A County Board with Guts!

"I have never seen a group of people who can give its citizens more for less."

When I was in the working world, quite often I would be employed a fair distance from where I worked. When my sanity of having that long drive was questioned, I would respond by saying, "You have to work where you want to work, and live where you want to live. The thing which needs to give is the drive." And that is the credo I lived by for years.

I live where I live for a reason. For the 30+ years we have lived in our city, it has been well run. Even though the last two Mayors live on the Left side of the street, they have been held in check by a balanced City Council.

Between the two houses we have lived in, we have been in Anoka County for about 40 years. And we absolutely love it. Our County Board is the envy of many I know who live in other counties. First a bit of disclosure. Over half of the Board members are very good friends of mine. That being said, I will try and be as fair and balanced as possible when discussing them.

I have said this many times before in print, to others, and also to Board members. I have never seen a group of people who can give its citizens more for less. For years our services have stayed at a high level. All that while our taxes either didn't budge or went down a smidge. Recently, they went up a tick - but was the first increase in a long time.

Today, they are one of four counties who are leading the fight against the power grabs coming from the unelected, unaccountable Metropolitan Council. Our County Board is not cowed by this group at all. Working together with some of the more conservative Mayors in the county (sadly, not ours), they are going to try and force much needed change on this bunch of bureaucratic renegades. It is a needed battle which is long overdue.

One of my friends from a very socialist county just to the south of us once asked me if I need to write many letters to my County Board. He asked the question because he needed to always stay on top of his. My response was simple. "Nope. Don't need to. My County Board is always about three steps ahead of me doing the right thing for the county." Amen to that!