I would like to thank Mr. Eric Austin for his recent letter and respond to some of his concerns.
This Spring, I cleared my schedule and met with him and the other teachers from his group for about half an hour. My main concerns were, and still are, the unequal funding that schools receive for each student. Metro districts receive thousands of dollars more than non metro districts. I do not think that is fair. I appreciate the hard work our teachers do everyday. We did discuss the Sherco issue. No one, including Mr. Eric Austin, voiced any opposition to my continous stand for the Sherco power plant, because they know what would happen to their jobs if the plant is forced to close.
Governor Dayton said last month that he wants to "eliminate coal”. That means eliminating Sherco and the hundreds of jobs directly connected to it. It also means eliminating the thousands of jobs indirectly connected to it. I have written extensively about this in the recent past.
Every city, township, family, business, church and school in our district and in the surrounding districts will experience a devistating economic impact if Sherco is forced to shut down. Eliminating Sherco will also drive the cost of electricty up.
Mr. Eric Austin also took offense at my trip to Kentucky and Virginia, to learn more about this issue. They have had to endure the forced shut down of their power plants by the federal government. I met with leaders from both political parties, as well as community leaders and job providers.
I also drove to Montana last month. I met with the leaders of the Crow Tribe. They supply Sherco with coal. Closing Sherco will also destroy the primary industry of good people of the Crow nation, a nation that already has a 40% unemployment rate.
Both trips were paid for with my own campaign funds. No public tax monies were used. Mr. Eric Austin's letter implies that my travels were for amusement. Driving alone, nonstop from Minnesota to Kentucky and from Minnesota to Montana, to witness the destructive energy policies of the radical left is not amusing.
I will meet with anyone, go to any place and learn as much as I can, as your representative, in order to increase the chances of saving our district's economic engine - Sherco.
Gov. Dayton’s plan to eliminate Sherco is not okay with me. Period.
God’s Peace,
Jim Newberger,
State Representative, MN HD15B
Becker, MN.
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A recent letter to the Citizen took Rep. Newberger to task for worrying too much about Sherco and not enough about the Becker schools.
Everyone knows that Becker has excellent schools. We also know that no one gets everything they want. I don’t, educators don’t and neither does anyone else. That’s probably just as well.
My question is this: Why would anyone think that what’s best for Sherco and what’s best for the Becker schools are mutually exclusive? They are not. They are tied together. Closing Sherco would be a disaster for Becker and for the Becker schools as well. I’m no expert on school budgets but it seems pretty obvious that with a smaller tax base, the school would have less money and programs would have to be cut, employees including teachers, would have to be laid off etc. This would not be good for anyone especially our kids.
Is Rep. Newberer concerned about Sherco? Yes, he is. And well he should be. We all should. I’m glad we have Rep. Newberger and Senator Brown looking out for our community.
Howard Osgood,
Becker, MN.
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In regard to Austin’s recent LTE; I am relieved he was able to unearth the time and aspiration necessary to speak about education and schools, given his frantic schedule. When my family confronted several alarming issues involving select teachers I contacted Austin (BEA co-president) for a meeting. Austin said “my schedule is pretty busy as my wife has an irregular schedule”, perhaps burdensome stakeholders do not warrant Austin’s demanding time.
Anyone who may have been perplexed by the cyclical issues such as the prolonged teachers’ contract negotiation should now have a clear understanding of why. How will your immature and sarcastic LTE benefit the Sherco/Newberger relationship with the BEA and Becker schools? Maybe the tax paying stakeholders should have an active role in future BEA elections?
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Sherco did not elect Rep. Newberger, a majority (57.9%) of the community did; presumably something a “government” teacher should be casually literate about. Gov. Dayton has called for eliminating coal from Minnesota’s energy therefore Rep. Newberger must make Sherco a priority, especially given the jobs and taxes in jeopardy within his district.
Damon Rapozo,
Big Lake, MN.
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Last Tuesday I had the day off and decided to attend a city council meeting.
I was very unimpressed by the way certain individuals handled themselves. The city administrator appeared to show a lack of concern or interest to a citizens question about Clitty Lake and could not give an accurate answer.
The drama on display by the two female members of the city council showed how unprofessional and what lack of respect they have towards others thoughts or ideas. Ladies, keep the drama at home and actually engage yourself in the meeting and keep quiet while other members are talking and remember that you were elected to represent the citizens ideas not your own.
Tammy Maskowski,
Becker, MN.
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In response to Mr. Austin's criticism of Rep. Jim Newberger. I suggest you look at the top 3 reasons of what losing Sherco would mean to the community of Becker.
1. 70-77% of property taxes paid in the city of Becker comes from Sherco;
2. Sherco produces enough energy to supply thousands of Minnesota homes, businesses, schools and hospitals with reliable and affordable electricity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at the same time exceeding EPA goals to reduce carbon emissions;
3. Jobs. 370 permenant jobs created by Sherco.
I'm glad Mr. Austin that you had the chance to ask Rep. Jim Newberger about education and the schools in his district, but I do find it hard to believe that he responded with the answer, "There just isn't enough time in his day to think about issues like education or schools."
With you saying he spends too much time worring about Sherco day and night. I sense a lot of hypocrisy coming from the BEA president that urged teachers to leave the school at the end of the day at exactly 3:10, regardless if students need any help or have to ask a question
I do believe this was your exact comment: "The teachers do not take this action lightly (leaving each day at 3:10), Austin said. “This will be hard for our members. It’s difficult to say no to any idea that could possibly help students. However, I think it is important that we as teachers take some time to examine our priorities."
Just a thought, losing Sherco would cause the community to shrink, property taxes to sky rocket and eventually causing our great school system to lose the quality teachers that we have. Maybe we should say thank you to taxpayers and businesses of the community for providing tax dollars to run the programs that we have and not use the typical liberal response of we deserve it, so I want it.
So before criticizing others just remember, "It is a good divine that follows his own instructions".
Troy Tamm,
Elk River, MN.
