Compromise must mean different things to different people, especially to the DFL in the Minnesota Legislature. Let me give you an example of compromise. I would like to spend three months in the winter in Arizona. My wife only wants to be gone from Minnesota for one. So what do we do? We go for two.

A billion dollars is a lot of money. In Minnesota we are over $50 billion in debt, which is equivalent to each citizen owing about $9,500. That doesn’t matter to DFL legislators. They wanted to pass a bonding bill of $1.8 billion. It would have had outstate Minnesota help fund a very questionable light rail road in the Twin Cities.

The Republicans in the Minnesota House of Representatives proposed a $600 million bonding bill. After much negotiation a compromise was agreed to that the bonding bill would be $900 million, which thanks to Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, included $7 million for changes at Riverland Community College in Albert Lea. That was true compromise, but in closing minutes the DFL in the Senate went back on their word and amended the bill and included light rail in Minneapolis. Of course, the bonding bill never was implemented and many worthwhile projects never got completed.

With debt raising rapidly in our country, thank goodness we have a legislator like Peggy Bennett, who understands fairness and doesn’t want to load our children with debt they cannot afford to pay back.

Al Arends

Albert Lea