In a post last week, Rep. Heintzeman's question about economic disparities fetches some surprising answers, we began:
On a Facebook post Saturday, Minnesota state representative Joshua Heintzeman,R-Nisswa, wrote:
So this week the governor's office released his spending priorities to the legislature. Help me out, does this make sense to anyone?
But rather than linking to the Governor's job/bonding proposals as a whole, the freshman lawmaker posted the bottom of page one of a letter that Dayton had sent to Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, and Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, in their capacity as chairs of the Legislative Working Group on Disparities (membership at the bottom of the page here). . . .
In comments about the image Heintzman's Facebook, some of his friends posted objections to the entire list of proposals at the bottom of the letter, not just the one item circled in red, and Heintzeman followed their lead.
At one point, the freshman representative posted:
Joshua Heintzeman Clearly the governor is disconnected from the people of Minnesota and believes these should be the priorities going into this coming session. It's our job to 'help' the governor understand their expectations.
And:
Joshua Heintzeman This is the governor's agenda. Because we control the house his spending recommendations must originate in our body. An agenda like this is incredibly frustrating because now throughout negotiations these are the things that his office will continue to demand as we move forward. By exposing this nonsense our hope is that the people of Minnesota push back and demand He redirect his energy back towards creating jobs, investment in roads and bridges, and providing good government.
As a point of fact, the first bullet point in the list, $180,000 to support the establishment of a Civil Rights in St. Cloud, was brought to the governor's attention by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jim Knoblach, according to an October article in the St. Cloud Times.
In Gov. Dayton provides harsh criticism of racial tensions, Vicki Ikeogu reported:
Harsh words and heartfelt sentiment were exchanged by community members and local officials on racial issues in Central Minnesota at the St. Cloud NAACP Community Conversation with Gov. Mark Dayton.
Hosted on Tuesday at St. Cloud Public Library, about 100 people from diverse backgrounds gathered to ask questions of St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, St. Cloud Police Chief Blair Anderson, Rep. Jim Knoblach, Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Kevin Lindsey, Council on Black Minnesotans Community Program Specialist Kolloh Nimley and St. Cloud AFYA Pharmacyco-owner Dr. Edris Kosar. . . .
Knoblach vowed to repeat last year's efforts in the Legislature to increase funding for the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, including money for the department's office in St. Cloud.
Since Knoblach wasn't serving in the legislature in 2014, we'll assume the reporter is considering the last session and he means HF1364, a bill for which he was a co-author; retiring St. Cloud Republican John Pederson was a co-author of the companion bill, SF889.
Knoblach co-chairs the Legislative Working Group on Disparities.
Perhaps Heintzman can let his Facebook friends know about the public discussion St. Cloud's powerful Republican committee chair had with the Governor about the item that ended up at the top of Mark Dayton's list.
Or they could just talk about how concerns about disparities shouldn't be a priority--and are just "this nonsense." We suspect Jim Knoblach might want an explanation, whatever Heintzeman decides.
Photo: Rep Joshua Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, who believes spending to address racial disparities is "nonsense."
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