Abeler, who bucked Pawlenty, seeks reelection

Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

Rep. Jim Abeler of Anoka

Last update: July 2, 2008 - 12:45 AM

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Better dead than rouge, LOL?

The six were dead right that crumbling infrastructure was in need of priority, and dead wrong in the presumption that another increased … read more user fee tax was the way to obtain it. Anyone with an eye towards legislative history knows the funds were diverted by the state taking on the lions share of the K-12 burden from local property tax revenues, freeing up a huge windfall for growth in county government thereby, and pinching down the funding flow to every traditional state priority as K-12 ate an ever larger piece of the state pie. Once well over half of property tax revenue went straight to the school districts. Now only 20% or so does. The correct solution was to put measures in place to return those local funds to the schools, which could have immediately turned the state billion dollar deficit into a billion dollar surplus, looking for priorities in need of mending. Bonding heavily into future debt to arrive at the funding is a horrible option, unless you want the state to flounder in similar fashion to federal government. Raising taxes is a horrible option, especially in these times, and especially by means of a regressive gas tax increase. The argument that the gas tax hadn't been raised in twenty years lacked merit- other less regressive taxes had in fact been lowered just a decade prior. But the need for any tax increase at all is highly questionable when the first step and perhaps the only step necessary was to take the 2 billion back with a mandate that 50% or more of the property tax revenue go straight to the school districts. That would signal an instant return to more positive times when positive priorities got funded and the more negative and heavy-handed directions that money now feeds were kept small and government was much less negatively intrusive for that reason.

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Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka, was asked last month if he planned to run for reelection.

"I think I don't have much choice," he told the Star Tribune. "A few of us have become poster children for doing what you believe is right and surviving."

But can Abeler, one of six rogue Republican House members who voted to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of a $6.6 million tax-raising transportation bill, survive this fall's elections to serve a sixth term at the Capitol?

Abeler, an Anoka chiropractor, was among the first in Anoka County to file for election Tuesday, said Rachel Smith, Anoka County elections manager. He couldn't be reached Tuesday, but said last month that he is reminded almost daily of the vote that seems to have defined his career.

Rep. Kathy Tingelstad of Andover, another of the rogue Republicans, said she is retiring from the House, but will campaign for Abeler.

"It's all about freedom and conscience," Abeler said last month. "Are we free to have a conscience and vote the way we believe?"

PAUL LEVY

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