As chair of the powerful Senate Tax Committee, I passed a bill for a more progressive income tax system to fairly provide our state much needed revenue. As a legislator I have:
--- A 100 positive rating from NARAL and was supported in my last senate election by Planned Parenthood.
--- A 97 percent rating from AFL-CIO.
--- Co-authored the Minnesota Health Plan which guarantees health care to all Minnesotans.
--- Worked with the GLBT community to pass legislation extending benefits to partners of state employees.
--- Supported the creation of Lake Vermilion State Park, which recently took a step closer to becoming a reality.
As your governor, I will work tirelessly to create jobs and improve Minnesota's economy. I will get Minnesotans back to work with a significant investment in public works, which will jumpstart our construction economy and create long-term jobs; incentives to banks to loan again; and I will use my tax policy experience to create programs to aid small start-up businesses, help existing businesses with sales tax exemptions on capital equipment, and give communities assistance to attract and retain businesses.
There is this Bakk campaign website screenshot which you can click to enlarge and read:
Another Mesabi Daily News editorial featured here on the Bakk website states:
Everyone knows what is at the core of the state budget deficit. It’s about jobs and more jobs and more jobs.
And that means there needs to be a vocal uprising by the public and those representing them regardless of political persuasion on issues such as a bonding bill, or providing more tax incentives for small businesses or getting the bureaucracy moving on job-producing projects such as the copper/nickel/precious metals PolyMet venture near Hoyt Lakes.
We have a jobs crisis.
Despite the saying all politics are local, there is the air we all breathe, the water we all drink, and the condition of the planet we may alter in ways that will be passed on to future generations, well after jobs of today have run their course.
__________UPDATE__________
A fresh Bakk email arrived, he will be in Anoka, Jan. 28, per this text:
An experienced leader who will build a stronger Minnesota
Please come and meet Sen. Tom Bakk,
chair of the Senate Tax Committee and a candidate for governor,
and discuss how we can build a stronger Minnesota.
Thursday, Jan. 28
11 a.m.
Avant Garden
215 E. Main St., Anoka
Refreshments will be served.
For more information, contact peter@bakk2010.com or 651-379-0272.
www.bakk2010.com
This will be his big chance to explain to caucus goers and press in attendance, what aside from jobs, he has to say about the safeguards, guarantees, and ongoing escrow arangements he would demand before any Polymet copper and other sulfide mineral mining is started - so as to assure there is sufficient cash at the end of things that there is remediation of the scars on the landscape and a full cleaning up of all the waste and pollution that shall occur in the course of a few Iron Range jobs being created for a time.
It is news we await, the detail of how initial and ongoing contributions to an escrow might be guaranteed to more than cover the end costs as inflation eats into the value of an escrowed balance, and scale of the mining might grow.
Short of that, others seek the office. Others have shown environmental awareness.
I will email peter@bakk2010.com at the address in the invitation email, sending this link and a "the ball's in your court" message.
I hope a large contingent of the press attends so that on the eve of the DFL caucusing the gaps and uncertainties about a stance on a key Minnesota environmental concern can be clarified, recorded, and reported.