[0:08] [Music] [0:23] okay welcome everyone my name is Karine Shepard and I'm the president of the Bloomington League of Women Voters and [0:28] we're pleased to make this form available to you this evening yes the League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan [0:33] political organization that never endorses any political party or candidate our purpose in hosting this [0:39] forum is to provide you with the opportunity to learn more about the candidates so that you can make informed [0:45] voting decisions the league encourages active and informed voters we welcome [0:50] all who are interested in learning more about the issues to consider joining our league and visit our website you can [0:56] find information after the Forum outside election day is Tuesday November 5th and [1:01] early in-person voting is available right here at Bloomington Civic Plaza starting this Friday September 20th and [1:09] I would be remiss as a league member if I didn't ask you are you all registered to vote is your registration current do [1:16] you know your Precinct and do you know your polling place and if you're wondering okay see a league member after [1:22] the Forum in our current political environment this is an excellent opportunity to hear views directly from [1:28] the candidates this event this evening required the [1:33] efforts of many people and I would like to thank them the candidates for the time and effort that you have dedicated [1:40] to running for office and for participating in this forum in these days of political polarization we can be [1:46] proud that our candidates for their efforts that they make to run positive campaigns and for demonstrating civility [1:53] in this form that is becoming of the office they seek and that reflects the attitudes and demeanor of our community [1:59] as a whole whole I want to thank the me members of The League of Women Voters and especially to the voter service [2:05] committee for planning this event and thank you to the city of Bloomington for the use of the council [2:11] chambers here and also thanks to Bloomington TV for recording and broadcasting this forum on Bloomington [2:18] TV and it will be posted online for on our website the city of Bloomington [2:23] website and on YouTube and will'll also be be broadcast multiple times on Bloomington TV [2:30] we ask the members of the audience not clap cheer or otherwise do anything that may disrupt The Forum or the recording [2:37] process our league moderator tonight is Patty robless Patty is a member of the [2:42] Maple Grove oio and Brooklyn Park league and is an experienced moderator she will [2:49] now identify the rules of the Forum and will introduce you to the candidates thank [2:54] you thank you good evening I'm Patty Rogas a member of the League of Women [2:59] Women Voters Brooklyn Park oio Maple Grove and moderator for tonight's Forum [3:05] I have completed all moderator training required by the League of Women Voters Minnesota and have moderated forums for [3:11] over two DEA decades before we get started let's all get our cell phones out and turn them off or put them on [3:18] silent thanks so much we ask that you do not use personal [3:23] devices to record this event because doing so can distract or obstruct the view of others please remain as quiet as [3:31] possible while the candidates are speaking so everyone can hear please hold your applause until the end of the [3:37] Forum so that candidates will have the maximum time to respond to your questions the League of Women Voters [3:43] Minnesota and our local leagues conduct candidate forums to provide the public with an opportunity to hear candidates [3:50] discuss the issues that are important to the members of the public the league is a nonpartisan organization that does not [3:57] support or oppose any political party or candidate the views expressed in each [4:02] Forum are those of the candidates not those of the League of Women Voters lwv [4:08] Minnesota and our local leagues post complete unedited recordings of forums [4:14] excerpts or edited clips of candidate forums may not be used for political purposes this forum is being video [4:21] recorded the recordings of candidate forums in their entirety are the sole property of the League of Women [4:28] Voters this evening you will hear the candidate from the candidates for Minnesota House of Representatives [4:34] districts districts 50b and 51b discuss issues that are important to the [4:40] residents of the districts all candidates for the aforementioned offices whose names will be printed on [4:46] the ballot have been invited to participate in this forum each participating candidate has confirmed by [4:52] their signature their commitment to abide by The Forum procedure and rules copies of the Forum rules are posted in [4:59] the lobby adjacent to this space we will try to cover as many issues as possible in the time we have if your question was [5:06] not addressed tonight please feel free to contact the candidates directly here [5:11] is the format for tonight's Forum speaking order was set before the Forum and will rotate with each question each [5:20] candidate will have two minutes for an opening statement and one minute for closing remarks each candidate will have [5:26] one and a half minutes to answer each question League volunteers Cynthia [5:31] Jorgenson and Karen Dinan will time candidate responses and hold up signs to [5:37] Show candidates when they have 30 seconds left and when they have 15 seconds left [5:43] and when they must stop as moderator I will ask all the questions lwv Bloomington and I [5:51] determine which questions will be asked and attempt in good faith to cover the topics of Interest indicated by the [5:56] question submitted to lwv VA email prior to this evening and by attendees during [6:03] this event if you would like to submit a question this evening please write it on an index card and pass it to one of the [6:09] volunteers who is collecting those cards call card collectors please raise your [6:15] hands serving as question facilitators today are Nancy clay and Douglas [6:21] claycomb of the Bloomington League all submitted questions become the property of lwb lwv Bloomington no campaign [6:30] material signs brochures cards buttons or clothing with the candidate information are allowed in the [6:36] Bloomington Civic Plaza candidates please speak directly into your microphone so that your [6:42] responses are heard and picked up by the video when you speak please look at the audience not at [6:49] me here are the candidates for a two-year term as representatives for [6:54] district 50b in the Minnesota house Mr Bob gust and Mr Steve Elkins vying for [7:01] the Minnesota house seat representing District 51b are Mr Nathan Coulter Mr [7:08] lion Dale Johnson candidate Elkins and his wife are members of League Women Voters [7:14] Bloomington let's start with opening statements by the candidates two [7:20] minutes and the first um candidate we hear from will be Steve Elkins hello I'm Steve Elkins your state [7:27] representative for Western Bloomington I'd like to thank the league for this opportunity to address you tonight my [7:33] wife Judy and I have lived in our home in Bloomington for 40 years and I've been knocking on your doors for about 30 [7:39] of those years I've come to understand what Bloomington voters expect from their elected representatives they want [7:46] legislators who will work for Reproductive Freedom uh Common Sense gun violence protection laws preservation of [7:53] Minnesota's tradition of free and fair elections equal rights for everybody [7:58] quality public education for our children and grandchildren a public safety system that keeps us safe in our [8:04] homes and our persons access to health care and an affordable cost housing that [8:09] our ad adult children can afford as they start their families action to address climate change clean water and the [8:17] protection of our natural resources a convenient safe and well-maintained transportation system a government that [8:23] respects and protects our privacy and in all of these areas provides Effective Government that uses tax pay our [8:29] resources wisely and provide services efficiently in my three terms in the [8:35] house I've made this list of Bloomington priorities my priorities as well I have [8:40] earned the respect of my colleagues and stakeholders for my thoughtful and pragmatic Appo approach to legislating [8:46] and I'm known for working on a bipartisan basis to make state government more effective and I look [8:51] forward to answering your questions thank you thank you Bob gust thank you [8:58] uh this election is about who is the best person to make decisions for the people of Bloomington Steve Elkins who [9:04] is literally my neighbor um lives up the street for me Steve Elkin and the Democrats think that they are I think [9:11] that you are and what do I mean by that in this last cycle we had a$ 17 billion [9:17] Surplus I think that money should have gone back to the people who who paid it and they could have spent it as they [9:23] thought they should have paid it but more importantly than that we're a big tax and spend State already [9:30] and so when we have a$7 billion Surplus that means we got $17 billion more than [9:35] we had previously projected would be required in order to meet the needs of the state now to me that signals it's [9:43] time for some tax relief let's give the money back to the let's give this money back but let's lower taxes going forward [9:51] that didn't happen instead our government decided to increase spending by 40% so that they wouldn't have that [9:58] um Surplus in the future and even after doing that they still raise taxes and so [10:05] I'm running not because I think I have a better idea how to spend your money I'm [10:11] running because I think you have a better idea how to spend your money and I would like to give that opportunity [10:16] back to you now when the Democrats took control of both houses they did a number of things that [10:25] um kind of surprised me and I don't really think they were my priorities and I don't think they were the priorities [10:30] of the people in Bloomington um including um uh voting rights for felons [10:37] and um driver's licenses for non-citizens now you can make Arguments for both of those things but why was [10:44] that the highest priority well I submit the highest priority was that it's just a tool in order to hopefully get votes [10:51] so I'm voting for I'm running because I believe in common sense and and because [10:56] I want to give go the responsibility back to the people thank you thank you [11:01] Nathan Coulter good evening everyone and thank you all I don't think you think [11:07] after five years good evening everyone um thank you all so much for watching thank you to the league for hosting and [11:13] thank you to my fellow candidates for being here tonight I'm Nathan Colter and [11:18] I'm running to continue serving our neighbors in eastern Bloomington in the Minnesota House of Representatives by way of my own [11:25] background I'm a lifelong resident of Bloomington and proud to be a product of our Bloomington Public Schools I have a [11:32] Bachelor's in music and political science from St Olaf College and a master's of public affairs from the [11:37] Humphrey school at the University of Minnesota prior to serving in the legislature I served for five years on [11:42] the Bloomington city council I live about two minutes from here which I am particularly grateful for tonight uh [11:49] with my wife and our two daughters who just started kindergarten and prechool at Bloomington Public Schools just a few [11:55] weeks ago I'm running again because I'm proud proud of the work that we've done and I'm excited for the work we have ahead [12:02] of us when I ran two years ago I said let's get to work and I say that because [12:09] I think that's what motans expect from our leaders or at least what we want to expect but I also say it because I mean [12:17] it in my time in the legislature I have focused on what I believe are Center of [12:22] Life issues Bringing Down the costs of child care College property taxes [12:28] centering The Voice of Voters in our elections and delivering for folks right [12:33] here in Bloomington I'm looking forward to talking about that work and the work [12:39] to come tonight and at your doors through through election day and I'm excited to get back to work thank [12:46] you thank you lion Dale Johnson [12:52] hello there we go now you can hear me thank you uh hi I am lion Dale Johnson [12:57] my real name is Dale Berner Johnson I am liondale because there's a big a lot of [13:03] Johnson's in the state of Minnesota and when I got involved in politics helping [13:09] other people about 10 years ago people would forget my name so I have over a [13:14] sec a century or decade in Lions International I don't if anybody's familiar with that uh probably the best [13:21] Organization for volunteers in the world and so I added the lion to my nail my [13:26] name because it's lion Dale and people don't forget forget that uh I've been uh helping other candidates and in the last [13:33] two years the insanity over at the state of Minnesota in the legislature just got [13:39] too much for me I've never dreamed of being a a candidate I didn't spend my [13:44] life in politics I'm not a political science major I am a guy who grew up [13:51] working I am the son of a union member 38 years in the IBEW I am currently a [13:59] member of two unions and I've been a member of four my father served in World [14:05] War II and him and my wife my mother lived through the Great Depression a [14:11] whole different learning of people who have lived through the depression I've SE I grew up in Minneapolis and I've [14:17] seen the metro area change in a nonproductive way the crime is getting [14:25] heavy and the spending over at the state legislature is insane the fraud that is going on was not [14:33] addressed and is still not being addressed by your state representatives [14:38] only the federal government is doing something so I would like your vote and I am the district east of Penn the blue [14:46] collar working class T side of the town thank you we going to start with [14:53] Excuse me can I can I ask one favor because we're looking at the audience it would be helpful when you're [14:59] holding up the time if you if you kept it up until it was the next one because I'm looking over here and and I don't [15:05] know and then all of a sudden I'm at 30 if you follow me I was a debater in high [15:11] school that's how I remember that thank you um we're going to start with the uh Community questions now um [15:19] and we're going to start first with Nathan culture if and I'll ask the question and all four of you will answer [15:25] the same question and if you need the question repeated please you know don't hesitate to ask if elected what if any [15:31] legislation would you support to address the need for affordable child [15:38] care well I'm really really glad that this was that this was the first question that was asked tonight because [15:45] I continue to believe that quality affordable accessible Child Care is the biggest social and economic issue we [15:52] face in the state of Minnesota right now it costs on average more to send a kid [15:57] to child care than it does to send them to the University of Minnesota we spend [16:02] comparatively 17th on early care and learning in this state compared to our K12 system when [16:09] arguably it's more important because we know that 80% of brain development happens by age three and 90% by age five [16:17] in my just in my one term in the legislature I am proud to have been the author of more than $300 million into [16:24] our early learning scholarships ensuring that thousands more Minnesota kids KS will have access to quality affordable [16:31] early care and learning our budget that we passed last year also included great start compensation supports direct [16:38] support for pro child care providers early care really Educators is what they are uh to ensure better pay and benefits [16:46] so we have made some progress but we need to do more in particularly we need in particular excuse me we need to focus [16:53] on affordability for middle class families we do need to up the public investment because it is a public good [17:00] and we also need to focus on making licensing easier and more intuitive so that it's easier for these early uh care [17:07] Educators who are also business owners to actually run their business thank you thank you lion Dale [17:15] Johnson thank you uh suan okay Child [17:20] Care what's why is child care is so expensive it's because of the mandates [17:26] put on by the state and they want to keep jacking up the [17:33] responsibilities and the prices the state wanted to unionize all of the health care uh Child [17:42] Care locations why was that to give the kids a better [17:49] safer area no so when we look at why is child care expensive it's because of the [17:57] things that they have to been dealing with that are forced on them by the [18:02] state uh that it's expensive yeah everything is expensive but it's [18:08] government that drives up the costs not some woman who's running Child Care out [18:14] of her house and it people have got to start to realize expenses come from [18:20] government regulations and let the free market handle [18:26] it thank you uh um Bob gust thank you um [18:32] I would Echo that to some extent I have to confess I'm I don't have children um [18:37] but I do have nieces and nephews um I've gotten uh questionnaires and things from [18:43] different organizations you know seeking if I want their endorsement or whatnot and what I [18:49] gather from what I've seen from them is the high costs are largely because of [18:54] more and more mandates and more and more requirements now those requirements are all well-intentioned um but I also think [19:03] that we lived without them for a long time and um and I think that I agree [19:08] with Dale that that's what's driving up the cost now I believe I I'm always been [19:14] in favor of of you know tax breaks for all levels of Education um and so to the [19:22] extent that you can address the issue that way so that to the extent people have to pay for child care um that that [19:30] is reflected in a way that they at least get deductions for it um I don't agree [19:37] with the idea of we need more and more government into what I think we basically need less government but I completely agree um because there are no [19:44] longer the idea like when I was growing up where you had a one income family and then you had someone else at home and so [19:51] we have to we do have to address that and we do have to make it affordable but whether that's more mandates or whether [19:57] that's fewer mandates um I think it's fewer thank you Steve [20:04] Elkins yeah thank you so first of all what representative cter said I I won't repeat all of that because he said it so [20:10] well uh but I would uh offer that the uh the root cause of uh higher child care [20:16] costs is that it's a very labor intensive U per um function uh you don't [20:22] ever see productivity in an uh uh in a direct care profession like that because [20:28] you don't want want to includ increase the number of kids per um you know per [20:33] per child care worker uh and people aren't going to go into child care if [20:38] you can make more uh money flipping burgers at McDonald uh than you can from taking care of somebody's kid and it's [20:45] not just this profession you we have the same issue with uh nursing home workers with personal care attendants who attend [20:52] to uh people with disabilities in in their homes teachers uh any profession [20:58] um and almost all of these are government supported uh where um you [21:03] have a um you have people creating you performing Direct Care Prov um services [21:10] to people the cost is going up and um Mr Gus mentioned uh you know well what what [21:16] happened to the budget surplus about you know five billion of that just went into increasing wages for people uh indirect [21:24] care professions teachers uh nursing home workers uh and um that's I think [21:30] that was a very worthy worthy expense thank you um question two what are your top [21:39] legislative priorities and we're going to start first with Bob dust well as you can probably guess from [21:45] my opening remarks my top legislative priorities relate to things that I think [21:51] are common to everybody and that's uh lowering taxes and I think there are a number of ways to do that and one that [21:57] has occurred to me and that has been mentioned to me is a lot of people uh even fairly well off people object to [22:04] the fact that we tax Social Security now we've modified that a little bit but for the most part um there are a lot of [22:11] people who've paid in who are not happy that now they pay taxes when they collect their social security and a lot [22:17] of those people end up moving out of state similarly we're one of only about eight states that still has an estate [22:23] tax um well that also causes a lot of people to change their residency and [22:28] when those people leave they take with them what the the taxes that they were otherwise paying the otherwise state [22:34] income taxes which most people are prepared to pay um following that um I [22:41] am a big fund the police person at the at our level the state level um I think [22:48] we have to do all we can to help law enforcement and I think part of that is [22:54] uh we should not be doing anything to encourage illegal immigration because because it is drives down wages and it's [23:01] a tax on social services and frankly I drive 494 every day we have too many [23:08] people here already I'm I'm actually not even in favor of people coming here from Iowa I just assume that thank you thank [23:16] you um Steve Elkins um thank you um I [23:22] think from an advocacy point of view I think the the legislature the most important priorities for me are you know [23:29] preserving reproductive Freedom Common Sense gun violence laws preservation of our free and fair elections in terms of [23:36] issues that I I work on directly myself you you know leveraging my my life experiences the the areas that I'm I [23:44] think I'm contributing the most on are um you know first of all trying to uh [23:50] address the affordable housing crisis we a a problem where if you're if you're my [23:55] age you probably own a home it may already be paid for and this is not a concern uh but I've got two 40-year-old [24:02] daughters uh who still have not purchased their first home so one of my top priorities in terms of issues that [24:08] I'm actually working on is uh reducing red tape quite frankly that is preventing the Home Building uh industry [24:15] from building the homes that our our children need in order to to buy uh and [24:20] the uh you know second one would say would be the uh uh the cost of an access [24:25] of of Health Care so I've been working on what's an incredibly uh complicated issue for uh uh for four years now uh [24:33] trying to uh create uh an effective Marketplace in in health care uh we [24:39] spend way too much on health care and there's a huge amount of uh opportunity to reform our Health Care [24:45] system thank you lion Dale Johnson government [24:51] accountability right now there is none over at the state capital the uh the [24:58] fraud that was going on would only be stopped now because the federal [25:04] government stepped in because their money was being taken your governor and your legislature [25:12] didn't step in we can't keep going on and having [25:18] that fraud going on it's nearly half a billion dollars discovered so far all [25:24] right so why aren't people doing something about it and it was known for a long time that it was going on so we [25:31] need government to be accountable and the the current state government says no [25:37] we're not going to punish anybody in the Departments where this was going on [25:43] because we're going to look at it as a as a teaching moment well they're teaching with your tax dollars all right [25:49] when they can spend whatever they want because it's your money taxation is too [25:56] high and Public Safety is going down the tubes because we're letting people out [26:01] early and we're reducing the sentences for serious crime Meanwhile we're [26:06] locking up police officers who are doing their job this stuff's got to set it's got to [26:13] stop thank you Nathan coulure well as you might have guessed [26:18] from my previous answer um quality affordable accessible early care and learning as I said uh I believe it is is [26:26] the greatest social and econ IC issue that we face in the state of Minnesota it's holding back young families it's [26:32] holding back our economy billions of dollars left out of our economy because folks don't have quality affordable [26:39] child care um bringing down continuing to bring down the costs of going to college uh whether that's a four-year [26:46] college or Community and Technical College um strengthening um programs related to um [26:55] uh uh apprenticeships that's the word I was looking for apprenti ships um strengthening the partners Partnerships [27:01] that we have with our local governing partners and I do believe our city councils and county boards and school [27:06] boards and Township boards they are local Partners um and in particular one area that I've focused on is a property [27:13] tax system that works for everyone the reality is that over the last few years we have seen property tax increases hit [27:21] hardest folks who can afford it the least partly because of the system that we have in place at the same time that [27:28] many local governments are struggling even to afford the Necessities um I would say the other piece is just really [27:34] delivering for folks right here in Bloomington thank you thank you uh next question we're [27:41] going to start with Lion Dale Johnson what can the legislature do to make non-motorized active Transportation [27:49] safer and more efficient I think we've uh got lots of [27:55] non-motorized public uh things going on right now uh in [28:02] Bloomington uh the street I live on was just taken from a two-lane Street each way to a one lane Street each way so [28:09] that a a lane for bicycles could go in all the work to do that reduced the [28:16] ability of traffic to flow and I almost never see anybody riding a bike in that [28:23] area so we're kind of uh you know bikes are great I don't ride one but we're [28:30] taking large areas and making this just for the bikes uh I think we maybe need [28:36] to look at that a little bit and uh really think about what's working best [28:42] for everybody I'm 69 years old I ain't G to hop on a bike I can drive my car but [28:50] some people want to ride a bike but we go too far and to worry about it [28:57] constant ly uh we are considering always [29:02] looking to get more bike paths and what is its real effect on the average person [29:10] I would say that people who bike every day is a very tiny percentage of the [29:17] population thank you Nathan Coulter uh well thank you for the question I um I would point to support [29:25] that I have demonstrated for our transit system our including uh expanding bus Rapid Transit [29:31] um I would also say that I know that you know we there have been some dips in in [29:36] ridership in the trans in on Transit over the last few years due to um very legitimate safety concerns and we um and [29:44] I'm sure representative alkins can speak to this more expertly than I can but um [29:49] the the policy changes and the Investments that we made in in making transit in particular Light Rail safer [29:55] for folks to ride I think is going to go a long way toward addressing a lot of these concerns um I think the reality is [30:02] that and I saw this even when I was on the Bloomington city council that folks do want to drive cars less they want to [30:09] be able to walk and bike and take transit but the reality is for a great many folks including you know folks here [30:15] in Bloomington it's just not an affordable option it's not an accessible option and so I think uh you know that [30:22] we we need to have the conversations about how we afford that kind of infrastructure and how that gets uh put [30:29] forward thank you uh Steve Elkins uh thank you this is uh an issue that I've [30:35] been working on since uh I was first elected to the Bloomington City Council in 2001 when I was uh door knocking that [30:42] year uh the number one complaint of citizens at the door was about speeding in their neighborhoods and so I started [30:49] working on this issue um as a as a result of what I was hearing at the doors and so uh Innovations like the uh [30:57] four lane to three uh Road diets as they're referred to um weren't actually [31:02] originally um implemented because uh they created bikeways that was just a nice to have we started doing that back [31:08] in the 2000s because it dramatically reduces uh accident rates for both motorists and uh and pedestrians and and [31:16] cyclists and after a while we simply just uh discovered that uh in the process of converting roads from four [31:23] lanes to three for safety reasons was in the process creating uh a network of uh [31:29] of bicycle lanes that we see in the city today I've continued to work on this issue in the uh in the legislature as [31:35] well I'm very proud of the legislation I passed uh uh when I was a freshman in in [31:41] the house that allows cities to set their own speed limit policies as a result this year you saw Bloomington um [31:48] reduce its default speed limit to uh to 25 miles per hour uh implemented the [31:54] bill duly bicycle safety act uh two years ago that further improves bicycle [31:59] safety non-motorized safety throughout the state so this is an issue I've been working on for a long time and very [32:05] proud of thank you um Bob gust thank you so uh the question I guess is a little [32:11] ambiguous because the way uh Dale answered it was referring mostly to bikes and and the way Mr Colter answered [32:17] it was included uh mass transit um the mass transit has not uh really served [32:26] the way we all had hoped with all the Light Rail that's gone in maybe it will maybe the uh Light Rail coming from Eden [32:32] Prairie will eventually get done and maybe people will start going downtown again um but I I don't know as for [32:38] bicycles um you know I think it's great to provide the the right kind of access [32:43] um but frankly I I used to office downtown and there were bike Lanes in [32:49] the winter when you know the lanes are a little bit narrowed anyway because of snow pack and nobody was riding their [32:56] bikes in the winter and and it just seemed like it's it's gone a little too far and even drives on Highway 100 um [33:04] there's uh you can cross Highway 100 at 70th Street or you can cross it at 76th Street that wasn't enough so they put a [33:11] uh uh a special bike bridge and this bridge had to have cost millions of dollars because it's very elaborate I [33:17] drive under there all the time in the 10 or so years that's been that I've seen four people on on bikes up there so you [33:25] know I'm not obviously not against it but I think we spent way too much um time on it and way too much money on it [33:31] I think it's more than adequate the way that it is thank you uh question number four and [33:38] we're going to start with Steve Elkins please share why you support or do not support the use of rank Choice voting in [33:45] elections and if elected will you help pass the local options bill which would [33:51] give all jurisdictions the option of adopting rank Choice voting yeah I'm uh [33:57] um long been a strong supporter of of rank Choice voting um uh you know during [34:03] my city council years uh in the 2000s I was actually uh uh a member of the [34:08] independence party which kept Fielding really good candidates for for State office but uh uh they do out do well on [34:16] the early polling and then would fade at the end as people uh you know re you know retreated to the the the their not [34:23] necessarily their favored candidate but uh the the uh to avoid getting the the [34:29] least favorite candidate elected we're seeing uh elections uh here and across [34:35] the country where um the inability of a voter to cast a a second choice valid is [34:41] uh really skewing the results of our elections uh I like to point back to uh [34:46] say that the uh 2000 Bush V Gore election where if uh Florida voters had been able to who had voted for Ralph [34:53] nater had been able to cast a a second Chase Choice vote for Al Gore instead Al [34:59] Gore would have won Florida handily that year and we would never heard about hanging Chads 2016 uh Jill St Stein took [35:08] enough votes from uh uh Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin Michigan and Phil in um [35:14] Pennsylvania to uh um basically her her vote total was higher than uh than [35:20] Donald Trump's vote total and all three of those States and if those people had been able to vote for Clinton as a their [35:26] second choice vote she would have won the election there as well thank you um [35:31] Bob gust I'm against rank Choice voting uh [35:36] primarily because it seems to provide another opportunity for people to doubt [35:42] election Integrity um you can recount ballots regular ballots but when you're [35:48] recounting ballots and then you're going well who do they vote for second who they vote for third it's all gets done [35:54] through a computer and you end up with I think skewed results I my understanding [36:00] is the mayor of Minneapolis was fourth um on the first ballot in the last [36:05] election that's my I've heard that I I don't have a source for it and and he [36:11] and yet he won so he was not the most popular but he was sort of you know down [36:16] the list and and perhaps the you know through through some process uh was [36:22] ultimately elected now Mr Elin cites uh you know some issues with Hillary [36:28] Clinton well I submit if you'd had rank Choice voting in 1992 the Ross perau voters probably their second choice [36:35] probably would have been uh George HW Bush and so I I think it can go either [36:41] way but we've lived with a system for a long time that I think has worked the only place that I could see it was a [36:48] place like in Minneapolis where you could have five Democrats and one Republican running and then the [36:53] Republican gets elected and I think that's why Minneapolis actually adopted rank Choice voting because they thought [36:58] well we might split the vote too many ways um and they thought that was a problem well then they should go to you [37:05] a two-party system uh lion Dale Johnson thank you for the question uh I [37:11] am opposed to legislating at the state level a mandate for rank Choice voting [37:19] clear it's not a state issue it is a local [37:24] issue it is a confusing system system we've been using the other system for [37:31] 250 years why do we we to change it I will [37:37] give you the facts the facts are that it somehow or another and nobody can prove [37:42] why but it favors the Democrat Party so you will see the Democrats pushing [37:49] this and in Bloomington there was a lot of outside [37:54] money from outside of the state used to push that into the people in [38:01] Bloomington and and Nationwide there's a guy down in Texas spent like $5 million [38:08] around the country to push rank Choice voting money he made when he was a Enron [38:15] he made a he made a bunch on Enron before it collapsed and ate up my [38:20] 401k so why is it being pushed why don't we just stay with what we have and the [38:26] confusion ask people how it works most of them won't know and it does make it more [38:34] difficult to try to figure out like Bob said well how do you recount these votes [38:39] it's a bad deal and it's certainly not State mandate Nathan [38:45] coulure well I do support rank Choice voting and I will confess to being something of a convert on this issue uh [38:52] in fact the the very first meeting I had after I was elected the city council on it well let's just say I've had had bad [38:57] meetings folks that was a bad meeting um but ultimately you know I had [39:04] conversations with a number of folks and what I came to see is that rank Choice [39:09] voting really is just a better way a way a way to better reflect the will the [39:14] actual will of the voters it ensures that it's harder to sort of skate by [39:19] into office with a small percentage of the vote while also ensuring that voters [39:25] themselves have the widest variet of choices available on their November ballot and I mentioned earlier that this [39:31] is one of my priorities centering the voices of Voters in our elections I [39:37] actually do believe that the best path forward for rank Choice voting right now is to pass the local option bill that [39:42] moved forward in the legislature unfortunately didn't make it across the Finish Line to ensure that every city [39:49] county school district Township Board every local government in the state can if they choose to if their citizens [39:56] choose to adopt rank Choice voting and what happens is that every time that happens folks see it they get it and [40:04] they like it thank you thank you um the next question we're going to [40:11] start with Nathan Coulter Americans including Bloomington residents are living through the toughest housing [40:17] market in a generation what ideas are you going to focus on to address this [40:24] trend well I'm I'm glad that this question came came up and housing is actually one of the issues that motivated me to run for office in the [40:31] first place um and it's it's not surprising to hear that folks are are really really struggling to find housing [40:38] we have an estimated in the state of Minnesota an estimated shortage of 160,000 Hing housing [40:45] units I'm really really proud of the work that we did and the Investments we made uh2 million for Housing Development [40:53] for low and middle- inome motans we also strengthened tenant rights and I overall [41:00] our housing budget invested a billion dollars into housing affordability into getting minnesotans a safe warm clean [41:08] place to live we do need to do more um in terms of I would say we need to [41:13] empower local governments that are doing the right thing much like we're seeing here in Bloomington with our opportunity [41:19] housing ordinance that I was proud to to support and move forward when I was on the city council um there are I think uh [41:26] changes representative Elkins mentioned some of them related to zoning um really we we just need to sort of make it [41:35] profitable make it accessible for everyone to have a safe place to call home in [41:41] Minnesota thank you um Lian Dale Johnson housing I grew up in a house in [41:47] North Minneapolis I had a house in South Minneapolis I had a house in Brooklyn [41:54] Park I lost the one in Brooklyn Park to foreclosure it's not [41:59] fun housing is not an apartment housing is a house when the government starts dumping [42:06] money in it doesn't go in to building affordable houses it goes in to building [42:13] apartment buildings all right that's my opinion of it and I've lived in both of [42:19] the situations So when you say housing why is housing expensive because of [42:25] government mandates you have to have triple pane windows or you have to have this kind of insulation government [42:32] mandates are driving up the costs of housing if you want to bring housing [42:38] costs down let Builders build them at an affordable rate a same house same design [42:46] built in minneap in Minnesota built across the river in Wisconsin is a whole [42:52] lot cheaper and it's the same house w why [42:58] government mandates thank you uh Steve [43:03] Elkins uh thank you this is one of the the most important issues to me as I [43:08] said earlier um you know I've got two 40-year-old daughters who can't afford to to to buy their first first home and [43:16] um I'm I'm proud to to be a resident of Bloomington where the city council has already taken action to make it easier [43:24] to buy uh uh to build and uh uhy by affordable housing the city has already [43:29] uh achieved something like 34s of its affordable housing goals for the entire decade uh but there are are too many uh [43:37] cities in Minnesota that are not like Bloomington or Richfield or the cities [43:42] that are are attacking this issue that are um creating red tape as it were uh [43:48] by saying if you want to build a home in our city um you you've got to build it on a third of an acre of land uh and you [43:56] can only build if if it's faced with a stone or Hardy plank um and this is a [44:02] nationwide issue uh these these problems are exist everywhere and it's becoming [44:07] uh a uh an existential threat threat to our economy because it's clear from the [44:13] National Data that the regions that are thriving are the ones that are able to provide uh Workforce housing to workers [44:21] people are are leaving high CO High housing cost States moving to lower cost states and if we don't do something to [44:28] uh alleviate the regulatory buildings on affordable housing we're going to be a net Loser on [44:35] population thank you uh Bob gust so [44:40] representative couter indicated they spent a billion dollars and it that doesn't seem to have done anything which [44:47] tells me that a government spending money on it is not the answer I think housing is a supply and demand issue and [44:54] I think it always is um and one of the big problems that I think we are having [45:00] is uh Supply is being gobbled up in a lot of places by big companies what used to be uh home homes that people owned [45:08] are now homes that people are renting and they're renting them from people and I frankly while I'm a pretty free market [45:15] guy uh it seems to me that um we ought to deal with that with a fairly Hefty um [45:23] Homestead benefit so that people who are renting who are buying houses to rent other people um not I don't want to use [45:31] the word penalized but you know pay significantly more frankly um if if [45:37] there was something where you actually limited home ownerships to actual people who are going to be in the homes the way [45:43] some um uh townhouse associations are I I don't necessarily think that's a bad [45:48] idea even though like I say I'm a free market guy um but to have actual owners [45:54] in their homes would reduce the number of people trying to buy them and the supply and demand would take care of [46:01] itself thank you next question we're going to start with Bob gust um what is your opinion on [46:10] allowing for multifamily we're staying with the properties and homes uh allowing for multif Family Properties to [46:17] be constructed in traditional single family zoned areas and how would this impact how does this impact local [46:25] communities so I I believe this is my opponent's one of his primary issues [46:30] weren't you the author of that of that proposal along that line uh Bloomington has always allowed [46:37] duplexes in single family neighborhoods okay but but wasn't there a bill last session to do that throughout the metro [46:45] in any event I'll I'll answer the question because and and I'm because I'm I am opposed to that idea because zoning [46:53] uh was set up by local governments and they had in mind you know single family [46:59] housing how many cars that would mean how many people that would mean um and so to say well you know what you can [47:06] tear down a house and put in multif family housing completely first of all takes the those decisions away from the [47:13] people who who made them who thoughtfully made them in the first place and uh second of all now the way [47:20] you got in affordable housing from doing that is well it drove your property values down because you lived in kind of [47:27] a you know kind of a quiet neighborhood and all of a sudden now it's not so quiet because you've got multif family [47:32] housing Steve and I live on the same kind of quiet street we don't have people that much on either side if all [47:38] of a sudden we had multif family housing um that it completely changes the character of the neighborhood and so I [47:46] don't think it's a good idea for anybody other than local governments to be making those decisions thank you Steve Elkins yeah [47:55] thank you as as I I said um Bloomington has always allowed duplexes in single family neighborhoods uh if you look [48:02] closely you will see them scattered unobtrusively throughout the city and uh we're almost unique in in in that [48:10] respect um the one I I was a city council member [48:15] a planning commissioner for 12 years here and in that entire time I can only remember one case where a single family [48:22] home was replaced with a duplex and the neighbors one of the neighbors I'll never forget this came and and uh [48:29] testified that he didn't want the duplex to go in because it was so much nicer than all of the other houses in the [48:35] neighborhood it was going to uh raise the property values and he was afraid his property taxes would go up where I [48:42] have a problem is when um uh an exclusive semi gated community in the [48:48] exerpts is saying uh we're not going to allow uh anything but executive housing [48:53] to be neighborhood uh in in our city we're not going to allow ow new townhouse complexes or apart apartment [49:00] comp complexes uh starter homes that uh new families need uh because they want [49:05] to maintain the exclusive and uh segregation uh patterns in in in their neighborhood if we don't allow more [49:13] starter homes in communities around the the the the state um we're not going to [49:19] be able to attract the re the workforce we need thank you Nathan [49:25] couter oh I think uh representative Elkins uh said a lot of what I was going to say um I think the reality is that [49:32] when it comes to this issue and local governments around the state there are good faith actors and there are bad [49:37] faith actors and I'm proud that Bloomington is and I think always really has been a good faith actor has been [49:43] making these decisions about what really works for the community in terms of that kind of housing density um there were [49:50] proposals that moved forward that that were discussed and you know they were they were dissected and and and [49:57] compromises were made about exactly where and when um certain kinds of homes should be allowable by right um and I [50:04] think though you know those conversations uh will continue to move forward that I think that was maybe just [50:10] perhaps too big of a conversation to have in in one relatively short legislative session um but I you know [50:17] one thing that I have found and I have worked on this issue as as well is that at the end of the day it's import It's [50:23] always important to remember that the approving Authority whether it's a city Council or a planning commissioner [50:28] whoever they always have the ability to deny approvals based on the health safety and Welfare of the community if [50:35] something will truly be unsafe for the community the city council has every [50:40] right to deny approvals thank you lion Dale Johnson will you replate the question as it was [50:48] uh sure what is your opinion on allowing for multifamily properties to be [50:53] constructed in traditional single family zoned areas is how does this impact [50:58] local communities okay multifam doesn't say [51:06] duplex okay multifam can be an apartment with 10 different apartments in it so [51:15] let's keep those two separate a duplex is one thing multifamily can be a lot of [51:21] other things all right so that's how they open the door and then they trick you later all right I I I would be [51:30] opposed to it I grew up at a home most people want to live in a home they don't [51:37] want to live in multifam the uh the cost [51:45] of changing things to multif family that's when the developer comes in like [51:51] they did in Bloomington last year where a developer bought up a lot and then [51:58] Twisted the arms of the city council to get that lot res sanctioned and split to [52:05] two so he could build two small houses and make money do you think the [52:11] neighbors really wanted that no and this duplexes you don't see too many of those [52:18] over in uh uh West Bloomington where you see that kind of stuff going on is the [52:24] area I represent east Bloomington so listen to the words thank [52:30] you uh our next question we're going to start with lale Johnson in the 2023 legislative session [52:38] the leg legislature voted to cover 50% of school district's special education [52:44] cost Subs cross Subs subsidies excuse me sorry or the amount taken from District [52:51] General funds to cover unreimbursed special education costs please please [52:56] explain your views on this legislation well I wish I was more familiar with it I will tell you that in the last session [53:04] the legislature put mandates onto schools but they didn't fund [53:11] them so that's going to dump it on the people who live in those [53:17] districts and they keep saying we need to fully fund [53:23] education well nobody has ever said what fully funded [53:29] means so they jacked up things that they have to have didn't provide the money [53:35] and fully funded is like I'm going to cure cancer it's the gift that keeps on [53:41] giving they will keep taking and our scores at our schools are going down [53:48] they've been going down for years we're spending more money we're getting lower [53:53] grades and in the last few years there's been a 40% % increase in the principles [53:58] and assistant principles in the state of Minnesota but not an increase in the [54:04] student body so why are we spending more for principles and assistant principles [54:09] when they're watching less kids and Bloomington is closing a school we need [54:15] to think about do what there really is about if education is not working and it needs to [54:22] be fixed thank you uh Nathan cter well this I feel like I've been [54:30] saying this all night but this may be my favorite question of the night this is really I mean just a really a critically [54:35] important question to ask the the term that a lot of folks would use to describe the special ed cost subsidy is [54:42] unfunded mandate the federal government I think rightly says districts you have [54:47] to provide these services to students with special needs I'm a parent of a kid on an individual education plan I've [54:54] been through these meetings but the reality is that the feds while requiring this have never come even close to [55:01] providing the funding that really is needed to actually provide the services I wish they would but I don't exactly [55:08] hold my breath on Congress stepping up anytime soon we do need to do better we do need to fully close the special [55:14] education cross subsidy ideally the federal government would do it but if not that is not an excuse to leave these [55:20] kids Behind These are students who need the need these supports need these services our schools have an obligation [55:27] to provide them and it's going to be better for everybody if we do and yes that does mean we need to provide the [55:32] funding to make sure that happens thank you Bob gust I feel like representative cter [55:40] submitted all the questions tonight so um the obviously the uh the [55:47] incumbents are much better able to speak to legislation that was passed and why they did it um but what I would say is [55:55] is um I've reviewed all the legislation that they've passed during the two years [56:00] that the Democrats controlled both houses and this might be the only one that I think was a good idea at least [56:07] the only one that's ever been brought to my attention um i' I'm all in favor of [56:13] education and spending on education however we rarely spend smartly on [56:20] education somehow um there's always a way where where money goes to admin [56:26] administrators and money goes here and money goes there but it just never really seems to get to where it's [56:31] supposed to be and that's why we have to keep increasing the funding and increasing the funding so I'm fully on [56:37] board with the idea of the the state should step in and help with that um I [56:43] just think that as we've seen in a lot of situations the oversight is not always great it's not really done the [56:49] way maybe the private sector would do it in a very efficient way but other than that I'm I'm okay okay with it thank you [56:58] Steve Elkins yeah I can keep my answer short on this one this one uh the um Federal requirement that we um provide [57:05] special education services is the epitome of a an unfunded mandate and [57:10] essentially we took a big down payment on making it a funded mandate and so I [57:15] fully support the the funds that we devoted to that thank you um next question we start we'll [57:23] start with Steve Elkins recent media reports have suggested that many of [57:28] Minnesota's charter schools are failing financially and educationally and in [57:34] many cases are exacerbating the the achievement Gap are these concerns [57:40] legitimate if so what legislative remedies would you support to address [57:45] this problem not an area of specialty for me but um I've uh long supported the [57:51] charter school movement but clearly the reporting by the Star Tribune in the past week is uh clearly uh indicated [57:58] that the uh oversight over many of our Charter Schools is inadequate uh and uh grievously [58:05] inadequate and so I would you know strongly support um strengthening the oversight over uh over Charter Schools [58:12] it it appears to me that uh from the reporting that uh some of the sponsoring [58:17] organizations um uh themselves are not really qualified to be doing that uh [58:23] note that in in Bloomington U both of our daughters went to Hill Crest community school which is effectively a [58:30] a Bloomington School District sponsored Charter School in in all but name but it [58:35] has always been uh um you know very admirably managed uh with the heavy [58:41] input from the uh the teachers at the at at the site and um so I don't not all [58:46] charter schools are are bad but definitely agree that we the oversight desperately needs to be [58:52] improved thank you uh Bob gust I'm afraid I don't really trust all the [58:58] media reports um I'm sure that there are some charter schools that are not doing as well as they should uh in general [59:06] I've always thought Charter Schools were a good idea a number of years ago um I [59:12] had a case um in case I didn't say it I've been a lawyer for 40 years and um [59:18] uh TCF Bank was on the other side and I so I was an adversary with Bill Cooper who was the head of TCF Bank and he uh [59:25] he and some other people had started some charter schools and and uh they they talked them up and as far as I knew [59:32] those schools were doing great and have always done great um and so the fact [59:39] that uh there there might be some out there that have a problem sure let's [59:44] let's address it but let's uh let's not reject Charter Schools just because there're there are some reports that [59:50] there are some that are having problems thank you um Lion Dale Johnson [59:57] Charter Schools uh I'm not real familiar with them I do think they are good ideas [1:00:03] uh when I grew up they started busing and they moved busing into North [1:00:09] Minneapolis I went to Patrick Henry High School and all of a sudden we had to have people going out to the suburbs and [1:00:16] the suburbs coming in it didn't fix education my sons went to public schools [1:00:23] in Minneapolis when I lived in South Minneapolis they went to a montauri [1:00:30] style Minneapolis public school that school always outranked all [1:00:37] the other schools in Minneapolis why because of the way they [1:00:43] were teaching not because everybody in seart neighborhood was super smart it [1:00:50] was a very very diverse neighbor neighborhood so we keep wanting to [1:00:55] reinvent the on education instead of well you know uh phonic really worked [1:01:01] good back there 30 years ago uh why don't we stick with the stuff that's working and if a charter school is being [1:01:09] run as a nonprofit that can be a big problem because the nonprofits are kind of uh [1:01:19] there's too many nonprofits in this state already they need to be looked at thank you Nathan and culture uh well [1:01:27] I agree that I think we need to have a a really serious conversation about the future of of charter schools in the [1:01:33] state of Minnesota um and I I do think um that does that will call for some uh [1:01:39] strengthening of both oversight and and the regulatory infrastructure that currently exists around Charter Schools [1:01:45] um it's worth remembering that Minnesota was actually a leader in establishing charter schools in the first place some [1:01:51] 30 or 40 years ago under governor perit and you know I I've read the same news report that that everybody has and and [1:01:58] of course deeply dismayed by what they're showing um but in in some ways I [1:02:03] was not terribly surprised the reality really has always been that CH some Charter Schools work extremely well and [1:02:10] some simply do not and you know the those of us who follow this issue know that that's true for traditional Public [1:02:17] Schools as well and so um I you know I think we are going to have to have a conversation but um I mean I I would [1:02:23] just point to the fact that Charter Schools were build as an alternative to traditional public schools with fewer [1:02:30] mandates thank you um our next question we're going to start with lionelle [1:02:36] Johnson how do you see the place immigrants play to the economics of Minnesota and the [1:02:44] district can you define immigrants uh I believe the question is [1:02:50] for you to define imig immigrants okay I am the grandson of four immigrants from [1:02:56] Europe my parents uh were first year first born in America I have twin sons [1:03:05] that I adopted from Moscow Russia they're immigrants my grandparents came here [1:03:12] from Europe from Sweden and from Hungary and they came to Ellis Island and they came here [1:03:18] legally and my sons came into America legally so if you are talking about [1:03:24] immigrants that come here legally great hopefully they have something positive [1:03:30] to add to our culture our economy and are willing to accept and understand [1:03:37] that they're not living in Bolivia anymore they're living in the United States and we might have different [1:03:43] Customs than they do and they should respect where they are and pledge [1:03:49] allegiance to our flag if you're talking about people who have entered this country by already breaking a law [1:03:55] strictly against it and I'm against the state of Minnesota spending any money at [1:04:01] all to support that thank you Steve [1:04:06] Elkins uh thank you uh you know every economic study on immigration that's [1:04:11] ever been done have is you know very clearly showed that immigration provides a a a net uh Improvement to our economy [1:04:20] um we need more workers we need to admit them legally uh we need to allow them to work they are more likely than uh native [1:04:28] born Americans to start new businesses uh we have a severe Workforce shortage [1:04:33] in um nursing homes uh Personal Care attendance traditionally first [1:04:38] generation immigrants have filled many of those jobs and so when we uh choke off the supply of uh of immigrants uh we [1:04:46] find ourselves in a situation where nursing homes are turning away uh patients not because they don't have [1:04:52] rooms but because they don't have uh employ es to staff them so I I you know [1:04:58] our our immigration system is a mess it's largely a federal issue but I think [1:05:04] that we should be doing everything that we can to uh assimilate immigrants into our economy and put them to [1:05:11] work thank you um Bob gust I think we have an obligation to [1:05:17] take care of people who are already in Minnesota before we start taking care of the rest of the world um I can't [1:05:24] disagree with the idea that um uh there are some jobs that um seem to be more [1:05:30] dominated by uh immigrants and apparently because nobody else wants to [1:05:36] do them um and I I from personal experience my father was in assisted living for four years and pretty much [1:05:43] all of his attendants were Somali and they were all very nice and pleasant um [1:05:49] and that doesn't necessarily mean that we need to be bringing the whole world [1:05:54] to our doorstep step because we have a lot of people here who have needs um and [1:06:02] frankly the immigrants do tend to push down um wages the illegal immigrants [1:06:08] push it down even more um and it seems as though we're spending an awful lot of [1:06:13] money on uh immigrants it is the case that um you have a lot of businesses [1:06:19] started by immigrants but that's because there are some people who come here and there's a special type of visa for [1:06:25] people who are going to put up a certain amount of money and so that's not necessarily like they came here as [1:06:31] immigrants and decided to go into business it's more like um they came here with the business and and that was [1:06:37] the the reason that they came here so as I said before we're pretty crowded already I I think you know immigration [1:06:44] is fine but we it's it's not the end all thank you Nathan [1:06:50] Coulter well we have always been a state that welcomes immigrants whether it is folks who came from Scandinavia or [1:06:58] Germany 100 100 150 years ago folks who moved up to the Iron Range Eastern Europeans to mine our iron uh or our uh [1:07:06] Somali and M and Lao Neighbors From the last few decades I I think there [1:07:12] probably is pretty broad agreement that our federal immigration system is nothing short of deeply deeply broken [1:07:20] and unless and until Congress steps up to fix that I think we need to recognize [1:07:25] that pushing people down forcing them to live lives in the shadows treating them [1:07:32] as less than human helps no one I'm actually glad to hear that uh there is [1:07:39] an agreement on quote an obligation to take care of people who are here in Minnesota the reality is that immigrants [1:07:45] of every legal status are people and they are here thank you uh next question we're [1:07:54] going to start with Nathan coulure um the growth of the internet and protection of personal data is a [1:08:00] continued concern what role does a legislature play play in protecting our [1:08:06] privacy oh well I will concede this is a little bit outside of my wheelhouse um I [1:08:12] my knowledge of this issue is is admittedly pretty limited I would hope that this is an area that the federal [1:08:18] government would step up and and uh provide the kinds of regulations I know um technology and [1:08:26] data sharing and all of this other stuff I don't have my phone in my pocket right now um but all of this is is proceeding [1:08:33] and growing at at an incredible rate um I I think that's going to be really one [1:08:38] of the great challenges of of any governing body over the next few years is what are we doing to to safeguard [1:08:45] personal information and data and and making sure that it's it's only in the places that individuals want it to be [1:08:52] and and I certainly would would um support actions to to protect that thank [1:08:59] you alale Johnson the uh the internet is uh not a state of Minnesota [1:09:05] issue as uh the gentleman to my right said it's a federal issue uh if the [1:09:13] state starts to get into it you're going to have a hodgepodge and their ability to deal [1:09:21] with something that is at a federal level is just going to get mucked up uh nobody wants to have the internet go [1:09:29] nuts and have your protections uh out there for everybody I just was at a [1:09:35] seminar yesterday about fraud and the internet it was a very good seminar I've [1:09:40] seen it twice now but it's not a state of Minnesota issue so I would not worry [1:09:46] about it at the state of Minnesota unless somebody could show me how that was going to be effective and not be [1:09:53] contrary or interfering with the federal government it's just not a state [1:10:00] issue thank you Bob gust so I think this is an important [1:10:06] issue although I I'm not sure I have a solution for it um other than maybe sort [1:10:11] of personal or through various businesses I if if you ever notice so I [1:10:17] have a friend who uh never had any interest in going on a cruise he just thought that was terrible and just as a [1:10:23] test uh with his phone near him he said honey how would you like to go on a cruise and all of a sudden he started [1:10:30] getting on Facebook ads popping up to go on a cruise and sort of realized that [1:10:36] someone was listening to him and uh and that and and I kind of noticed the same [1:10:41] thing you know I would uh go online to search for something for my dog and all of a sudden I start getting those kind [1:10:48] of ads I basically just quit Facebook as a result of that um because I didn't [1:10:53] like the that interference with my privacy unfortunately my campaign people told me I had to have a Facebook account [1:10:59] so I'm back on Facebook but um um it it is uh a problem and I actually was a [1:11:05] recent victim of uh kind of an Internet fraud I'm kind of embarrassed about it [1:11:11] somebody sent me an email asking me if as a favor I could uh buy them something because their credit card had been [1:11:17] declined and I didn't ask enough questions and bought somebody a $250 [1:11:23] gift card uh but I I it's it's a serious issue I don't know the answer to it I [1:11:28] kind of agree that it's you probably have to deal with it on a on a federal level because I mean what are you going [1:11:34] to do as a state that won't be covered thank you um all right we're going to do a lightning round oops except first we're [1:11:42] gonna hear hear Steve Falcons then we'll do because uh this is an issue that I've [1:11:48] been working on for five years now and I uh agree with the others that [1:11:54] uh this really is is an issue that the federal government that Congress should take up but Congress can't punch its way [1:11:59] out of a paper bag right now so I have worked um with state legislators uh and [1:12:05] what's now counting up to 19 other states to uh pass uh this year what will [1:12:11] be when it becomes effective next July the strongest uh consumer data Privacy Law that has been passed in any state in [1:12:18] in the in the country I spent the uh last 25 years of my career uh working in [1:12:24] data management uh so I was very well positioned to take this on so a year from now uh you will have the right to [1:12:31] know what data a company uh has about you to know uh to get a copy of that [1:12:36] data if there are errors to have it corrected you will have the right to uh prevent companies from selling your data [1:12:44] uh to use it for targeting advertising that follows you around on the internet um if your data is used to make a [1:12:51] consequential decision about you related to uh uh insurance or housing or [1:12:57] employment uh you will have the right to uh review that decision the data that was uh uh uh used in it to challenge the [1:13:05] the results and to know what you might have done better to uh get a better score the previous time so I'm very I'm [1:13:11] very proud of this work uh other start states are starting to copy some of the provisions that I included in my bill uh [1:13:18] but you will a year from now be present protected by the most uh strongest bill [1:13:24] in the country thank you um now we're going to do a lightning round and so with the lightning round these are just [1:13:30] like yes or no questions or I support I oppose um and you can perhaps give a [1:13:36] very short short brief uh phrase afterwards and that will give the um [1:13:42] voters an opportunity to reach out to know that they should reach out for more information on one of these um issues if [1:13:48] they have more questions for you all right so we're g to startop start with Bob gust first and do you support or do [1:13:55] not support laws ensuring endof life [1:14:01] options in general I support them okay uh Steve Elkins I [1:14:07] do uh lion Dale Johnson uh I'd like to see how it's written okay and Nathan Coulter with the [1:14:16] proper safeguards in place yes okay um do you support tougher gun laws [1:14:24] um and if so give your priority tougher gun law that you would support lion Dale [1:14:30] Johnson we have a second amendment and currently the uh legislature is trying [1:14:36] to make insane rules around guns really quick quick uh answer so was that was [1:14:42] that quick enough no not quite what you want so yes or no and then if you don't or if you do support [1:14:49] it what would be the priority law that you would support so I don't I don't support the current dire [1:14:55] okay thank you uh Nathan Coulter yes and the answer to that would [1:15:00] be uh safe storage law would be my priority all right thank you uh Steve Elkins uh yes we've already passed um [1:15:09] quick Universal background checks and uh red flag laws I support the safe storage [1:15:14] and I would be willing to vote for assault weapon ban as well uh Bob gust U not really um there there are [1:15:23] some limited things like red flag laws that if there was a way for them to not U be abused they might be a good idea [1:15:30] perfect okay on to the next one um if you are elected and the erra amendment [1:15:36] to the Minnesota Constitution comes up for a floor vote how will you vote uh [1:15:41] we're GNA start with uh Steve Elkins I Will Wait vote in favor of it Bob gust I [1:15:48] will listen to the debate I will think about it from what I know about it right now I would vote against it thank you uh [1:15:54] Nathan cter I will vote Yes just like I did this year thank you and lion Dale [1:16:00] Johnson not it I would not vote Yes it is curred form okay all right so let's [1:16:07] see we have one more quick question and then we're going to go to our final [1:16:12] question um what are your views on the use of [1:16:18] traffic cameras and let's start first with Nathan Coulter it was really hoping you'd start [1:16:25] with Steve on this one but um I you know I I think they present some some fairly [1:16:31] concerning constitutional questions um I think you know since court rulings came [1:16:38] down on those years ago technology has advanced um I think there are some opportunities where they can be fairly [1:16:44] efficient um but much the way I always prefer to talk to a real person when I need to call up someone on the phone um [1:16:51] I just have a general sort of hesitance when it comes to relying on technology that way so um I frankly would just need [1:16:58] to learn a lot more about them all right thank you lion Dale Johnson I believe [1:17:03] that if you're going to tr it for using to write out tickets that's been tried out on the east coast and found that it [1:17:09] doesn't work and it's unconstitutional thank you uh Steve Elkins uh it's not unconstitutional It's [1:17:17] very effective every place that they're used there have been dramatic reductions in accident rates and the the privacy [1:17:24] concerns easily addressed thank you Bob gust when it was [1:17:29] ruled unconstitutionally here it was because of some uncertainty because someone else could have been driving [1:17:34] your car I think the easy way to deal with that is is to just give the car a ticket the same way if the car is in an [1:17:41] accident the person who owns the car is responsible for it even if someone else is driving so if you lend your car to [1:17:46] somebody else they drive through a red light you get a ticket the ticket goes to the car and it's your responsibility [1:17:52] so I'm what what are we doing agreeing here yeah where that that is the way it would but I will clarify if they're not [1:17:58] unconstitutional they're just not authorized by state law are we [1:18:04] elaborating sure I'm going to let everybody can have a a one another [1:18:09] second to elaborators okay well I I believe out on the East Coast it was found unconstitutional and [1:18:16] removed 30 seconds 30 seconds no 30 seconds okay uh let's move on to our [1:18:22] final question then um before our closing statements is there any topic [1:18:28] that we didn't discuss tonight that is a priority for you that you would like to talk about um this is your opportunity [1:18:34] and we're going to start with Bob gust so I would like to talk about um The [1:18:40] High Cost of Living and inflation um if you um you see commercials for my my [1:18:47] opponents uh and the Democrats in general they always have a plan they're always going to form a commission [1:18:52] they're always going to do something to bring down cost costs but what they fail to acknowledge is for the most part [1:18:58] costs are way up because of things that they've done um when you demonize traditional forms of energy when gas [1:19:05] triples in price everybody's costs go up it's not just your cost to drive the to [1:19:10] the grocery store it's the farmer's cost to produce the food it's the cost to drive the food to the processing center [1:19:16] it's the cost to drive it to the grocery store and everything is way up because [1:19:22] primarily because of energy costs and so I think in this day and age when [1:19:28] we're already being over taxed it'd be nice to be have some ability to pay for [1:19:34] things and um and there's a a blame like there's it's corporate gouging well no [1:19:41] corporate costs are have gone way up in part because of energy and in part because of mandates and so I think that [1:19:49] to to give people back purchasing power we need to get we need to stop demonizing traditional energy and uh we [1:19:56] need to stop with the mandates thank you uh Steve Elkins yeah [1:20:02] I think that the cost of living is is is huge especially with relation to housing [1:20:07] and uh and health care which I spend a lot of time uh working on but beyond that the other thing that I would want [1:20:13] to talk about is that uh I find myself increasingly uh getting involved in [1:20:19] making sure that as we uh um Implement new programs in the legislature that they get um implement it effectively we [1:20:26] have had a tendency to come up with a good idea and then just kind of throw it over the wall to the administration to [1:20:32] uh uh Implement and uh a couple of been a couple of cases like the you know [1:20:38] replacement of the minars driver vehicle services system that I was very involved in the replacement and found that I was [1:20:46] able to make a significant difference uh uh in the successful implementation of it accessor just uh by you know studying [1:20:53] what had gone wrong with L menars discovering that there were um Provisions in the legislation that made [1:21:00] it impossible to do that project and so by diving into those kinds of issues I [1:21:05] was able to help ensure that that project went smoothly uh and successfully and I'm finding that there [1:21:10] are lots of opportunities like that out there currently working with the Department of uh Human Services to see [1:21:17] how we could do a better job of uh keeping track of their clients uh uh [1:21:22] keeping track doing a better job of uh of Eligibility and um I'm finding I'm [1:21:28] getting a lot great deal of satisfaction out of doing work to make sure that government programs are implemented more [1:21:34] effectively thank you lion Dale Johnson uh immigration uh immigration is [1:21:39] a topic for me all right illegal immigration is costing everything and [1:21:46] everyone costs are up because we are taking money from legitimate citizens [1:21:52] who work for a living and spending it on people who are not here legally oh we [1:21:58] need immigrants we need legal immigrants and we don't need to be dumping that [1:22:04] burden onto taxpayers uh the immigration system everybody says it's broken it's broken [1:22:10] ever heard anybody say how to fix it no uh and inflation which is not a state [1:22:18] issue but inflation is caused by the current government in Washington and and [1:22:24] our removal of the gold standard and the Federal Reserve running which is a [1:22:30] business not a federal government entity the printed money and just dumped it [1:22:36] into the economy that's why your money is not worth much that's why inflation is out of control and the the hurting [1:22:46] our oil and natural gas IND uh Industries which are the life blood of [1:22:52] the of the whole system when they punish our ability to use those sources of [1:22:59] energy they're hurting all of us thank you and Nathan coulure well [1:23:05] there are a lot of things I uh I would have loved to have a fuller conversation about tonight uh we have not talked [1:23:10] about protecting reproductive Freedom we have not talked about strengthening and protecting our democracy um but I'm [1:23:16] actually going to go in a direction that you probably aren't expecting a Democrat to go in and that's to talk about taxes [1:23:22] the very first bill that we passed last year my very first bill that I voted on as a member of the Minnesota house was a [1:23:28] $100 million tax cut for businesses the tax bill that we passed last year and [1:23:34] this is something that I have talked to Folks at our at doors right here in Bloomington about and folks are loving [1:23:41] it a child tax credit that it's estimated will cut childhood poverty in Minnesota by onethird cutting income [1:23:48] taxes on Social Security such that only the richest one quarter of seniors will [1:23:53] pay any any income tax on social security at all significant one-time and [1:23:59] ongoing property tax assistance to nearly 600,000 motans we also increased [1:24:05] the senior property tax deferral program and reformed our renters credit um all right thank you so much [1:24:13] now it's um all now that all the candidates are invited to make closing remarks one [1:24:20] minute each and we are going to start with elale Johnson thank you I am not a career politician I [1:24:27] haven't spent the last 10 12 20 30 years as a politician I spent 30 years in the [1:24:33] printing business I know what it's like to work at a place where if you don't do it right you go [1:24:39] broke here in your politicians they don't go broke because [1:24:46] you keep giving them money and they keep taking it they're not asking you where you want to spend it and are they [1:24:51] spending it where you want it to go uh I stand up for workingclass families [1:24:57] I have been through lots of different things in life that maybe somebody who's just you know had it all laid out for [1:25:05] them doesn't understand they don't understand bankruptcy they don't understand foreclosure they don't [1:25:12] understand international adoption I know those things and I speak for the average person the working [1:25:20] family and I know their pain and I will represent them so vote for me thank you [1:25:26] Nathan couter well thank you again to the League of Women Voters for hosting us so well as you always do and thank you all [1:25:34] of you who are watching either here in person or online over the last two years we have made immense progress on things [1:25:41] that I know our neighbors in Bloomington value historic life-changing investments [1:25:46] in early childhood k12 and higher education protecting our democracy and [1:25:52] reproductive freedoms help for property taxpayers and so much more we need to [1:25:57] protect those successes and build on them for every Minnesotan thank you thank you Bob gust so I'm afraid I'm [1:26:05] going to have to spend a little of my time addressing reproductive Freedom since it was mentioned four times in the state of Minnesota in 1995 in the Gomez [1:26:13] decision uh the Minnesota Supreme Court found the Minnesota Constitution protected the right to abortion so it's [1:26:21] not an issue in this election it wasn't an issue in the last last election or it shouldn't have been because it was [1:26:26] already an established right and the reversal of the doubt the Dow decision reversing roie Wade really had no effect [1:26:32] here whatsoever I'll just close by saying I've been uh a lawyer for 40 [1:26:38] years um I've been proud of the fact that my clients trusted me to represent [1:26:43] their interests and trusted me to represent their interests Above All Else including my own interests I'm running [1:26:50] because I want to represent West Bloomington I think I know what West bloomington's priorities are and I don't [1:26:57] think they're consistent with what our legislature has done some of what our legislature has done I'm sure they they [1:27:02] thought they were doing the right thing but a lot of it was not what we wanted thank you Steve Elkins I would also like [1:27:11] to once again thank the league for providing us this opportunity to address you uh and in closing want to just [1:27:17] reiterate my support for respecting and uh defending women's reproductive [1:27:22] freedoms uh pursuing Common Sense gun safety reforms uh protecting our [1:27:28] tradition of free and fair elections uh I want to spend a few minutes uh you know going back to where um Mr Gus [1:27:35] started with the uh the budget surplus and how it was uh disposed of so the [1:27:40] Lion Share of the ongoing Surplus was spent providing resources for [1:27:46] Education I'm sorry I'm sorry is okay we still okay keep going [1:27:54] keep going okay uh for workers in education nursing homes Personal Care [1:28:02] attendance uh child care I think that money uh was money well spent um [1:28:07] representative cter also mentioned that $3 billion in tax relief uh from a [1:28:12] variety of forms I don't need to repeat that uh and the much of the rest of the money was spent on one-time Capital [1:28:19] Investments we've only passed one budget Bill sorry one uh bonding bill in the last four years um had huge investments [1:28:28] in uh uh in in upgrading outdated uh uh it systems so I think that the and and [1:28:35] we've maintained the cost of govern thank you I think there was a slight problem with the timer but [1:28:41] uh I'm I think you know what I I I would say let's give everybody 30 more seconds [1:28:47] everyone else 30 more seconds we we I think went over your let you finish your thought um and then if uh you want 30 [1:28:54] more seconds you are welcome to 30 more seconds well I'll just say mean if uh you if voters send me back to the [1:28:59] capital my and my commitment to you is that I'll continue my track record of representing blooming Bloomington voters [1:29:05] with Fidelity in an effective bipartisan manner that produces results and I'll continue to make work to make state [1:29:11] government more effective efficient thank you thank you so much all right everybody else can have 30 more seconds Bob gust would you like 30 more seconds [1:29:18] um I I'll just say uh Steve alkins is not a bad guy he's just a guy who voted for a lot ofad [1:29:26] ideas thank you Nathan Coulter well thank you um really I continue to be [1:29:31] just profoundly grateful for the opportunity to serve our state and Community where I grew up and where my [1:29:37] kids are growing up I'm asking for your vote because your vote is more than just expressing a preference your vote is an [1:29:44] investment someone recently called it a kind of prayer for the kind of future you want to see I'm asking for your vote [1:29:52] to get to work again thank you thank you and lion Dale Johnson listen [1:29:57] to what they say you keep hearing reproductive [1:30:02] Freedom as has been said there is no reproductive Freedom being attacked in [1:30:11] Minnesota don't give me 15 seconds these guys have all gone more than that the uh [1:30:17] the right to an abortion is built into the Constitution but these people want to keep bringing that up because their [1:30:23] policy are failing reproductive Freedom thank you means the ability to take the life [1:30:30] that's growing inside all right thank you so much all right and and listen the [1:30:35] voters have every right to come up and ask you more questions about your uh your stance on the different issues and [1:30:42] um they if they feel that they did not get as much information that they wanted um and and thank you to so much to the [1:30:48] timers it's a difficult job and we do appreciate it so um hope we made it feel [1:30:54] a little bit fairer um by giving everybody a little more time um so here [1:31:00] we go thank you candidates for participating in this forum and for your willingness to part participate in the [1:31:06] doc uh Democratic process for running for office um and loving your communities enough to do it thank you to [1:31:12] the city of Bloomington for technical for the technical expertise and the use of the um council chambers thank you to [1:31:18] the League of Women Voters Bloomington for supporting this forum thank you to tonight's V this evening's volunteers [1:31:25] this forum has been video recorded in its entirety and can be viewed unedited [1:31:30] on YouTube uh links will be posted on the city of Bloomington website and on the legal Women Voters Bloomington [1:31:37] websites it will also be rebc on Bloomington cable TV until election day [1:31:44] um welcome and thank you to the Future online and cable TV [1:31:49] audiences um one quick thing about voting um on the November ballot [1:31:55] Minnesota voters will be asked to reauthorize or end a constitutional amendment allocating 40% of State [1:32:03] Lottery proceeds to the environment the environment and nature or natural [1:32:08] resources trust fund over 50% of the voters must vote Yes to approve [1:32:14] constitutional protections or Pro the to approve constitutional protection of the system leaving the question blank counts [1:32:22] as a no vote so please be sure to look for the amendment and vote and again leaving the [1:32:29] question blank counts as a no vote remember to vote on or before Tuesday [1:32:34] November 5th uh early voting starts uh on Friday the 20th for information about [1:32:40] registering to vote voting early or voting in person visit the Minnesota secret Secretary of State's website [1:32:48] www.mn votes.gov audience you are invited to visit inform Al with the [1:32:54] candidates and League members immediately following this forum this concludes tonight's Forum audience you [1:33:00] may applaud the candidates [1:33:06] [Music]