County commissioners got the chance to connect with Rep.

Saturday, February 03, 2001

County commissioners got the chance to connect with Rep. Rob Leighton and Sen. Grace Schwab and what they are doing to help represent this area. The meeting with State Rep. Rob Leighton and Sen. Grace Schwab was held on Saturday at the Mower County Courthouse.

The first thing on the agenda was unfunded mandates. Mandates are the orders of the people that are expressed to Schwab and Leighton. The main problem voiced is where the money was going for certain projects.

"There is too much paper work on where funding goes," Commissioner Dick Cummings said.

Sheriff Barry Simonson agreed and voiced his opinion on a machine that freezes fingerprints.

"We have this machine, but it doesn’t work right. This is an expensive machine and the concept of it is good. The problem is it doesn’t work properly and we were sent a bill for maintenance on it. These are problems that are not fixed and we are getting billed for them by the state," Simonson said.

Another issue was levees. Levees are taxes or payments citizens are charged. It was felt by the commissioners that people sometimes do not understand where the money from their property taxes goes to.

"We have raised taxes but it is hard to stay within the budget. We commissioners are partners with the state legislature," Commissioner Greg Oscarson said.

Patty Ball, court administrator, voiced her frustration in how there was a mandate to structure the courts that was passed in July 2000.

"Many issues are still not taken care of. Some of these are personal. I wish the legislature would either do it or don’t do it. With the issues of the budget locally we don’t know where we are going. Don’t submit an inflated budget. We need a better way to figure out how funding should be to run the court system," Ball said.

The problem many voiced is that different groups submit a budget but it is not the actual cost of their budget.

Leighton agreed, "The problem for many legislatures is that it is not politically correct to vote against the criminal justice system. We do a bad job where the real costs go."

Oscarson stated more money should go to intervention of crime than punishment. Simonson agreed, saying many prisoners had mental health issues and they are in the criminal justice system which is not where they belong.

Next on the agenda was transportation issues. Mower County has 400 bridges and 100 of these bridges are on the list to be repaired, and $200,000 has been set aside by the state for Mower County roads.

Grace Schwab said transportation has been a huge issue in the state legislature.

"Customer service projects have taken thirty years to finish. The budget is lean and mean as far as funding for transportation. Our roads are our connection to the rest of the world," Schwab said.

The commissioners voiced how the roads are a political problem. Some districts have closed bridges because they were unsafe.

"Every road a farmer lives on is a major road especially when he is trying to haul grain to market," Oscarson said.

Leighton said Gov. Ventura totally under funded transportation two years ago.

"Don’t look for funding for transportation," he advised.

Tax policies were next on the agenda. There has been a hole unfilled because of tax rebate checks. Also the tab fee on cars has been lowered. Another problem foreseen by the commissioners and legislature was the governor wants to reduce income tax. This costs millions of dollars to reduce this. They all felt it doesn’t benefit rural Minnesota in the end.

"There is a great disparity between the rural areas and the metro area. The metro area gets better deals. We are left behind in the rural areas," Schwab said.

Leighton agreed that many of the problems still faced by state legislatures is the tax laws are based on rural economies and many people live in metro areas. This makes it very complicated at times where money is allotted. He felt there is need to reform property tax systems.

The property tax provides a good source of income. Schwab and Leighton both agreed that sales tax should be eliminated. One reason sited was more people are using the Internet to purchase goods and thus not having to pay sales tax.

"We lose companies here in Minnesota because of our taxes. We need tax reforms," Schwab said.

Public health issues were next on the agenda. What came to attention was prevention of teen-age pregnancies and STDs. Mower County is very high on the list in Minnesota of the amount of teen-age pregnancies. Money is also being spent on the education of preventing young people from smoking.

Bruce Hendricks of the Department of Human Resources spoke up on health issues.

"Chemical treatment is not effective. People who go through chemical dependency usually are back in treatment in three years. We need more money for prevention," Hendricks said.

Hendricks said there are so many programs to support these health programs but there is no uniformity in the agencies. Someone who is a good schmoozer usually can get the funding, he said.

At the end of the meeting, County Attorney Pat Omen voiced his opinion to the legislatures stating there is not enough funding for the problems in the court systems.

Leighton said in the upcoming legislature he would like to see what could be done about the flooding problem in the Mower County area. All agreed this was a problem that will be difficult to solve.