[Mpls] R.T. beats a dead horse, and takes credit for the inevitable.

[Greg Abbott]

1.  Sharon Sayles Belton is not on the ballot this year.  Peter  
McLaughlin is, a candidate with a long history of effective and  
responsible government service behind him.

2.  Everyone compliments R.T. on cleaning up the budget mess.  The  
truth is the situation was so bad he had no choice.  It is my opinion  
that had Sayles Belton been re-elected, she would have been forced to  
do many of the same things.  I think because of R.T.'s presence there  
is a longer-term focus and a cleaner process than there might have  
been otherwise, but 95 percent of the policy decisions would have  
been the same, IMHO.

3.  Sayles Belton gets a lot of criticism for letting the situation  
get so bad.  Much of that is deserved, particularly with respect to  
borrowing from the Internal Services account.  However, it was the  
governor and legislature that initiated the "perfect storm" of  
reductions in LGA funds and severe reductions in the ability to use  
TIF revenues for other purposes.  It is unfair to blame Sayles Belton  
for not anticipating the effects of Jesse Ventura's big tax reform  
plan, in combination with Tim Pawlenty's LGA cuts.

4.  How much of the credit for budget reform should go to R.T., as  
opposed to say Barb Johnson and Barrett Lane?  R.T. takes all the  
credit, but from what I can see R.T. has been the passive vessel  
through which decisions made by staff and the Council have been  
carried out.

Greg Abbott
Linden Hills


On Oct 22, 2005, at 11:19 AM, Dorie Rae Gallagher wrote:

> Whomever that person is in the state making the comment should  
> realize the mess
> RT took on the first day of office. The debt left by the beloved  
> SSB. The Southwest
> Journal has some good articles with the facts and figures listed.  
> Had we not elected
> RT and had gotten SSB back in office, I can't imagine the financial  
> nightmare the city
> would be in. Thank goodness the people of Minneapolis voted her and  
> part of the
> council out...with others going to jail. Time to clean up  
> Minneapolis politics...

Greg Abbott
gabbott at mn.rr.com