LEGACY SCHMEGACY!

Again, my ad nosium comment - passing the amendment to increase our sales tax and dedicate it to clean water, parks, and culture was the dumbest thing we ever did. Its 'new money' and something weird happens to the people we elect when they spend time in St. Paul. They lose many of the qualities we admired in them when we voted for them. We should have known that this 'dedicated money' would be pilfered, stolen, misdirected. They did it with the tobacco endowment, they are doing it with the legacy dollars too. The amendment to our constitution reads the money should be used to "restore, protect and enhance". And when there is new money, the legislators become experts in word definition. The money is not meant to be used as a 'backfill' for department appropriations- it is. The money is not meant for specific groups of people or capital improvements - it is. ($600,000 for two veterans' rest camps.) Again, the money is not meant for capital improvements. (How does $972,000 to rehabilitate the Dodd Ford Bridge not fall under capital improvements?) Like I said, some of our local people i.e. Senator Rosen, Rep. Cornish, and even Rep. Paul Torkelson seem to take on different qualities once they get to St. Paul. Note: does the fact that these three legislators are in what some might call "safe districts" mean they can be different people once they get to St. Paul? end