Since the end of session, Governor Dayton's concessions to Speaker Daudt and Senate Majority Leader Bakk's power bromance have blossomed like toxic algae on our phosphorus-clogged waters.
It is thus with great alarm that we read this passage in Forum News Service reporter Don Davis's article in the Worthington Globe, Dayton has head start on 2016 to-do list:
In a letter to House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, Dayton said he wants more money for rural high-speed Internet connections, known as broadband. “I am perplexed by your refusal to increase funding ... after your repeated promises to provide additional help to Greater Minnesota,” he wrote.
Dayton recommended $30 million to expand broadband in the next two years, but the compromise approved this year includes $10.6 million.
Unfortunately, rational people assume that Republicans running in rural districts promised to increase funding for high-speed broadband. As Bluestem pointed out in a mid-April post, "Follow through on broadband pledge to MN"? In campaign, Miller made no-broadband pledge, such was not the case.
This special session will leave Minnesota without a Citizens Board at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the theft of over $8 million from the Metropolitan Landfill Contingency Action Trust (MLCAT) and no tax bill or genuine transportation fix.
Not to mention the near-to-de-facto elimination of the responsibilities of the state auditor, one of the state's constitutional offices. Not that Minnesota's citizens have voted to ditch the position.
If high-speed rural broadband is on Governor Dayton's do-to list, after watching Daudt and Bakk retreat to secret negotiations and emerge with one heckova deal, Bluestem can only ask one question of our neighbors here in sunny Chippewa County.
Greater Minnesota, are you ready for dial-up again?
Photo: An active dial-up modem. Credits: "Modem-usr-courier-v34-front-online" by Bortzmeyer - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modem-usr-courier-v34-front-online.jpg#/media/File:Modem-usr-courier-v34-front-online.jpg The image has been cropped to fit our format.
Update: A young farmer friend insisted that Bluestem add a link to that sweet sound of a dial-up modem doing its thing..
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Bakk and Daudt seem to have a shared interest in taking away Greater Minnesota's right to keep out-of-state (and out-of-country) profiteers from destroying their land and water before moving on to the next place to plunder.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Jun 10, 2015 at 07:16 PM