Longtime Ramsey County resident and Shoreview City Councilmember Blake Huffman today announced his candidacy for the District 1 seat on the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners. Huffman will face Tony Bennett, a 15-year incumbent and sponsor of the Ramsey County sales tax increase to fund construction of a stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.
“My candidacy is based on belief that Ramsey County can govern smarter. Rather than spending time and tax dollars on a stadium, I’ll ensure we focus our efforts on doing the basics well. That means providing cost-effective transportation, public safety, park and recreation and human service programs and not raising taxes to subsidize corporations and highly paid professional athletes,” Huffman stated.
Huffman has a history of local government involvement as a member of the Shoreview City Council where the “govern smarter” philosophy has produced successful bipartisan collaboration. As a result, Shoreview has been nationally recognized as one of the top 10 cities in the country by Family Circle magazine and one of the top 100 places to live in America by Money magazine.
In contrast, the Bennett record is jam-packed with voting for double-digit salary increases and an arrogant approach to governing that denies public participation on key county issues.
“When Tony Bennett actually said, in response to a question about a referendum on his stadium tax, ‘we couldn’t let the people have a vote on the stadium because they would defeat it,’ it shockingly showed how out-of-touch he has become after 15 years on the county board,” stated Huffman.
Referendum Ducking: While City of Ramsey Council members had been silent about referendum possibilities over the previously unheard of step of using City public money raised by multi-million dollar bonding to subsidize a private profiteering venture - aka the Flaherty Fiasco - they most certainly have disdained any attention to having a referendum to tell them what people think and want.
Thousands per month go from the City to Landform, with Landform's "return" on investment being the deal to turn the city into the Indiana firm's banker of last resort. Is this responsible government - a question Blake Huffman is putting to the test in Ramsey, the county.
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Kohler of the Deets quotes a Huffman press release, here, for the text excerpted above. Kohler also links to the Huffman campaign site, here.