Government Task Force

Thank you for personally reaching out so I may explain my vote and for asking me directly. I truly respect and appreciate that. I agree that spending this money in the middle of such a large surplus is not ideal. However, the DFL’s mismanagement of this legislative session means that this vote was likely my one and only opportunity this year to stand up for the critical projects that this bill contained for our community and around the state. For instance, there are neighborhoods in MN that are having some very serious water contamination problems – so serious that they must drink and cook with bottled water and are showering in water that likely isn’t safe for them to be bathing in. The water contamination cleanup efforts and other projects that were in this bill were ones that I felt could not wait another year for another bonding bill to be introduced. There were also numerous projects that will provide good paying jobs and create an economic stimulus effect for cities that have main street businesses closing their doors. In our immediate area there were 3 projects that will bring sustainable economic impacts and safety to our roads…St. Cloud Children’s Museum downtown St. Cloud, City Of Waite Park- Quarry Redevelopment and Town Line Road Improvements in Sartell. I hope you agree these are quality projects that will impact us all. Again, I believe it was my one and only opportunity to stand-up for our community projects and my chance to respond to the many constituent and business owner emails that requested more State budget money be put into our existing community projects. When voting, I truly was thinking of who I represent and all the people who supported me in the campaign. My thoughts were not about “bringing home the pork”, my intentions were to do what I believed was the right thing for my constituents back home.

 

Please know I am truly shocked by the size of our state surplus – it is almost double the highest recorded surplus from previous years. The government is absolutely taking too much of people’s money, and I am still in strong support of taking actions to return the surplus to the people. The GOP recently released their tax relief plan , which includes surplus refunds of up to $2500 per family, an $1800 per child tax credit, eliminating the social security tax, decreasing the lowest two income tax brackets by 1%, and increasing property tax refunds. I strongly support and will work hard to implement these refunds and tax relief proposals.  However, I also do have a constitutional duty to protect and maintain the state’s infrastructure to keep people safe and healthy, and I felt that there were projects in this bill that needed to be done to meet that goal. I suppose what I am trying to say is that I think we can find ways to give back the people’s surplus AND provide much-needed infrastructure aid at the same time.

 

I hope that this explains what went into my decision-making and my perspective on HF 669 and also on the need to give back the surplus.  Please feel free to reach out with any other questions or comments you may have – I am happy to hear from you and to listen. Or better yet, I would be glad to meet with you back in the district to discuss this and many other extreme bills the Democrats are considering and passing.

 

Thank you again for the opportunity to explain my vote and understand my sincere thought process behind my intentions.

 

Respectively,

Bernie

 

Representative Bernie Perryman