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Politics & Government

Slawik: An Official 'Goodbye'

Slawik reflects on the 2012 legislative session, shares frustrations and says 'thank you' to residents.

The 2012 Legislative Session adjourned in mid-May, brining an end to potentially the most frustrating biennium in my time at the legislature. I want to provide you with some information about the session, and as a retiring member, a little perspective on where Minnesota needs to go if we want our state to continue to be a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

stole the attention near the end of the session, but it’s important to focus on the big picture. Our state is facing tremendous challenges and unfortunately, our state leaves the biennium the same way we entered it, with massive debt and deficits, an economy that’s recovering too slowly, skyrocketing property taxes, struggling schools, and a shrinking middle class.

In addition to that, I’m deeply concerned about the gridlock and misplaced priorities that gripped the Capitol these last two years. Last year, an unwillingness to compromise led to the longest government shutdown in state history. The final budget — which I did not support — borrowed record amounts from our school children, eliminated the Homestead Tax Credit, and, for the first time ever, engaged our state in Washington-style deficit spending through the use of tobacco bonds.

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This session, the legislature was again distracted by misplaced priorities. Rather than helping middle-class Minnesotans, we spent time on controversial constitutional amendments, ignored repeated efforts to pass a comprehensive jobs plan, and ignored the pleas of Minnesotans whose property taxes skyrocketed this year. This is troubling to me and should also be troubling to any Minnesotan who values bipartisanship and wants our state government to function properly.

There were a few bright spots of this session including the passage of a $500 million bonding bill. I came here with a goal of job creation and this bill will create jobs. Public infrastructure across our entire state is crumbling and the bonding bill will start work on our huge backlog of worthwhile projects.

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As mentioned above, we passed the Vikings Stadium bill, which I also voted for. The new stadium will keep the team in Minnesota, will create 8,000 jobs through the construction process, and another 3,400 jobs after the stadium is up-and-running.

As many of you are aware, I am retiring from the Minnesota House at the end of my term. It has been an absolute honor to serve the people of Oakdale and Maplewood in the Minnesota House of Representatives for seven terms. It’s been great to get to know and represent such engaged and thoughtful communities.

With many partners from the early childhood arena, we’ve accomplished a great deal, especially in recent months. I’m proud of the strategic leadership role I played in the formation of the , the implementation of a Quality Rating System for child care and Minnesota’s successful Race to the Top grant application bringing $45 million to the state to help close the achievement gap.

While I’m proud of those accomplishments, I’ve become dismayed and discouraged by the increasing partisanship I’ve seen over the last several years. Rather than working together to pursue moderate, bipartisan policies, legislators run to the extremes, with go-it-alone approaches. As we’ve seen, this has led to more gridlock, and more political posturing aimed at winning the next election instead of doing what’s right for our state and its citizens.

The right approach is to work together, with a focus on what we have in common. Minnesota has always been strongest when we worked together; focused on Minnesota values: strong schools, fair taxes, and a growing middle class.

Thank you for the wonderful opportunity to represent you in the Minnesota House. I look forward to finding new ways to serve our communities and make Minnesota an even better state.

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