A Feb. 8 letter writer thinks that unelected government employees should be dedicated to the public and making a positive impact, but shouldn't be paid competitively to do it. This "sticker shock" reaction arises every time an effort is made to pay public employees what they are worth. It created a legacy of government salaries increasingly out of step with comparable jobs in the private sector. That legacy became so out of step that it made it necessary for Gov. Mark Dayton to give large raises to bring government salaries up to a semblance of market levels.

The officials to whom Dayton gave these raises are responsible for multimillion-dollar budgets and for ensuring that the citizens of the state are served as the Legislature has mandated. Hiring them on the cheap could prove very expensive.

The people of our state deserve to have departments led by the best and the brightest. Private employees are dedicated and passionate about their work and want to make a difference, too. We can't attract and keep the best if we appeal to these values but expect people to accept second-class wages.

Robert Sykes, Edina

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As a staunch Democrat, it is disheartening to me to agree with state Republicans on Dayton's cabinet pay raises. There are hundreds of other state employees who have served through many administrations and have been lucky to receive a 2 percent raise, if that much, a year. As usual, the people who truly keep the state running are not compensated for their hard work and years of service.

Dane Anderson, Golden Valley
STATE TAXES

Not all elders flee; some appreciate the benefits

Kim Crockett ("Estate tax shoos away snowbirds," Feb. 9) attributes her mother's distaste for the estate tax to her mother's having a special-needs family member. This is in stark contrast to my just-deceased mother and her attitude about Minnesota taxes. She also had special-needs family members.

It wasn't enough for my mother, Helen Rozycki, who died Dec. 5, to help a family member with special needs. She saw the needs of all the others — that special needs people were all over our state — so she worked to help them all. While she raised eight children, she launched, with others, our state's first statewide disabilities advocacy organization, and a well-used and -loved service for the mobility-challenged, which she named: Metro Mobility.

Metro Mobility is a service low-tax states don't have. It is a godsend to people with mobility needs and to their family members as well. When people who use the service find out my mother was a prime driver in launching it, they shake my hand and thank me profusely.

My mother knew when she planned her estate that Metro Mobility and much of what makes our state a great place for the living — from parks to libraries to schools to environmental protections — runs on tax dollars. She wouldn't have dreamed, in order to avoid paying estate taxes, of moving to a state that can't provide — for lack of taxes — important services that we have in Minnesota.

Paul Rozycki, Minneapolis
SOMALI MONEY TRANSFERS

Seems we've spotted an inconsistency …

Last year, the U.S. Treasury issued a cease-and-desist order to stop U.S. banks from forwarding cash transfers to Somalia if the banks could not adequately prove the funds were being sent to legitimate sources. Merchants Bank of California recently complied with the order. As a result, some Twin Cities money services that partnered with Merchants have shut down their transfers, causing concerns for local Somalis ("Somalis push lawmakers to help solve money crisis," Feb. 7).

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison disagrees with the decision, calling it a "crisis" and adding that the "federal government is running a legitimate business out of business with excessive regulation." Could Ellison be turning a bit conservative with his reasoning? Can you say "Keystone pipeline?"

Mark Prestrud, Rosemount
TERRORISM

Stay focused on this millennium's evildoers

When will the left's obsession with moral equivalency end? We have the president lecturing citizens that we must understand the horrors being perpetrated on innocents by Islamic terrorists with what Christian Crusaders did 800 years ago ("Obama condemns those who seek to 'hijack religion,' " Feb. 6). Let's not forget that the Crusades were borne of European Christians' desire to stop the Muslim invasion of Europe. Who wants to argue that the Muslim invaders conducted themselves morally as they gained dominance in the territories that they conquered? That story is remarkably bloody. The larger question is why our leading citizen chooses to revert to this tired moral equivalency argument when, in 2015, radical Islamists are slaughtering innocents in ways most of us cannot imagine. A country whose leader is fearful of defining our existential enemies is in serious peril.

Mark H. Reed, Plymouth

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The writer of the Feb. 7 Short Takes item recommends that we entreat all news agencies and governments around the world to put a stop to reporting terrorist activity. He reasons that if we could be unaware that schoolchildren were being beheaded for watching soccer, we could proceed as if those atrocities had never happened. Shoot the messenger, and all will be well. I recommend that the writer try this: Place one index finger into each ear and repeat this phrase. "La, la, la, la, la." And he lived happily ever after.

Dan Johnson, Farmington
MINNEAPOLIS PARKING

Pay stations aside, meters have purposes

It's hard to feel sorry for the Feb. 9 letter writer ("Meter pay-station system is worst ever") who found a ticket on his car during a Guthrie intermission. First of all, he violated Minneapolis parking ordinance 478.370, which prevents "feeding meters." A two-hour meter means parking is allowed for two hours, not more. As to why such meters would be next to the Guthrie, perhaps it is because they weren't intended for people who were going to spend more than two hours watching a play. Just maybe they were intended for residents, or for visits to the weekly market. There is a nice ramp with reasonable rates right across the street from the Guthrie. I would recommend that the writer use this for future visits.

Earl Roethke, Minneapolis

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In defense of the meter pay-station system for parking:

1) It raises lots of money through the tickets of confused parkers.

2) ?

Douglas Robertson, St. Paul