Editor's Column
by
Tim Benjamin
John Tschida recognizes that
this is the ninth special session in recent history. Does a special
session give the governor or legislators an advantage in negotiations?
Some political analysts suggest that it does give one party an advantage
over the other, but there is no hard proof that this is true. Some
of our freshmen legislators early on talked about writing a bill
that would eliminate pay for legislators during special session.
Needless to say the idea was squashed almost as fast as it was brought
up. One would think that if legislators were truly concerned with
the budget, considering it costs about $15,000 a day to run the special
session, they would put much more effort into compromising and finding
the best solution for their constituents. Unfortunately, our legislators
did not foresee the shortfalls that their generosity would create
with tax cuts and rebates several years back. Now, fair and equitable
taxes’ (a rose by any other name) need to be increased to raise
the necessary revenues to maintain quality of life for all Minnesotans.
If by chance when you read this there hasn’t been a resolution
yet call, write, and/or email your legislators, as well as Speaker
Sviggum, Majority Leader Dean Johnson, and Governor Pawlenty. Let
them know that you feel that taxes need to be part of the long-term
solution. If some of the cuts that are proposed are enacted into
law, they will directly impact the Minnesotans least able to bear
the losses.
On page 4, we have an article
about the cuts to Metro Mobility. How will they affect you? If they
do affect you, please, as I wrote before, write the Speaker, Majority
Leader, and Governor and explain to them how this will affect your
quality of life.
Access Press is celebrating
its 15th year anniversary; Access Press has hit the street on the
10th of every month with 180 issues. Do you have them all? If you
don’t, check out page 5 and see the
highlights of the last 15 years. As you read through, remember how
many of these stories you read about first in access Press. Think
about the information that Access Press provided, did some of the
information improve your quality of life, increased your income,
help you find a place to stay, or inform you about new legislation
that directly benefited or affected you? Write up your stories and
send them to us; we would love to hear them and pass them on to other
readers in future issues of Access Press.
I was fortunate enough
this last month to have an opportunity to spend some time with
the new CEO of Courage Center, Jan Malcolm. I think Jan is going
to make a good leader for Courage Center. She wants to get involved
in all aspects of the organization. I asked her what I would hear
if a year from now I were to go to any resident and asked them
if they know Jan Malcolm or if they have ever talk to her. She
responded with “I want to be accessible to all
of the staff, resident, and other organizations that have connections
with Courage Center. But I’ve only been here for four weeks
now and I can’t guarantee too much other than I have a extremely
knowledgeable staff and board and I will rely on them to help me
keep focused and connected to the real issues that concern all of
the disability community. I will do my best.”
