Response to Lakeland TV Debate

As promised, here are the facts on Ward's DOCUMENTED House Votes to Borrow Money from Our Schools which he states in the Public TV debate.

(Note: Mr. Ward also stated twice at the League of Women Voters debate that he did not vote to borrow ANY money from our schools. Really, Mr. Ward? Why deny a documented FACT? I was so dissapointed in him.)

 

At 14 min, Mr. Ward replies to my question of why he voted to borrow over 2-2 ½ billion from our schools. Ward says he did NOT vote to borrow 2.4 billion from our kids (I never said "2.4 billion") & accuses me of telling half-truths & being dishonest? Here is a Ward vote dated 5-17-2010 borrowing $1.963 billion from K-12 Education + $100 million from Higher Ed., totaling OVER $2 BILLION over two years. H.F.1, 1st Special Session 2010, House Journal Page 11:

Title: H.F. 1 (Budget Bill) Chief Author-Rep Lyndon Carlson
Borrows $1.963 billion from E-12 Education and $100 million from Higher Education, totaling over $2 billion over two years, 2010 and 2011.

Vote: http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/votes/votes.asp?ls_year=86&session_number=1&year=2010&id=2

Full Bill: http://votesmart.org/static/billtext/30940.pdf  

Summary: During the 2010 1st Special Session, on May 17th, John Ward voted YES to borrow over $2 billion dollars from The E-12 Education and Higher Education funds. This was a DFL Bill, when the DFL was the majority party in control of the Minnesota House.

In addition, here are links documenting Ward's  votes against paying back schools:

Here is a link to votesmart listing four votes against paying the money back with a percentage of the reserve funds: http://votesmart.org/bill/15167/39875/66849/requires-state-reserve-funds-to-be-used-to-reduce-schooldebt#.UHMELFFWVNo 

Annotation for votes: HF2083 - House Passage, 2012 Session, 3/15/12 House Journal Page 6581 HF2083 - Refuse to Adopt Conference Committee Report, 2012 Session, 4/2/12 House Journal Page 8105 (procedural motion to send it back to committee, Ward voted yes) HF2083 - Conference Committee Report, Regular Session 2012, 4/2/12 House Journal Page 8106 Plus voted against shift payback in committee: HF2083, Education Finance Committee Meeting 3/8/12

As promised, I am posting the documentation regarding unfunded mandates:

Helping our school districts control costs

Ward voted against a Rep. Torrey Westrom amendment that would allow school districts to opt out of complying with unfunded mandates imposed on them by the State of Minnesota.

May 11, 2010, House Journal pg. 12469

We all know how tight our school budgets are. When Rep. Ward had the chance to help our local school districts stretch their dollars further by letting them opt out of unfunded mandates imposed by the state, he said NO.  Apparently, Mr. Ward believes those in St. Paul know better how to educate our kids than our local educators and school board members.

Pro Life:

My survey score with MCCL is 100% (Note: none of the candidates without a voting record are posted on the newsletter, but their answers are) which can be verified by Andrea Rau at MCCL. If you look at the link attached on Page 4, left column, you will see that Mr. Ward's score with MCCL is as I stated at 87% (Ward stated he had 97%). I would like you to know, however, that John Ward is the endorsed candidate with MCCL. I had stated that to my knowledge I did not think he was. I stand corrected. I had not found any information on MCCL's website on this and because I had a higher score, I was not aware they had endorsed either of us. Candidates with no voting record often do not get endorsed by certain groups unless their opponent's scores are extremely poor. If elected, however, you can be sure that I will be fighting very hard for life, especially the rights of the unborn. I will also be fighting for the taxpayers. I find it deplorable that your tax dollars should be spent on abortions when it goes completely against so many of our moral and/or religious beliefs. This is just wrong.

Also please note the differences between my opponent and myself in our responses to the MN Family Council Survey by clicking here.