Buzz Snyder
Sauk Rapids
One tries not to be cynical about the periodic hypocrisy of some of our elected officials, but sometimes the shamelessness is just too much to suffer in silence.
Case in point: Recently all the voters in Senate District 13 received a mailed flyer jointly authored by our Republican legislators – Sen. Jeff Howe and Reps. Lisa Demuth and Tim O’Driscoll. Featuring the proud faces of this “Legislative Team 13,” the mail piece boasted about “Legislation we passed” and listed four measures passed in the final days of the Minnesota Legislative session.
What is missing in their message are a few (understandably) inconvenient facts: Three of the items that passed (the Rockville bond, the Sartell flood hazard mitigation and the Town Line Road improvements), were all specifically included in House File (HF) 669. On May 22 it passed the House by a vote of 97-35 and by the Senate, 56-11. Fifty-three percent of the Republican members voted Yea. But . . .You guessed it: Our three local members who are now proclaiming their pride in bringing home the funding for these projects all voted against the bill that will provide that funding.
As for the fourth bill that our local politicians cite in the flyer that “we passed” – this was the much-needed $300 million statewide nursing home funding bill (HF 3342), which passed both legislative houses unanimously, 67-0 and 132-0. The chief authors in both chambers were Democrats, incidentally. Not really an agonizing decision for our members to press the Yea button on that, but thanks for that at least.
