Endorsements
13 Supporting Our Troops: Dayton Proposes Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Fund
Dayton Proposes State “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon” Funding
Speaking this afternoon to the Hibbing VFW, DFL Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton will propose a matching state grant program to communities throughout Minnesota to start or expand their “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon” outreach to returning Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. The meeting… Read more
8 Dayton to Other Candidates: “What’s Your Plan?”
Dayton to Other Candidates: “What’s Your Plan?“
DFL Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton today challenged the other DFL, Republican, and Independence Party candidates for Governor to reveal their plans for eliminating the state’s projected $5.8 billion deficit for the next biennium.
“My opponents are all criticizing me for raising too much… Read more
2 Dayton Calls on Mn/DOT to End all Contracting with Allegedly Negligent Firm URS
Dayton Calls on Mn/DOT to End all Contracting with Allegedly Negligent Firm URS
St. Paul, MN: Mark Dayton today called on the Minnesota Department of Transportation to end all contracting with allegedly negligent firm URS. The private contracting giant has been the defendant in several closed and ongoing lawsuits alleging… Read more
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Supporting Our Troops: Dayton Proposes Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Fund
Dayton Proposes State “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon” Funding
Speaking this afternoon to the Hibbing VFW, DFL Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton will propose a matching state grant program to communities throughout Minnesota to start or expand their “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon” outreach to returning Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans. The meeting will be held at the Hibbing VFW from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
“Beyond the Yellow Ribbon” is the pioneering program of the Minnesota National Guard to provide ongoing supportive services to National Guardsmen and women, in order to assist them and their families with their reintegration into their civilian lives. In 2006, while he was a U.S. Senator, Dayton secured the first Congressional funding for this program, which has now expanded nationwide.
“As Governor, I will spearhead the expansion of this important program throughout Minnesota. No one, who has served our country as heroically as these returning Iraq and Afghan War veterans, should return home alone. After their deserved homecoming celebrations, they face the challenges of reuniting with their families, returning to their former jobs or finding new jobs, and readjusting to civilian life after the enormous stresses of their constant exposures to snipers, roadside explosive devices, and suicide bombers.”
Dayton will propose new state funding of $2 million for each year of the next biennium that will provide one-time seed grants of up to $25,000, to be matched equally by contributions from local governments, businesses, churches, and individuals, for the start-up or expansion of community “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon” efforts. The grant program would be administered by the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs. One requirement of the grant would be that the program be continued after the initial state grant has expired.
Dayton said, “As Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Minnesota National Guard, I will take personal responsibility for this program and for enlisting the active involvement of Minnesota businesses, churches, and other civic organizations in assisting these true American heroes and in broadening their outreach services to all veterans. These men and women have heroically served our country; they deserve our support in welcoming them back home.”
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Dayton to Other Candidates: “What’s Your Plan?”
Dayton to Other Candidates: “What’s Your Plan?“
DFL Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton today challenged the other DFL, Republican, and Independence Party candidates for Governor to reveal their plans for eliminating the state’s projected $5.8 billion deficit for the next biennium.
“My opponents are all criticizing me for raising too much money from the richest Minnesotans to reduce $5.8 billion deficit projected for the next biennium,” Dayton said. “However, for every $1 Billion they won’t raise in revenue, they will have to cut $1 Billion in spending in order to balance the budget. None of them will tell us where they plan to make those enormous cuts and who will be hurt by them.
“They say they are ready to lead from Day 1. However, it has been months since they became candidates for Governor, and they have offered only pablum and platitudes. Saying they’re for “reform” or “balance” is not an answer — it’s ducking the issue.
“It’s time they leveled with the people of Minnesota about how much money they intend to raise in taxes, from whom, and exactly where and how much they intend to cut spending — or “shift it” — for every dollar of revenue they won’t raise.
“I have said what I will do. I will make the richest Minnesotans pay their fair share of taxes. And even my plan would require the richest 10% of Minnesotans to pay just the same percent of their incomes in state and local taxes as they paid at the end of Republican Governor Arne Carlson’s first term in 1994. (12.5% under Dayton 2011 vs. 12.6% under Carlson 1994).
“My opponents obviously disagree with me. But just criticizing me isn’t good enough. It’s time for them to give us their answers. I say to my opponents: ‘What’s your plan?’”
Dayton Calls on Mn/DOT to End all Contracting with Allegedly Negligent Firm URS
Dayton Calls on Mn/DOT to End all Contracting with Allegedly Negligent Firm URS
St. Paul, MN: Mark Dayton today called on the Minnesota Department of Transportation to end all contracting with allegedly negligent firm URS. The private contracting giant has been the defendant in several closed and ongoing lawsuits alleging that they cut corners and failed to do their job because they did not determine from multiple inspections that the I-35W bridge was unsafe and in imminent danger of collapse.
At the time of the tragic bridge collapse on August 1, 2007, URS had been under contract with Mn/DOT since 2003 to inspect and analyze the strength of the structure.
Internal URS e-mail messages which were subsequently made public showed both alleged negligence and incompetence. In one such e-mail message, written in 2006, URS engineer Ed Zhou acknowledged that URS “will not calculate actual capacities of all the [bridge] connections since that is too much work, although that provides the most accurate results.”
In another URS memo from a 2006 meeting on the bridge’s safety, the company noted that if gusset plate buckling were to occur, “it is not catastrophic.” Gusset plate failure is widely believed to be the reason why the 35-W bridge fell down.
“I am concerned that Ed [Zhou] is trying a little too hard to advise MnDOT that the (I-35W) bridge is okay even though it is clearly overstressed by today’s design criteria,” URS Project Manager Don) Flemming wrote in another internal URS memo.
In spite of several lawsuits alleging negligence, Mn/DOT has awarded 47 contracts worth over $9 million to URS since the bridge collapse. Several of those contracts related directly to ongoing bridge work, and URS even was given contracts for the I-35W replacement bridge after the previous structure collapsed.
“Mn/DOT’s continuing relationship is a clear failure of state government,” said Dayton. “It’s terribly wrong that contracts would continue to be awarded at taxpayers’ expense to a firm that the State sued for such a horrible catastrophe. I call on Mn/DOT to immediately stop awarding contracts to URS. If a contractor fails to perform, it should not get another contract.”
Dayton also said that the URS contracts shine light on the larger problems of outsourcing government responsibilities to private firms. Mn/DOT reported that it awarded $118 million in contracts to private firms in the FY08-09 biennium.
Dayton said, “My budget proposal would reduce by half outsourcing by all state agencies, which totaled over $850 million in the last biennium. That work should be performed by public employees at lower cost to taxpayers and with greater accountability. MnDOT’s excessive contracting is the place to start.”
Those contracts are far from transparent, as Dayton staff were directed first to the “Bid Letting” department, then to “Consultant Services,” and finally to “Contract Management Services.” In the end, hours of searching only yielded a short list of links to five URS contracts dating back to August of 2008. The actual copies of the five contracts were unavailable, even though they were listed under the heading, “Taxpayers’ Transportation Accountability Act Notices.”
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