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I'll help Howard Root pack his bags. He's leaving Minnesota in a snit: "What used to be Minnesota Nice has become Minnesota Nuts, and I'm out" ("Goodbye, Minnesota," Opinion Exchange, May 24). He cites Minnesota's high taxes and crime as the reasons for relocating to Florida. Root complains about Minnesota's income taxes, surcharges on capital gains and a new "wealth tax." He tells us (brags?) about the "millions in taxes I've paid." Just how much income does one make to pay "millions" in taxes? I should have such problems. True, there's no personal income tax in Florida, but they sure know how to raise the needed revenue in other ways. For example, Florida's gas tax is higher than Minnesota's, and you can't swing a hat box there without hitting a toll road. You're going to pay for what the state provides one way or another.
Root spends more than half of his commentary complaining about crime in Minnesota, telling us how safe it is in Florida. Maybe he forgot about all those mass shootings. For example, Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, 49 dead, 53 wounded, or Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, 17 dead, 17 wounded. Oh, and you can now buy and carry a gun in Florida without a permit. That doesn't shake Root's sense of safety?
Then there's Ron DeSantis, the authoritarian governor currently on a power binge. Nuts, meet Florida. Do you really want to live in a state that bans books, interferes in your private medical care with severe restrictions on abortion and gender-related medical care and enacted the "Don't Say Gay" law?
My husband and I have family and friends in Florida whom we visit frequently, and I do love me some Fort Lauderdale vacation time. But we're strongly considering staying away until the state is no longer "Florida Nuts."
Steve Millikan, Minneapolis
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Thank you, Howard Root, for so eloquently expressing an opinion many of us share. As much as we love Minnesota, economics favor changing our residency to southwest Florida, where we are fortunate to have invested in property 20 years ago. As a retired CEO of a Minnesota company, I recall how effectively our organization monitored revenue and expenses with built-in controls and accountability. By contrast, governmental entities make headlines regularly with reports about misuse and abuse of their taxpayer-funded programs. At least in Florida I will be contributing much less to this waste.
Phil Seipp, Burnsville
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There are a few problems I see in Root's May 23 justifications for leaving Minnesota.
1) The sales tax increase is literally just a quarter of pocket change for every $100 spent, so low-income working people can better afford rent here. Gas taxes pay for roads, and ours hasn't been raised in over a decade. Nothing more to be said there.
2) U.S. News and World Report lists Minnesota as the fifth-best state overall despite the taxes that he complains about. There's more to life than saving a buck (or a quarter).
3) Low capital-gains taxes are a notorious loophole that the wealthy use to avoid paying their full share. Legal, but even Warren Buffett admits it's wrong that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.
4) Florida's crime rate is fairly similar to Minnesota's, but it ranks 46th in U.S. News' opportunity index. The gap between rich and poor is particularly bad there, and social equality seems equally bad. If you are a rich white male, you will probably be fine.
Jeff Anderson, Apple Valley
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After reading Root's commentary on the opinion page this morning, we couldn't agree with him more. What has happened to our beautiful state, where people were proud to say they were from Minnesota? Root is correct when he says, "What used to be Minnesota Nice has become Minnesota Nuts."
Jane Johnson, Mound
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Root is saying goodbye to Minnesota just as my husband and I sold our Florida condo in order to say "glad to be back permanently" to the state we love. Perhaps Root can bury his head in the red-tide-washed sands and ignore the banning of books, the racism, fear and hatred of LGBT people, petty feuds with Mickey Mouse, denial of women's rights to decide how to treat their own bodies, crime in cities there, etc., etc., etc. We say several times a day how relieved we are to read more about Walz and less about DeSantis.
Marcia Eaton, Wayzata
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In his commentary titled "Goodbye, Minnesota," Root writes he "benefited greatly from the excellent public education ... Minnesota provided me." Now he doesn't want to help provide that to others through his taxes for "state spending on programs like 'free' college tuition, which won't be free to me."
Goodbye, Howard.
Jim Bartos, Maple Grove
MINING
Gov. Walz, do right by Itasca County
This Thursday the Minnesota Executive Council led by Gov. Tim Walz will decide whether to accept a recommendation from the state's Department of Natural Resources for mineral leases in Itasca County to be awarded to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (Cliffs), which plans to ship the ore from Itasca County elsewhere for processing.
These leases should instead go to Mesabi Metallics, which needs them to finish a project already half completed. This project would create in Itasca County 1,000 well-paid construction jobs, 350 new full-time, well-paid, multigenerational jobs and 700 indirect jobs. It also would bring fresh competition on the Iron Range that is not only out to mine here but to bring back steelmaking here.
Mesabi Metallics plans to mine and process high-quality direct reduced iron pellets that will be used by more energy efficient, cleaner electric arc furnaces increasing in popularity worldwide. Its project will over the course of its life span pump an estimated $500 million to Minnesota school trust funds and $300 million into local taxes.
Plus, Mesabi Metallics looks to eventually use these pellets in its own electric arc furnace, also to be located in Nashwauk. Imagine: Minnesota's natural resources being used to employ several hundreds of people while enabling Minnesota to emerge as the region's leading low-cost green steel supporter.
The DNR's mission is "to conserve and manage the state's natural resources, to provide outdoor recreation opportunities, and to provide for commercial uses of natural resources in a way that creates a sustainable quality of life." Mesabi Metallics has detailed how it is able to deliver on all three of these mission points when it comes to the leases at issue this Thursday.
There's still time to support Mesabi Metallics by calling the offices of Minnesota's governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor.
Ben DeNucci, Nashwauk, Minn.
The writer is a former Itasca County commissioner and former mayor of Nashwauk.
10TH WARD CONVENTION
Indicative of organizing failure
I am surprised by the action the DFL leadership took in response to the 10th Ward convention chaos ("DFL takes a stand after melee," May 19). Without knowing the specific causes and result of the mayhem, the punitive measures proposed by the DFL strike me as impulsive and their implication requires study.
The DFL's proposed actions do not address the underlying problems, which to me appear to be the lack of oversight and leadership on providing information and training on caucus procedures and rules of the DFL. Training and oversight are particularly important areas where there are large numbers of newer citizens and those whose native language is not English.
I am not surprised by the confusion that took place at this convention. I have long observed that while political parties and other interest groups rush to register voters, most then fail to follow up by making further connections with these communities and provide training using their language and leaders who have an understanding of their norms. All of which would serve to inform, educate and train new citizens on how to fully participate in the baffling processes of American democracy.
Linda Feist, Woodbury
