Education is vital to our future.  Minnesota must regain its status as a leader in quality public education and affordable college tuition. We need to assure that every public school in this state receives the same basic funding as every other, and that our schools get the support they need to provide a first-rate education to every student. We must have accountability without lock-step conformity, and we must respect and reward our teachers so that the best and brightest are attracted to, and remain in, the profession. 

Health Care: We need to follow the principles of the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition and establish a system that:Provides universal and equal coverage,Restores to doctors and patients the ultimate authority over decisions about medical care,Ensures patients the freedom to choose among doctors, hospitals and other providers,Removes the power of private corporations to make health policy, and gives this power to the community, andUses a single-payer financing mechanism to control costs and reduce administrative waste.

No one in Minnesota should go without health care, and no one should have to choose between food and medicine. Neither should anyone have to “play the health care lottery,” taking a chance on not getting sick, because they can’t afford insurance. We can pay less than we are paying now, and provide every citizen with comprehensive health care and every employer in the state with a big competitive advantage. 

Jobs and Economic Development: We need to do everything we can to bring dependable, living-wage jobs to rural Minnesota. One key to this effort is to provide the vital infrastructure upon which thriving business depends, from good roads to reliable energy to state of the art telecommunications and data transmission capability.  We need to keep the good jobs that we have by refusing to reward privatizing, outsourcing, and offshoring of good union jobs and instead reward keeping them in Minnesota where they belong. We need to support and sustain the natural resource industries that are a key part of the economy of northeastern Minnesota, and perhaps most importantly, we need to develop the new green, renewable energy job opportunities that can be the key to our 21st century security and prosperity.  

Taxes: We need a major restructuring of our revenue system. Homeowners, especially seniors, are being taxed out of their homes, and low and middle-income wage earners are paying more than their fair share. It’s time to provide homestead property tax reduction and to ask the wealthiest 2% of earners to pay the same percentage of income as the rest of us.  

Energy: We are rapidly coming to the end of the era of cheap petroleum and natural gas upon which our economy and our individual well-being depends. It’s time that we start to plan for and invest in a sustainable future. As Co-chair of the Legislative Electric Energy Task Force I have led the effort to assess our current and future energy needs and to make sure that Minnesota’s energy future is secure. We can’t change overnight, but there is enormous opportunity if we are willing to invest in the research and technology that we need to develop our wind, solar and biomass resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.