While one role of government is to provide, and properly fund, valuable services, the level of inefficiency is staggering. My #1 task is to do more, with less. This is the #1 role of a single mother, which I have successfully and exceedingly navigated over the last 6 years, creating financial safety, stability, and growth to leave a legacy of which I am incredibly proud. These principles and values are an integral part of who I am and how I operate. I will uncompromisingly cut taxes and hold steadfast in opposition of wasteful spending. We are all feeling the pressure, and it appears that in regards to bloated government spending, "the emperor has no clothes."

The impact of wasteful spending is to create financial instability in families and communities. Financial stress takes a toll on otherwise supportive relationships and partnerships. Costs are up 18%. It is selfish and short sighted for the government to contribute to hard working peoples struggles. Further, property tax is one of the largest revenue generators for governments. While some taxation is necessary, taxation to the point of making home ownership(the foundation of a secure family) burdensome and prohibitive, creates more problems than it solves.

My top priority is to efficiently maximize the things we do invest in to create a framework whose impact is to do its part on reducing crime, as outlined in other points below. I do believe people deserve a safe home. However, this is not best achieved by free handouts that do little more than to perpetuate a cycle of helplessness. Rather, modeling efficiency and programs that support safety within the community is the answer. When the needs for safety, food, shelter, love, and belonging are met, the natural fruit is positive growth. We must return to these fundamentals.

As of now, we have a giant “kick me” sign on our backs. Our hardworking taxpayers are paying for free healthcare, education, and housing for the undocumented. This is just the start of the misadventure, and there is a lack of transparency in spending. The current budget has intentionally vague line items to allow for licentious and secretive spending.

Taxpayers subsidize Hennepin County Medical center(HCMC), of which the administrator receives over a million each year in salary. HCMC, by law, can’t turn people away. Taxpayers continue to be ransacked as these unfair costs spiral out of control. Minnesota Democrats suggest we further pillage our own hardworking, and pressured community by proposing that illegal residents should receive $500 each month.

I draw a hard line on this issue. This is not one to be treated with grace. This is one obvious reason why we are struggling to pay our own nurses fairly and provide support and staffing to our teachers. We can not pour from an empty cup. This is a value system that destabilizes our community, which I oppose in no uncertain terms.

Our teachers are a buffer of safety, emotional intelligence teaching, and fill our children’s cups. Removing their support staff, such as full time nurses, spreads them thin, and erodes one level of essential support our children receive, thus potentially contributing to the problem of greater crime down the road. Our teachers perform emotional labor, do a monumental job in educating and raising our children, yet are one of the lowest paid professions. Again this speaks to an underlying value system, one that has given rise to many of the problems we face today.

I volunteered in my son's Kindergarten classroom and asked the teacher what the impact of potentially taking away full time nursing staff would be as I watched her tirelessly and joyfully prep the next phase of the children’s learning while the other staff had taken the class out to play. She made it quite clear that losing nursing staff would detract from the quality of education and spread the teachers thin. Seeing all she has done, just for my son and I this year, also leads me to a similar conclusion.

The emotional empathy I saw given to the children was beautiful. One little girl asked if any other parents would be coming that day. The teacher’s response showed a deep understanding of the real question this little girl was asking, “Your parents are not on the list today.” The little girls face fell, as the real question she wanted to know, which the teacher read so adeptly, was if her mommy and daddy had time for her. It is so easy to get caught up in ‘keeping up with the joneses’, and sometimes survival needs, that we fail to acknowledge the deep meaning it has to our children to simply show up for an hour at their school. Our presence and support can make the difference in heading off a vulnerability for criminal activity. Our teachers make a difference in crime prevention, as they offer our children healthy connection and support. It is impossible to promote educational excellence without supporting teachers.

The things we spend money on are the things we show we value. Why do we have money to cut monthly checks for illegals, yet somehow can't find a dollar to support our nurses? People who perform emotional labor are not currently shown value in society. The people who perform the most emotional labor are caring professions such as teachers and nurses.

I stand with the Minnesota Nurses Association in opposition to allowing registered nurses to cross state lines while Minnesota’s own jobs are in jeapordy. The primary reason I support this is that the result of bringing out of state nurses is undercutting and threatening fair wage requests from Minnesota’s nurses. These individuals are a part of our community and work tirelessly to care for the sick and vulnerable, performing physical and emotional labor. Allowing out of state nurses would threaten the effectiveness of their strikes. I believe in their right to strike, and to have reasonable and fair requests heard and supported. As a mother and co-parent, I also strike when I am not treated with kindness and respect. I would challenge in asking, what other avenues would you have nurses pursue in response to the perception of unfair treatment? Those options seem far less viable than strikes. As long as our own community stands at risk, it is unreasonable to jeopardize them.

Second, out of state nurses already have the option to follow the same training protocols as our local nurses to ensure they meet the standard of care. It is unfair to require our nurses to jump through many hoops, and then threaten their livelihoods by allowing a lower bidder, who has not jumped through those same hoops, to undercut their jobs. I believe in the right to ask for what you feel you are worth, and what the market will allow.

The HCMC administrator receives a million dollar a year salary. This is not to discredit her effort or investment. However, the people on the ground such as nurses and their support staff have had their benefits cut. While I concede there must be some checks and balances that would disallow a hospital to be ‘hostaged’ by unfair demands, I do not believe that nurses, most of whom enter the profession with the deep desire to support and care, are by and large unreasonable. It does seem that they find the ongoing threat tiresome and feel deeply unappreciated and unsupported in the face of their tireless care during COVID.

We are not under the law but under grace, but grace can only take us so far. Grace is not a license to repeatedly abuse and steal. Crime damages both the victim and offender. Some say Mary Moriarty is rolling over on crime. However, I believe her approach is part of an evolving solution to a growing problem facing the community. A complete approach of “grace” encourages people to go further in crime. Accountability is needed. The question is, how do we resolve this at the core level?

According to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, “Over 16,000 cars were stolen in 2022 in Minnesota, representing more than $200 million in losses to victims. In 2020, theft of motor vehicles increased in Minnesota at double the rate of the U.S. as a whole.” KARE 11 reports, “In 2022, Minneapolis saw an 836% increase in stolen Kia and Hyundai automobiles. It's so bad that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison launched an investigation into the automakers for selling cars with such vulnerable anti-theft protections.” I believe the investigation blaming auto makers for vulnerable cars is the wrong target to blame. If it were not those cars, it would be another. Thieves simply select low hanging fruit.

I believe the intention behind these policies that are deemed ‘weak on crime’ are not to wreak havoc on the community. Rather, once someone enters the legal system and is convicted of a large criminal offense, doors close that they never had the chance to open. There is recognition of the future challenge to find a place to live and job. While I can empathize with this, it falls short unless the conditions which gave rise to the problem are addressed.

In one case of car theft, an elderly woman had her arm broken. This is unequivocally unacceptable. Inability to solve the problem also results in harm to thieves, sometimes in the loss of their own lives. This problem must be solved on the correct level of resolution.

Older people are recruiting youth to commit crimes because they know the youth will not be charged. The question is, “Why are the youth they target vulnerable to these predators?” Gang affiliation is sought out for a sense of belonging and safety. Youth have a gap in these essential needs being met, and predators are adept at cluing in on vulnerable targets. The Child Advocacy Center Reports, “Child molesters most often select their victims carefully, typically targeting a child who is in need of attention, perhaps living in a single parent home and/or experiencing difficulty at school or in social settings.” Grooming vulnerable youth to commit crime follows a similar process as a sexual predator. These predators admittedly seek out children who meet similar criteria: broken homes where children feel lonely, lack a sense of belonging, and often suffer from economic hardships. The answer is to hold these predators accountable, while finding ways to positively meet the youth’s needs for belonging and safety. As a community, we need to find ways to support our children.

I support Moriarty’s approach to make contact with the parents of these youth. "When we made contact with families, 100% of the parents or guardians said, 'We're not surprised that our young person is on your radar screen and thank you, help us,'" Moriarty said.(KARE 11) While parents are grateful, a child whose behavior is escalating takes a toll on these parents own resources. Single parents find themselves stretched thin, struggling to balance survival needs in addition to triaging an out of control child. Single mothers especially may find this fearful and challenging, as a son at this stage is likely stronger than her. Through lack of knowledge, we are being destroyed.

More children are being raised in single parent homes. Of all people most vulnerable to economic disaster, single mothers are at the top of the list. When one is facing 18% increased costs, and trying to meet survival needs, it can feel overwhelming to also solve a crisis involving a child who is involved in crime. By the time a youth is on an escalating crime spree, it is late in the game and tertiary interventions are required. I believe the key lies in offering connection, safety, and belonging as we support families and reexamine some of the traditional values that have been abandoned. Research shows that a key component of primary intervention is simply having one adult with secure attachement who cares about and supports a child. We need to get on a new path as we triage the current framework.

I oppose fool's errands which put unfair financial pressure on our hardworking taxpayers. At what point do we cut our losses? Is any project entitled to unlimited chances? From the lens of behavioral economics, it appears that our sunk costs are blinding us to consider this option. The SW Lightrail has become a money pit, massive burden on hardworking taxpayers, and lacks a clear plan or end in sight. This is quite similar to a problem faced by the California Light Rail Authority, which still has no operational line, despite a $1.3 billion budget, just in 2020.

Enormous past costs do not necessarily justify continuing a failing project. It's likely that we are missing other opportunities that would be more profitable to the public. Past poor decisions to invest time, money, and energy do not justify blindly plunging ahead in clearly failing ventures. This is the sunk cost fallacy, and any of us can easily fall prey to it in areas of our lives. Those who have previously invested are most fallible to the sunk cost fallacy. This is why a fresh and objective set of eyes, and someone without emotional ties to past dollars spent, is crucial.

We need to triage what exists, hold any bad actors accountable to discourge future similar conduct and chart the higest and best path forward. This is both a challenge and encouragement to those working on the project, and those who believe in its value, to begin searching for solutions that create a win/win dynamic. A win/win framework looks like their project reaching completion AND being done within financial parameters that do not cause debilitating costs to the community. I will accept nothing less. The taxpayers deserve nothing less.