More spending and higher taxes, year after year

Can we please get over this idea to tax, tax, tax and spend for too many “wants”? Let’s simply work on the things we really need.

If the St. Paul mayor and City Council continue down this path of year-after-year property tax increases, sales tax increases, reparations, bikeway funding, streetcar funding, low-income funding, and rent-control stagnation, we are all going to find ourselves seeking low-income financing.

Winter is on our doorstep. Maybe we could start with the need to plow our streets once and for ALL.

Mark Kirchner, St. Paul

Speedy power restoration

Like so many residents in the Twin Cities, we were awakened by the severe storm early on Tuesday morning. And, like so many others, we lost power when the winds toppled a tree onto the electric line connecting our home to the grid.

Xcel’s online and phone power outage reporting services worked smoothly, and the company promised to restore power by noon on Thursday the 29th. To our surprise and delight, a team arrived and had us reconnected about 12 hours after our power went out.

Many thanks to the workers who restored our electricity promptly and under difficult circumstances.

Mary Ann Saurino, St. Paul

A barrel of salt

The social media posting over the weekend by former President Trump that if reinstated to the White House his administration will be “great for women and their reproductive rights” must be taken with a barrel of salt.

Having repeatedly taken credit and lavished praise on himself for appointing the three Supreme Court justices who combined with two others to extinguish the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs case two years ago, his remark is about as welcome as an arsonist who tells the owner of a building that he has set afire that he will fetch a bucket to help put out the blaze he started.

Anyone, especially women, who accept that assurance will probably find, like the owner of the burning building, that the bottom of the fire starter’s bucket is replete with holes.

Marshall H. Tanick, Minneapolis

The Lynx were inside that day?

The Minnesota Lynx played a big game on Aug. 24. They are the third best team in the WNBA, they had a five-game winning streak, they had not lost a game since before the Olympics, they were retiring Maya Moore’s jersey and they were playing against Caitlyn Clark’s Indiana Fever.

Yet, after a big win, they couldn’t make the front page of the sports section. Instead, the front page was reserved for a Vikings preseason game, a story about PJ Fleck, and a loss by the Loons. Too bad the Pioneer Press doesn’t treat women’s sports with the respect they deserve.

Kathy Kilian, Woodbury

Inspired

It is amusing that St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter III was considered a “chant leader“ for Minnesota during the DNC in Chicago.

The government paying off his student loan debt must have triggered it as he has never shown that much excitement while leading the city.

Jacqueline Heintz, Maplewood

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