our wonderful, caring officials can give us back what they feel we deserve! (Sarcasm OFF)

27. pat sturm
    springfield
    February 18th, 2009 at 8:31 pm

    Food or fuel i wounder how much corn anyboby buys at the store. The distillers grain is used to feed livestock. Keep ethanol.

28. Melvin Schendel
    Saint Cloud
    February 19th, 2009 at 11:19 am

    The consensus seems to be “Do away with ethanol subsidies” and I will go along with that. Let ethanol die until somebody comes up with a way to make it competitive with other fuels.
    I also agree with the party who found it odd that Agriculture Subsidies and Veterans benefits were paired. Suppose next I will find a new stadium for the Vikings paired with K-12 education funding.

29. Rod Nelson
    Chatfield
    February 19th, 2009 at 2:53 pm

    Locally owned ethanol plants are one of Minnesota’s biggest success stories of our time. Why is that people have this love affair with oil? How much does it stimulate our economy when we send 700 billion U.S. dollars per year to other countries to buy their oil? In many cases, countries that don’t like us. Locally owned ethanol plants stimulate the local economy and result in more taxes paid to the state of Minnesota.

30. james draeger
    montevideo
    February 25th, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    install “racino” at canterbury park to bring additional revenue for the state and help the farming industry thru the sale of hay, oats etc. thanks

31. james draeger
    montevideo
    February 25th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    if not a bill, add a referendment to the next ballot as state polls have shown the majority of voters are in favor! thanks

32. james draeger
    montevideo
    March 4th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    freeze price of gas at a fair price [1.50]and then ration it like we did during ww2. worked then, why not now?

33. George Dahl
    Woodbury
    March 12th, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    How about an apology by the state government which would set an example for the federal government to all Viet Nam veterans. Can’t think of why!!!! Go to the Wall!!!!

    See if you can find any Viet Nam veterans who when they arrived home received the kind of welcome or send off that todays veterans receive.

34. william mcnellis
    annandale
    May 17th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

    dont give in to the govener
    no bonding
    a balanced budj. needs new rev.

35. Ron Purcell
    Wasec
    June 1st, 2009 at 8:38 pm

    Suggest requiring farmers to pay tax on gas, oil etc. Also suggest requiring farm vehicles that use state, county or city roads to have a license

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