It would be silly except that it’s dreadful.
State Representative John Poston wrote a newsletter this week giving the impression to his constituents that not much was going on at the Capitol in St. Paul except committee meetings.
That just ain’t so John.
Between January 14th and January 31st Representative Poston co-sponsored fifty-four separate pieces of legislation. That’s just shy of four bills everyday the legislature is open for business. If you count the three bills JP sponsored himself it’s more than four per day.
Wow! You say. Representative John is sure earning his keep. Glad some of those slug-a-beds feeding at the government trough are earning their keep.
Except, dear reader, Poston’s bill machine is cranking out legislation that ranges from the mean and petty to obnoxious and abhorrent. Some just plain dumb.
Take HF 76, for example. It’s in the dumb category. It says that if the Department of Natural Resources requires an irrigator to drill a test well and then does not allow the irrigator to to establish a permanent irrigation well the DNR has to foot the bill for the test well. Huh! The purpose of the test well is to determine if a permanent well will negatively impact nearby wells or surface water. So, if a test well determines that an irrigation well will damage the neighbors well the DNR must deny the permit for the new irrigation well. The DNR has an obligation to protect the aquifer and the people who rely on it. Common sense says anybody who wants to find out if they can exploit the aquifer further, by taking out a million or so gallons a year, must pay to find out if their proposed use is sustainable. Why would taxpayers foot the bill for answering that question. Dumb.
Now for obnoxious and dumb and silly.
JP is part of a cabal of extremists that want to strip government agencies of their rule making authority. To that end they’ve sponsored HF 77. This brilliant piece of legislation would eliminate the rule making authority of the Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources. Proposed rules, such as the opening of squirrel hunting season and the amount of phosphorous allowed in treated sewage, would have to be debated by the full legislature. Brilliant! These people can’t get their work done on time now without calling a special session. So, how are they going to manage to debate hundreds of complex rules. What a crew of sanctimonious Incendiaries.
These people are producing bill after bill after bill that is anti-environment, anti-immigrant, and pro-gun. They have, of course, written legislation to allow teachers to carry guns. That’s their school safety program.
And of course, in honor of their Leader, they’ve got an anti sanctuary city bill. Like DJ Trump they are not interested in good policing nor are they interested in the safety of Minnesota citizens. Police, who choose to work with undocumented residents in a community rather then turn them in to I.C.E. will not get their state aid, under Poston’s bill. Never mind that people will tell you that if the law abiding, but undocumented, residents of a city trust the police the police will be able to more effectively combat serious crime such as burglary of sexual assault.
The police in my community have spent years building trust among all residents. We are not a so called sanctuary city, but under Poston’s extreme trumpism that trust building and good community policing would be shredded.
And on it goes; one dumb and blockheaded bill after the other. None of these bills will pass but this, apparently, is what legislators like Poston call bipartisanship.
Comments
Post a Comment