candidates from the incumbent Governor’s party. The most glaring, 

yet generally unnoticed, failure of the Carlson Administration is 

their failure to prepare Minnesota for future economic turbulence. 

People often say that government should be run more like a business. 

In my experience, successful businesses reinvest and retool during 

good economic times to be prepared for the future.

However, this administration has been drafting behind the 

roaring national macro-economy. They preach tax reform, and they 

were given two huge budget surpluses to practice it. Instead, 

they settled for an easy property tax giveback, favoring the 

rich.

They have permitted state highways and mass transit systems to 

deteriorate. In "real" dollars they reduced state government’s 

transportation investments. Their legacy will be slower, more 

difficult, and less safe highway transportation for Minnesota’s 

manufacturing companies, for farmers, for workers, and for families. 

Their mass transit mess will mean more isolation for senior 

citizens, more barriers between low income people and businesses 

seeking workers, and more automobile congestion.

Minnesota’s ship of state is like the Titanic-gloriously steaming 

full speed ahead through calm seas on a clear night. The best 

champagne is flowing in first class, and even the beer tastes a 

little better in steerage. Only the captain and the wireless 

operator know about the warnings of an ice field ahead. And the 

captain is going to bed.