Interesting to see that the governor gets thumbs down for doing his job. I assume you are giving thumbs down to the people who voted him in since he is representing their views.

Interesting also that there was no thumbs down for the legislators who voted to pay back state unions for their campaign dollars by increasing the amount matched by the state in 403b plans. Some legislators were in fact voting for increases in their own benefits while increasing cost to the state and at the same time decreasing revenue. 403b plans defer taxes on income so by increasing match more money is deferred. This is creating a problem for some school districts including our own and could cost teachers jobs and lower quality of education. State workers are covered by Social Security, a state-defined pension plan and by 403b plans. I think the Legislature should lower the maximum match to its previous level and help solve a problem they created.

John Forman

Albert Lea

Editor’s note: Technically, the thumbs down in Sunday’s paper was to line-item veto, arguing that it is bad no matter who is governor.