Readers write (April 3): State budget, UCare donation, getting rich, Steve Sack, Katherine Kersten

Let me see if I understand this right: The GOP wants to cut grandma's dinner (i.e., Meals on Wheels) so it won't have to raise taxes on the wealthy to the same percentage that you and I pay?

BOB BEZDICEK, NEW LONDON, MINN.

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Every day we hear about another program that the GOP legislators want to cut. There are Republicans in the state who don't want this.

The legislators must be trying to protect their own jobs. They know they must protect the wealthy from taxes because they will need contributions from them for the next election.

JOHN JOURDAN, STILLWATER

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Too often we hear politicians pontificate that the wealthy will leave the state if their taxes are raised. Our family happens to be among that class those politicians are so afraid to lose.

After earning both my degrees at the University of Minnesota, I moved to Arizona 16 years ago for my internship and later met my husband. Although our taxes were significantly less, we moved back to Minnesota in part because of the priority placed on education.

Apparently, that's no longer so.

Yes, the state is in hard economic times. However, unless people and politicians really start to strategize long term, we are doomed to continue to decline.

Minnesota needs to become "the education state" once again to maintain its greatness; that is, if it's not too late.

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Why the brouhaha over UCare contributing $30 million to help reduce the state deficit? I commend the company for it and haven't heard a single "thank you" from any of our politicians, including the governor. Do you see any other health plans doing the same?

Instead of our politicians wondering whether UCare is hiding something, perhaps they should be grateful the insurer stepped forward to help our state in tough economic times. Now how about UnitedHealthcare, Humana and others following UCare's example?

By the way, we've received excellent care at a reasonable cost from UCare. I'm proud of them!

MICHELLE PETERSON, PLYMOUTH

Jay Coggins' column was remarkably biased. His unbridled enthusiasm to make points came at the expense of a fair interpretation of myriad facts ("Rich are getting richer? Exactly right," March 29).

He points to the Gini coefficient's rise as a measure of income inequality. In the time period he cites, 2000 to 2009, the Gini had risen from 46.2 to 46.8.

A more measured view would show that the Gini had remained basically flat during this time period. And the increase he cites from 39.4 to 46.2 occurred over 30 years, from 1970 to 2000.

In truth, the incremental rise per annum is actually remarkably small. And when the coefficient is adjusted for government social programs, entitlement programs, transfer payments, credits, unemployment benefit programs and taxation, the increases are indeed far less.

There were other problems with his column, but you get the picture. Concentration of national wealth is indeed a problem to be recognized. Coggins' dilution and distortion of facts diminished and skewed the truth.

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Steve Sack is wrong again. Who does he think is going to help us out of this housing hole?

I got a deal on a home that would have been unattainable a few years ago before the economy crashed. I'm going to be losing money on the front end, but I'll make that up on the back end.

Thanks to at the Obama administration, I'm taking advantage of tax credits.

But you know what? I'm paying local small-business people like the framer, the electrician, the roofer, the sheetrock guys, the painter, you name it. I'm keeping employment in the local community. I'm making it possible for these folks to feed their families.

SCOTT SNY, EAST BETHEL, MINN.

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Katherine Kersten's column on Wisconsin's pro-union "Nazi brownshirts" has set a new standard for partisan hypocrisy ("In Wisconsin, mob rule and intimidation," March 26).

There's not one outrage she attributes to the Wisconsin protesters that wasn't found in equal or greater amounts in the Tea Party movement two years ago.

Back then, of course, Kersten believed the people staging riotous protests, shouting down politicians and phoning in death threats -- all to protest laws passed by recently elected majorities -- were the vanguard of democracy, not the second coming of the Beer Hall Putsch.

Kersten may think this principle suddenly changed in November 2010; fortunately, Wisconsin's citizens don't.

PAUL CHILLMAN, MINNEAPOLIS

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I understand that the Star Tribune wants to offer a conservative viewpoint on its editorial pages. It's the right (no pun intended) thing to do.

I believe in fairness and balance in almost all instances -- these are crucial values of our democracy.

But surely there are conservative columnists whose viewpoints aren't geared toward hatemongering and the perversion of truth.

Kersten may sell a few newspapers among her like-minded followers, but there have to be some better options out there for the weekly Sunday editorial page.

I hope that the Star Tribune can hire or rent one soon.