THE $5.2 BILLION HOLE

Will Pawlenty pledge keep costing Minnesota?

Gov. Tim Pawlenty, predictably, looks to cut vital programs as the only way to solve the state's $5.2 billion deficit problem. A more enlightened approach would, despite tough economic times, include growing tax revenues from those of us who can spare a dime or two as part of the mix.

But we only need to recall Pawlenty's off-the-wall rant when legislators defied him and imposed an additional 5-cent tax on a gallon of gas and his ironclad oath to not raise taxes even a nickel. Never mind that those nickels add up when we all pay. Pawlenty would rather have the higher education affordability index get even worse. Just how many more kids need to go into poverty? How much worse does our health care system have to get before this Tim one-note wakes up to the reality that Minnesotans (not his friends, however) are paying a steep price for his tax pledge?

At this time of the year when we fondly recall the happy ending to "A Christmas Carol," we can only hope that our own Ebenezer Scrooge, the fellow who lives in the governor's mansion, may find redemption.

JOSH GRUBER, St. Louis Park

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Regarding Dane Smith's Dec. 4 column about the shrinking of state government: Minnesota collects taxes to pay for the needs of its citizens. There is no correlation between the Price of Government (POG) index and the needs of our citizens. I want to know how our current spending compares to the last three, five or 10 years. Or how does state spending growth compare to the rate of inflation plus population growth?

Smith uses statistics like a drunk uses lamp-posts, more for support than illumination. He should rename the index to the Parasites in Government (PIG) index.

WADE YARBROUGH, APPLE VALLEY

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As a recently laid-off car salesperson, I am very upset to hear our governor talk of refusing federal money toward stimulus and infrastructure investment. We in Minnesota get back only 73 cents for every dollar we send to the feds, so I think we should take every dime we can carry away! Does Pawlenty want to work toward getting us out of this recession, or is his goal to sink us further in the hole by adding to unemployment numbers? Since the state is now in worse shape than when he was elected, I say he should take a cue from the auto executives and start drawing a nominal $1 a year salary and keep the rest of the state workers employed.

KRISTINE PERSSON, BUFFALO

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So Minnesota is going to be $5.2 billion in the hole. Seems not too long ago, say a year, that this state's Democratic Party leaders were so hell-bent on passing a $6.6 billion tax increase that they wined and dined six Republican legislators in order to get enough votes to override the governor's veto. I hold House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller directly responsible for this disgrace, and I demand that they resign their leadership positions immediately for dereliction of duty and gross incompetence.

RICHARD S. O'BRIEN, ALBERTVILLE, MINN.

SHERIFF'S DEPORTMENT

Grandstanding, second-guessing by Fletcher

On Dec. 1 your paper published two reports on the Ramsey County Sheriff's investigation of violent protesters prior to and during the Republican National Convention. Sheriff Robert Fletcher was liberal in assessing his own fine job while in the same breath pointing out the fault of his law enforcement counterparts. Sadly, this level of grandstanding has become the norm from an elected official who has recently become the media's focus for corruption within his own department. His failed attempt to point blame on others is desperate at best.

A true leader in law enforcement will quietly protect and serve without craving media attention.

The St. Paul Police Department and the officers who supported them, during the RNC, did an exemplary job and displayed unbelievable professionalism and restraint in an environment that surely could have justified higher levels of force. These men and women are not deserving of the Monday morning quarterbacking by this embattled official whose character and leadership are in question.

JOHN MOORE, MAPLEWOOD; FORMER COMMANDER, RAMSEY COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

NORTH HIGH AND DUNWOODY

Charter, district alliance bears watching

The Minneapolis School District's willingness to let an independently managed charter school share an underutilized school building with an existing public high school is refreshing ("Charter school to share Minneapolis public school space," Dec. 2). Commonly, school boards and administrators try to stonewall charter schools, or, failing that, to ostracize them and grease the skids for their failure. Some districts, such as Detroit, have let closed school buildings rot rather than selling or leasing them to charter-school entrepreneurs.

Although by giving choices to parents, charters offer healthy competition to conventional public schools, they also can complement a locality's overall educational mission. How smoothly the chartered Dunwoody Academy and North Community High School cooperate within the same facility will bear close watching.

ROBERT HOLLAND, SENIOR FELLOW FOR EDUCATION POLICY, HEARTLAND INSTITUTE, CHICAGO