Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Friday, August 01, 2008

GUEST VIEW: Minnesota’s legacy of shame

By Chuck MacLean

In my view, Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Pawlenty and all those Minnesota legislators who have succumbed to some voters’ basest desires to avoid taxes should fall to their knees and apologize to their parents and grandparents for ruining the Minnesota those parents and grandparents worked so hard to build — fine schools, beautiful parks, great public hospitals, court systems that dispensed prompt due process, prisons large enough to hold offenders, roads that didn’t rattle you, bridges that didn’t collapse and all the rest.

And faced with the obligation to maintain what our parents and grandparents built and left for us, the governor and many legislators have instead ignored the need to maintain, or better, the need to build anew for the next generation. They did that to get re-elected on a “no new taxes’ pledge — that is their legacy of shame.

The Minnesota we all grew up in and enjoyed was not free, but was purchased with our parents’ and grandparents’ tax dollars responsibly invested with vision by those who came before us. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

On the other hand, we owe many of our current state leaders a good thrashing.

In a single generation, the governor and certain Minnesota legislators have destroyed what our forebears built. It will take generations to recover, and that will only happen if we start investing again now. A few dollars to invest in the future and in infrastructure and in our court system would bear fruit for our children and grandchildren. That is what true leaders do in office. They don’t appeal to people’s weakest moments when they want to keep that dime in their own pocket instead of investing in those who will follow us.

When we looked back as we were growing up in Minnesota, we could see that those who led Minnesota before the present administration left a legacy we have enjoyed for decades. Their legacy is what they created — a Minnesota with quality of life second to none. But the present administration has left a legacy such that years from now, when our children look back, they will refer to us as that generation that sure liked to keep money in their own pockets and left us in the lurch — the generation that destroyed Minnesota’s quality of life.

Declining school quality, increasing infant mortality rates, bridges falling into rivers, roads that are approaching impassable, court systems that are insufficiently staffed to provide anyone due process, prisons so insufficient that dangerous offenders are released or are transferred to county jails at county property taxpayer expense are all legacies of shame for this administration, and frankly for all of us voters who haven’t had the backbone and the heart and the vision to elect those who would invest more of our assets in tomorrow’s Minnesota.

Great leaders are those who build for today and tomorrow, not just people who want to get re-elected by promising no new taxes and the like. Shame on the lot of you who fail to build for tomorrow — you’re not leaders at all.

MacLean is the Winona County attorney.