March 17-18, 2015
Mar 17 01:26 Exposing Gov. Dayton's transportation lies Mar 17 01:45 SC Times Watchdog redux Mar 17 08:39 Hillary's dishonesty a disqualifier? Mar 18 04:10 President Potter's discrimination Mar 18 09:24 Transportation war coming Mar 18 15:38 Exposing Move MN's corruption
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Exposing Gov. Dayton's transportation lies
This article should finish debate over whether the legislature should raise the gas tax. This is stunning:
The governor and Transportation Commissioner Charlie Zelle may have shared the same message at the podium in Mankato - promising that passage of a $10.7 billion funding program will translate into a green light for 600 specific projects across the state, including Highway 14.
The message was far different, a 'yellow' light at best, from Department of Transportation headquarters in St. Paul. When some of the metro counties expressed heartburn about the lack of representation for their priority projects on 'the list,' we learn from a MnDOT spokesman that the 600 projects on Dayton's list are merely ' examples of the kind of work that we would do with the new transportation funding.' We were told that 'if new funding is approved, there will be a planning process at MnDOT to program improvements. During that time, there will be ample opportunity for cities and counties to make the case for projects that aren't on the list.'
On March 6th, I wrote this post to include some statistics from an email sent by Gov. Dayton and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith. It included this information:
Notice that it said that the Dayton-Smith plan "would fund over 600 road and bridge projects statewide in the next 10 years." It didn't say that Gov. Dayton's list were ' examples of the kind of work that we would do with the new transportation funding.'
It's time for Gov. Dayton, the DFL and Move MN to stop lying to us about what this gigantic middle class tax increase would pay for. We're taxed too much already.
Posted Tuesday, March 17, 2015 7:59 AM
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SC Times Watchdog redux
The SCTimes: Community Watchdog Redux?
by Silence Dogood
On February 23, 2015 Laura M. King, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for MnSCU testified before the Ways and Means Committee in the Minnesota House with Chairman Knoblach.
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/htv/programa.asp?ls_year=89&event_id=880862
In her testimony relating to the Composite Financial Index (CFI), she stated:
" The trends for the universities is concerning ."Vice Chancellor King also stated that we are:
"very engaged with the campuses from a planning standpoint."
"On a scale from 1 to 5, we want to be in the 3 range." (referring to the CFI)
Ms. King later mentioned four MnSCU universities by name - Metropolitan, St. Cloud State University, Southwest, and Mankato. As a result of their poor financial performance they were each being required to produce a "Financial Recovery Plan."
Later in her testimony, she stated:
"In the case of St. Cloud State, umm...they had operating losses in Fiscal 14...umm. were pretty substantial."As shown in budget documents released by the SCSU administration last Fall, SCSU had a deficit of $708,000 for FY14:
In a public Town Hall meeting, President Potter stated that the $708,000 deficit for FY14 was due because of last year's cold winter requiring an additional expenditure of $700,000 for heat. Clearly, President Potter did not want to mention the $1,200,000 loss on the Coborn's Plaza Apartments in FY14 and instead wanted to blame the weather for the deficit.
In Laura King's words, the "operating losses in Fiscal 14...umm. were pretty substantial." I'm not really sure that anyone familiar with budgets would say that a loss of $708,000 out of a total operating budget of $233,152,000 would be described as substantial - especially when you are required to keep a minimum of 5% of your budget in reserve, which in this case would amount to over $11,600,000.
The following document was released in January 2015, to assist in planning for SCSU's "Financial Recovery."
This documents shows a deficit in the Net Operating Income for FY14 totals $11,555,000. Perhaps as Laura King might say, $11,555,000 is "pretty substantial." The difference between a loss of $708,000 and $11,555,000 is, by anyone's definition, indeed "pretty substantial!"
It has been said by members of the administration that you have to "understand" that these documents can't be compared because they contain different information. This is a fairly common trick when someone asks a question that you don't want to answer; just deflect the question by saying that it's 'complicated' or that they just don't 'understand.' Wouldn't it be important to have documents that clearly show SCSU's budget deficit? However, one thing is clear, based on MnSCU's CFI, SCSU is financially in pretty bad shape. The figure below shows a plot of SCSU's CFI over time:
The two-year decline from a CFI of 3.58 in FY12 to a value of 0.07 in FY14, is a decline of 3.51 and might be a MnSCU record! Unfortunately, it's probably not a record that will make it into a University News Release any time soon and those SCTimes' watchdogs might just think a loss of $11 million in net operating income is a rounding error not worthy of sniffing out.
Posted Tuesday, March 17, 2015 7:18 AM
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Hillary's dishonesty a disqualifier?
Last night on the Special Report All Star Panel, Ron Fournier said that James Carville had accidentally sold Hillary out :
Fournier also commented on James Carville's defense of Clinton, arguing that 'what Carville did is give up the goods. What he admitted there was that this was not a matter of convenience, which is what the Secretary said. He admitted that the reason she did this was so she didn't have to comply with the oversight of the House, and with the natural laws of transparency. He gave up the goods. He sold her out.'
What a tangled web she weaves when Hillary attempts to deceive. The more she talks about this, the deeper she digs the hole. The dishonesty is bad enough but that isn't the worst part for Hillary.
Hillary's dishonesty contributes to her image that she isn't trustworthy. Everyone remembers her most famous moment of dishonesty:
It's clear that Hillary's first instinct is to not tell the truth. It's clear that telling the truth isn't a high priority with her. In fact, Hillary has repeatedly shown that Hillary's highest priority is protecting Hillary politically.
As bad as those things are, though, they aren't Hillary's worst attributes. What's worst is that Hillary's lived a life of privilege for so long that she thinks that the rules don't apply to her. Every State Department employee signs Form OF-109 ... except Hillary . Every State Department employee's emails are stored on the State Department's server. When those employees leave, the State Department determines which emails are personal and which are work-related... except Hillary .
People talk about Hillary's campaign as a coronation. What these people haven't realized is that Hillary's already appointed herself queen...years ago.
Posted Tuesday, March 17, 2015 8:39 AM
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President Potter's discrimination
Equal Treatment Of All Faculty?
by Silence Dogood
On May 13, 2014, the Aviation Program at SCSU closed. May 12, 2014 was the final day of employment for the last two remaining faculty members. In the closure of the Aviation program, two tenured faculty members were retrenched and lost their positions. Just for fun, on March 17, 2015, I did a search for a faculty member with the last name of Johnson (one of the aviation faculty members who was retrenched was Dr. Jeff Johnson). The results are shown below.
Since Dr. Johnson was no longer an employee after May 12th of 2014 at SCSU, it might be appropriate for him to not be listed (he's also not found on page 2). I then performed a search for the other Aviation faculty member who was retrenched: Dr. Tara Harl. The results are shown below.
Clearly, according to a people search at SCSU, Dr. Harl is still employed. Just for grins, I sent Dr. Harl an email asking about her new job in Oklahoma (she left St. Cloud last summer). The email didn't bounce so Dr. Harl's email is still working.
I then clicked on the link for "Search Department's Faculty/Staff" and here is the result:
It looks pretty clear that SCSU still has an Aviation Department. Clicking on the link for the Aviation Department led to the following webpage:
These results further confirm that SCSU indeed has an Aviation Department with at least one employee.
OK. So what's the big deal? The simple answer is that last May 13th, Dr. Johnson's email was cut off even after he had requested an extension and despite a request by his supervisor that his email be continued for an additional ninety days. Interestingly, Dr. Harl's email was continued without a request to do so and is still active today!
One of the reasons for the requested extension of email privileges by Dr. Johnson's was to allow for Dr. Johnson to finish working with a student completing a doctorate as well as other students in the aviation program teachout. Request denied. The termination of email privileges on May 13th for Dr. Johnson nearly caused him to miss this candidate's final thesis defense. However, the email privileges for a faculty member who was retrenched from the same department is still active 10 months later!
After the decision was made by President Potter to close the Aviation Program, Dr. Johnson continued to point out flaws in the closure process. At some point, the issues raised by Dr. Johnson regarding the closure of the Aviation program became personal to President Potter. The only other reason to explain the disparate treatment of these two faculty members is incompetence, which is hardly an improvement over personal hatred.
Ultimately, the important question to ask is have these two faculty members been treated the same? Clearly, not. If Dr. Johnson had been a member of a protected class instead of being a white male, this difference in treatment might have raised the issue of discrimination. However, one might hope that an institution of higher education would be more concerned about "doing the right thing." In this case, SCSU falls far short of anything that might be considered doing the right thing. However, in many other ways it seems that recently SCSU is coming up short.
Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2015 4:10 AM
Comment 1 by Dave Steckling at 18-Mar-15 09:49 AM
The higher up one goes, the thinner the air. President Potter obviously forgot to apply his aviation oxygen attire. His poor decision to mothball the aviation program and personally penalize a professor of good standing shows poor judgement and infantile vendetta tendencies.
Comment 2 by James Rugg at 18-Mar-15 09:51 AM
Seems reasonable that Dr. Johnson could request payment from St. Cloud State University for all days from May 12, 2014 until the time the University removes him from their active membership roster.
Comment 3 by Overseas student at 18-Mar-15 12:44 PM
Another big embarrassment being added to SCSU's already gigantic embarrassment pile. Personal hatred or incompetence? It might be a toss up. Apparently, President Potter is more concerned about his petty vindictiveness over a professor uncovering the truth than actually serving students. As a former SCSU student, Present Potter can count on my wallet remaining closed for any donations until he is gone. So how would Trustee Benson characterize a 23% enrollment drop in a few years at SCSU? Business as usual? SCSU is in trouble and will assuredly have their outstretched hand for a taxpayer bailout. Anyone with even a pea sized brain can figure that out except Rosenstone. I suspect the city is going to be greatly affected as well and is probably already feeling the effects. Where is the St. Cloud Times? What are legislative leaders doing about this crisis?
From yesterday's article in MPR news, it is pretty clear SCSU is in trouble. A big part of Potter's enrollment problem is from internal forces of his own doing and not just outside forces. After all, he is the ship's captain. And what is this I just heard? Potter still doesn't have an enrollment management plan? It's only been 3 or 4 years now since Potter's enrollment guy was fired on the spot when enrollments had peaked at a high level. I was around at the time.
Comment 4 by Cloud surfer at 20-Mar-15 04:45 PM
Wow! There is clear evidence that there's a personal vendetta with regards to potter and professors at SCSU. This isn't the first time this has happened (personal vendettas). However, I wouldn't expect anything less from a university that is led by an incompetent president and a clueless regime.
Comment 5 by Morris Canterbury at 03-Apr-15 09:27 PM
With the shortage of sane and competent pilots, why the heck would any institution shut down a going program??It doesn't make sense!
Response 5.1 by Gary Gross at 03-Apr-15 09:29 PM
Good point, Morris. There's a shortage of competent college presidents in MnSCU, too. That explains why President Potter still has a job.
Comment 6 by Mystique at 04-Apr-15 09:43 AM
It appears that President Potter has locked himself in the proverbial SCSU cockpit and is driving the university into the ground. Why the "controllers" (trustees) and Rosenstone aren't radioing Potter about this impending disaster is anyone's guess.
Comment 7 by Nick at 04-Apr-15 01:39 PM
Potter doesn't know how to operate his own cockpit, let alone breaks something (the university) that the the mechanics (taxpayers and legislators) have to fix.
Transportation war coming
Based on this article , Minnesota is headed for war in 2016:
House Republicans have been working on a plan that doesn't raise taxes but would dedicate the revenue from several existing taxes to fix road and bridges. But state Rep. Tim Kelly, chair of the House Transportation Committee, isn't ready to say how much it will cost.
Kelly, R-Red Wing, said his plan would use some money from the state's $1.9 billion budget surplus. He also wants to borrow some money, and dedicate a portion of existing tax revenue to transportation. Those taxes may include the sales tax on auto parts as well as taxes on leased vehicles and rental cars, which together raise about $200 million a year.
The GOP plan would dedicate additional revenues to fix roads and bridges without raising taxes. The DFL has a dramatically different approach:
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk said he doesn't support dedicating tax revenue to transportation that now goes to the general fund. Bakk said using general fund revenue for transportation projects is a bad idea because lawmakers will always put a higher priority on education and health care than on roads and bridges.
"Those investments will always get delayed," said Bakk, DFL-Cook. "So the challenge of trying to craft a transportation bill that relies on general fund spending is we can cobble a budget together for this two-year budget cycle, but after the 2016 election, a new Legislature is going to come in here and they're going to have their own priorities."
Not surprisingly, the DFL's plan includes a massive middle class tax increase. According to the DFL's own table, this massive middle class tax increase would cost the middle class $1,315,000,000 a year. That isn't GOP spin. That's the DFL's own estimate.
Normally, Sen. Bakk is pretty good at reading the political tea leaves. This time, it looks like his political radar is failing him:
Even though his plan spends much less than Dayton and Senate Democrats, Kelly said the Republican proposal is more popular, according to recent poll from KSTP-TV and Survey USA.
"The biggest difference, of course, is where the revenue is coming from," Kelly said. "As we lay out our plan, the state of Minnesota is going to help us out because we had a 75 percent approval on just our basic plan. When we see this, it's going to go 85 percent."
If Sen. Bakk want the 2016 election to be fought over transportation, he'll be the minority leader in 2017. It's that simple.
Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2015 9:24 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 18-Mar-15 12:46 PM
So maybe politicians need to re-prioritize to make roads and bridges a priority along with the black holes of spending, education and health care. Maybe we should stop spending money on antiquated forms of mass transportation (trains/LRT) and get back to moving people on buses that use existing roads, and then we can take that money blown on choo-choo's, and build better roads.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 18-Mar-15 01:27 PM
To Chad: What a concept.
Exposing Move MN's corruption
I've written 3 posts about Move MN, the DFL front group on transportation issues since the start of the year. See here , here , and here for those posts. My state senator, John Pederson, recently got a bunch of letters regarding transportation. That's understandable because Sen. Pederson is the ranking member on the Senate Transportation and Public Safety Budget Division . Here's why Sen. Pederson is in the news :
Sen. John Pederson, R-St. Cloud, knows it's important to a lot of his constituents. But he wonders if all of the people whose names are listed on postcards recently delivered to him by Move MN , a transportation lobbying group , really filled out the information in an effort to sway his opinion on funding solutions.
Pederson says of more than 100 postcards he received, the handwriting on 27 of them appears to be identical and most did not list an email address or phone number .
Pederson is the GOP lead on the Senate transportation committee, and a policy bill is deadline looming Friday. "We wrote a letter back to every one and I got a response from someone I know who said 'Thanks for the letter, but I didn't send anything to you,'" Pederson said. "We forwarded a copy of what we received and they said it wasn't their handwriting and they didn't recall anyone asking their support of the cause. It appears there are a sizable number of postcards that weren't legit."
Move MN isn't honest in the sense that they frequently talk about transportation but their stated goal is to increase funding for transit. That's given away by the fact that lots of environmental organizations are part of Move MN's partners:
Look at the list of organizations running Move MN:
Move MN is governed by an 11-person steering committee made up of representatives from AFSCME Minnesota Council 5, Alliance for Metropolitan Stability , American Council of Engineering Companies, American Heart Association - Minnesota, Associated General Contractors of Minnesota, Association of Minnesota Counties, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, Laborers District Council of MN & ND, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Minnesota Community Foundation , Summit Academy, Transit for Livable Communities and The Transportation Alliance.
The organizations that are italicized don't care about fixing roads and bridges. They're advocates for transit and bike paths. Since they're the organizations behind Move MN, there isn't any doubt that they're the people pushing for the DFL's massive middle class tax increase.
More importantly, though, Move MN was just exposed as corrupt. Filling out petition cards in other people's names isn't the picture of integrity. Couple that corruption with the corruption in this post and it's pretty obvious that the DFL won't hesitate to lie to push a tax increase across the line.
Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2015 3:38 PM
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