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Today in Answer Man: If the Lorax lived in the woods along West Circle Drive at 41st Street, he doesn't live there anymore. Who's cutting down the trees and why?
http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1503957&query=%22hy-vee%22
For those of you not on Jerry Williams' mailing list, here's "Sales Tax Message No. 2," which went out today.
The matter of whether it's a new tax or not reminds me of the debate over extending tax CUTS at the federal level. The Bush-era tax cuts will expire at the end of the year; it takes action to "extend" or re-enact them.
The email:
Friends, Colleagues and Fellow Citizens (there are now over 300 of you receiving this message!):
We continue the effort to renew the ½ cent local sales tax in order to support the community’s need to address significant capital projects and its commitment to economic development. The revenue stays here, creates jobs, minimizes property tax increases, and up to ½ of the total is paid by visitors to our community.
A few weeks ago, when we were in the later stages of the Rochester Fest parade, one of the individuals helping with the parade called me over to the side and asked, “Jerry is this really only a nickel on a ten dollar bill?” “Yes it is,” I said, “and in fact if you spend that $10 on food from the grocery store, clothing or prescription medicine, you pay no tax, just like the state’s sales tax guidelines.” He then indicated to me that he was voting ‘yes.’ The formula is really that simple and very minimal from a taxing standpoint. This is not a new tax, and the benefits are so positive, as can be seen in past projects throughout the community.
I’m occasionally asked a question, and you may also have seen a commentary about the list of proposed projects being called a “wish list.” In my opinion that type of list, containing 54 projects and costing $422 million was the one presented back in the summer of 2010 when the citizens committee began to meet. Through various steps, that number was reduced to the current ten, costing $139.5 million. Proposed projects that involve public safety, transportation, our seniors and youth, higher education, jobs and economic development are, in my opinion, on the “necessary list” in a growing and maturing community, not a wish list. I can assure you that as chair of the citizen’s committee, we were very thorough in examining requests for the value that they brought to the community.
Other comments/questions that occasionally come to me:
· Does any of this revenue go to operational funding of the City? No, it goes to capital projects and economic development activity. None of the projects are anticipated to require any additional City staffing resources from the general fund. In other words, this renewal does not expand government nor does it add to its debt.
· The total cost will be in excess of $200 million. No, that is not true. Even with some bonding costs included, the total collected is not expected to rise above $150 million and will be collected within the next fifteen or fewer years.
· Is the Mayo Civic Center expansion part of this? No, it is not. That funding is part of the legislative process and separate from this.
· Is the funding restricted to a certain list of projects? Yes, it is. The legislation is very restrictive, tied to very specific project categories and the specified dollar amounts set a maximum and cannot be exceeded. This provision adds to the renewal being fiscally responsible and with a very high level of accountability.
For more information on this vote, including a comprehensive list of past and future projects, please visit our website: www.commoncentsrochestermn.com . If you have a question for me, please do so with a reply to this email or through the special feature on our website – just click on the funny picture. I will absolutely answer it.
In the meantime, please spread the word, including forwarding this email to others if you wish, encourage them to support a ‘yes’ vote, and most importantly, go to the polls and vote. This is an opportunity to continue to move our community forward in a positive and decisive way rather than, as some would want us to do, stand still and let the future just happen to us with little or no pre-planning.
See you again in a few weeks where my topic will be the education benefits of renewal. It’s Common Cents! Please vote Yes!
Jerry
Can you really sell a black walnut tree for $25,000? How come Rochester radio stations don't have digital readouts on car radios? And is Homestead United Methodist Church moving?
Answers from the Pharoah of Facts in today's Post-Bulletin.
Do Rochester city buses put out less gritty exhaust since the change to new management? A2
Dear Answer Man, I've noticed that the new city buses seem to have much cleaner exhaust. There isn't the big plume of black smoke when they accelerate, and they don't smell. Does Rochester transit have newer or retrofitted buses that are less polluting? -- Ruth
...is this one in the Shakopee area -- news release from MPCA. Note that the state doesn't regulate "respirable silica dust":
MPCA to host public meeting Aug. 2 on state air permit for Great Plains Sands
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) invites the public to an informational meeting Aug. 2 on the draft state air emissions permit for the proposed Great Plains Sands facility near Shakopee.
The meeting will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Scott County Conference Center, 205 Fourth Ave. W., in Shakopee. The meeting will start with an open house for informal discussion, followed by a formal presentation at 7:15 p.m., with time for questions and answers.
Great Plains Sands proposes to operate a mining facility to produce hydraulic fracturing sand, commonly called “frac sand” or “silica sand,” for use in the natural gas and oil industry. The facility would be located in Louisville and Sand Creek townships, along Highway 169, in Scott County, on the south side of the Twin Cities metro area. The company would mine about 100 acres, use an additional 28 acres for processing and railcar loading, and leave 12 acres as setbacks and buffer areas. The site is zoned for rural industrial use and previous land uses include mining, hog farming, auto salvaging, and concrete mixing.
Scott County recently approved an interim-use permit for the proposed Great Plains Sands facility. The MPCA is the government unit responsible for the air emissions permit. The draft permit will be available for review and comment on the MPCA Public Notices webpage.
The public comment period will run July 27 to Aug. 27, 2012. Comments must be received in writing at the MPCA by 4:30 p.m. on Aug. 27. Comments, requests and petitions regarding the draft air emissions permit should be addressed to Steven Gorg of the MPCA at 651-757-2396 or steven.gorg@state.mn.us.
Great Plains Sands proposes mining above and below the water table. Site operations would include stockpiling, drying and shipping sand products. Much of the processing will take place inside buildings. Some operations will run from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday while other operations will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Great Plains Sands expects to mine the area for 15 to 20 years, with reclamation following. Reclamation would consist of preparing the site for industrial development as the land is currently zoned for that use.
Respirable silica dust can cause lung diseases. The State of Minnesota does not regulate respirable silica dust, but it does regulate particulate matter, which includes dust, dirt, soot, smoke and other particles in the air. According to an environmental assessment worksheet prepared for Scott County, Great Plains Sands has agreed to monitor ambient air for total particulate matter and certain size particulates. The company has also agreed to several techniques to decrease the movement of silica dust off the site. These techniques include building berms between adjacent residential areas and the site; limiting the size and height of stockpiles; keeping fine sands wet; and wetting stockpiles if necessary.
For more information on the MPCA’s response to frac sand mining concerns, visit the MPCA Frac Sand Mining webpage.
www.pca.state.mn.us • Toll-free and TDD 800-657-3864
What should you do when you get a call from the Virgin Islands? And is it legal for a roofing contractor to offer to cover your homeowner's insurance premium?
Here's a note from a reader who contributed a Punchline joke -- a good reminder that readers contribute most of the jokes we run in that daily feature.
Post-Bulletin staff-
Thanks for making my day!
This story was inspired by the absence of fireflies this past Saturday nite in the
midst of Harmony's 8 hour power outage: 4:00 PM to 12:00 AM. You need to
know the local supply of Tuesday's Post-Bulletins sold out early
today before I had a chance to read my successful submission and run to the
local vendors.
Thanks again for contributing to my newfound celebrity status,
despite editing out the attribution to local Amish farmer, which seemed to be
relevant in this tourist community prospered by these local gems.
Mike Peters
Another home-grown bullying prevention organization has come together, this time in Owatonna, and they'll have a rally in Manthey Park in Owatonna at 1 p.m. Sunday.
I met Lisa Bock, who's put the effort together with friends and others concerned about bullying, at last night's Dialogues program -- she came over from Owatonna to get information and make contacts because she's committed to the issue. The event Sunday sounds like a great start for FAB. As the posters say, "We are celebrating the Golden Rule -- treating others the way we would like to be treated."
The event is supported by the Steele County Safe and Drug Free Coalition. There's more information on FAB's Facebook page.
Best wishes to Lisa and friends as they get going. It's people like them who can make a huge difference at the grassroots level.
Thanks for your patience as we've dealt with the worst security problem in our more than 10 years online. The website went back up about 7 p.m. Thursday, without ads. The ads may not follow for several days, as the security work continues on those.
Here's a note I posted on our Facebook page, which was invaluable during the 24 hours we were down:
Thanks for the comments. In no way have we blamed users for the problem...we apologize for the problems caused and appreciate all your patience while we address the security issue. Regarding Kel's note, we did identify the problem as the Trojan virus known as Live Platinum Security...there's a lot of material online about it. Regarding how quickly we informed users of the virus, we were aware of the popup security warnings last week but couldn't find any confirmed problems until Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, when the site simply had to be taken down to assure security. There'll be extensive post-mortem work on how this all went down, but the top priority throughout was user security.
More to be said and I'll plan a column over the next few days, but again, thank you for your patience and for dealing with the frustration and some expense caused by this viral attack on our site.
WINONA — As Matt Reuter prepared to deploy overseas as a member of the Air Force Reserve, the Winona teacher found himself entangled in an obscure state law.
Reuter would have to pay the costs of hiring a substitute teacher while he was away serving his country.
At first, the Goodview Elementary School teacher was jolted by the news, not believing what he was hearing.
"I said, 'What? That can't be right,'" Reuter said.
But it was. Reuter's disbelief eventually served as a catalyst for changing a law that uniquely — and, many felt, unfairly — singled out educators. And as he shared his story with others, his shock and surprise would spread to others, including Gov. Mark Dayton, who championed the effort to change the law.
Few knew about state law
As in many other states, Minnesota has a law that makes public-sector employees who leave their jobs for overseas service eligible for a pay differential. It obligates public employers to pay the difference between a person's military pay and civilian wages if the former is smaller.
If a person, for example, makes $50,000 as a public employee but only $30,000 as a service member deployed overseas, the employer puts the difference into an escrow account that the person collects after they return home.
But a quirk in the law enacted in 2004 treated teachers differently than other public employees. It allowed school districts to subtract from the payout the cost of hiring a substitute teacher and temp. In the case of Reuter, who returned from Afghanistan last July, the bill came to $11,300.
A single father of two young boys, Reuter said he began calling elected officials about a law that nobody seemed to know anything about.
"Nobody could believe that there was a law like that in place," Reuter said.
Governor's support
Reuter soon found fellow colleagues willing to promote his cause. One of those was Katy Smith, a fellow Goodview teacher and the state's 2011 Teacher of the Year. While having an honorary lunch with the governor last winter, Smith slipped a card penned by Reuter that described what had happened to him. Dayton read it, put it in his pocket and promised to work on changing the law.
Later, while lobbying with other educators at the Capitol, Reuter got a call from the governor's office saying that Dayton wanted to see him. Meeting in the ornate reception room outside his office, the governor told Reuter that he was dedicated to fixing the law.
"At that point, things really started to get rolling," said Reuter.
The governor's support proved pivotal. Before long, Reuter got a call saying the law had been passed and that his presence was requested for a signing ceremony for the K-12 bill that contained the change.
But passage of the law didn't change the fact that Reuter was still out $11,300. But during a National Education Association's annual conference last month in Washington, where Dayton received the America's Greatest Education Governor Award, Reuter was the star attraction. The governor pointed out Reuter in the audience, and a video featuring Reuter's story was shown to the delegates.
Just as the conference was breaking up, Reuter was approached by a lady from Illinois. She said that the delegates from her state wanted to help raise some of the money to offset his loss. Soon, the issue was taken up by other delegates. A motion was made and passed by the entire delegation to support the effort.
"I was amazed. I had to sit down," Reuter recalled. "It just amazed me that so many people at once would do something like that for somebody they didn't even know."
On Friday, a check for more than $13,000 will be presented to the Winona teacher by Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher at Winona City Hall.
"I never went into this asking for the money back. I never did," Reuter said. "I knew that changing the law was going to help other people."
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