State needs to be responsible with your money on Faribault Daily News

Editor’s note: Each month through Election Day, Patti Fritz (DFL-Faribault) and challenger Otto Luknic will have a monthly guest column

Make no mistake about it. Minnesota is a great place to live, work and raise a family. Our high school students place among the best in the nation when taking their college entrance exams. We have the lowest rate of uninsured in the country. Our abundant natural resources bring employment to families and tourists alike. We have shared, common values that contribute to our sense of community, a community that stretches to the borders of our state. All these are contributing factors to a quality of life that is Minnesota.

But Minnesota is facing new challenges.

Our economy is suffering, and the unemployment rate continues to grow. Families are struggling to pay their mortgage, buy groceries and fill their gas tanks. Businesses are struggling with rising expenses, while small businesses are striving to stay open.

Minnesota needs a change in direction.

We hear a lot about change these days. But talk about change is not enough. Minnesotans expect more. As I meet with people around the community, I hear the same comments. People are worried about their family budget and their family’s future. They are paying more for gas and groceries, and seeing less of their paycheck. They are looking for relief from their fears and their budget woes.

It would be easy to give them a practiced political response. But that is not what they want to hear. Like groceries and gasoline, people can no longer afford rhetoric. They want government to acknowledge the limits of the current economy and budget from a position of fiscal responsibility.

I will help provide the leadership for positive change.

Addressing these challenges and the changes that accompany them require new thinking. Doing this will enable us to accomplish the great tasks which will move Minnesota forward in a positive direction. We need to put the core values of hard work, service, sacrifice and self-reliance to work.

These very same values have guided me throughout my life. I learned them from my parents, who made great sacrifices when they brought me to America in search of a better life and a brighter future. We found that and more in Richland Township.
As a long-time Faribault resident, business owner, school board member and community volunteer, I know the issues most important to our families and our community. Good schools, safe neighborhoods, affordable health care and a government that lives within its means are critical to a strong economy that provides good paying jobs for families.

Throughout my life experience, I have come to understand the importance of inclusion and involvement. By reaching out, working together and putting our values to work, we can collectively achieve a productive, prosperous future for Minnesota and the families that call our great state home.

— Otto Luknic is running for state representative in District 26B. He can be reached at 334-4956.

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Member Opinions: By: dude on 7/19/08 As a school board member, you have been at least partly responsible for the distrust and financial wreck that ISD 656 finds itself in today! How can you claim "fiscal responsibility when you supported spending over $400,000 of the school districts capital fund, through the sale of the land, on the soccer complex, and now are leaving the district to have to approach those same taxpayers for more money to fund the same repairs that the capital fund is supposed to fund, it's disgraceful.
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