A recent letter writer urges you to vote yes to sales tax increase in November. I encourage each and every one of you to vote no!

We are setting a bad precedent by using the Constitution as a budgeting tool. If this passes every group under the moon will try increases in

taxes through Constitutional Amendment.

You might get the impression that water and environmental causes get zero funding. That simply is not true. Hundreds of millions are spent on the environment in Minnesota. The lottery was supposed to contribute millions

into water and environmental projects, the Capital Investment bill provided over $30 million to the Board of Water and Soil Resources for water improvements and almost $50 million in other spending not including

other environmental spending.

Supporters like to talk about a fractional increase but fail to point out that Minnesota is already the highest in sales tax in the five-state region and many Minnesotans already saw a sales tax increase this year.

We don’t need to increase the sales tax we need to prioritize spending.

It is simply wrong to use the Constitution as a budgeting tool. The Legislature last year spent almost $3 billion in new spending. If our Legislators can not find 10 percent for what they say are priorities from the new spending or 1 percent of the $34 billion annual budget then we need to elect leaders that can. Vote no on the sales tax increase in November for taxpayers’, families’ and businesses’ sake.

David Anderson

Lonsdale, Minn.